LABS: 29 – 31 July | 10-16h (Professionals)
2 AUGUST | 11-12:30h (KIDS 6+)
PERFORMANCE: 2 August | 18h
Double Much is a Berlin-based working group of five dance artists – Dani Brown, Justin F. Kennedy, Nasheeka Nedsreal, Simo Vassinen, and Gabrielle von Wäre – who began jumping rope together in the parks of Berlin during the 2020 lockdowns. What started as a joyful act of gathering has grown into an artistic practice rooted in collective play, trance states, and embodied resistance.
Double Dutch, with its deep roots in Black American feminist traditions, is a tool of movement, memory, resistance and togetherness. Double Much explores it through music, performance, crafting, vocal play, and improvised scores. Their first performance premiered at Sophiensaele (2023), with recent invitations including Theater an der Parkaue in 2024.
Double Much believes in jumping as liberation, play as practice, ropes as ritual.
IN THE LOOP
LABS: 29 – 31 JULY | 10-16H (PROFESSIONALS), 2 AUGUST | 11-12:30H (KIDS 6+)
In this workshop, we begin with exploring the rich history of the jump rope game Double Dutch – its echoes, evolutions and enduring rhythm around the world. We then step into the ropes and into the rhythm, learning how to twirl, enter, and jump in sync. Diving into the poetic and playful world of Double Much, we explore steps, tricks, and techniques. We learn what the foxhole, wipe-out, ghosting and jetpack-backpack mean, and come up with more vocabulary.
We will explore jumping with various materials and experiment with the ropes as objects, as sound, as symbols. We develop chants, we expand into nature, we dance a memory of jumping, we indulge in moving together. The practice is physical and sonic, ritual and rhythmic, sweat and memory.
We approach jumping rope as collective joy and survival: a DNA double helix that carries rhythm, memory, and possibility. We fail and return, twist and uncoil, play music, take breaks, maybe go for a swim. We take care of our ankles, shins, and knees. Everyone is welcome to twirl, jump, invent, imagine and to dive deep into the ropes.
COILING AGAINST THE SUN
PERFORMANCE: 2 AUGUST | 18H
In this evolving performance, the ropes become more than tools for jumping – they become ties. They keep rhythm, hold a group together, and honor the long lineage of jumping as cultural resistance. From intense jumping to solemn stillness, soundscapes and sequences, the work also reminds us of the Black feminist perspective that sees Double Dutch not only as a game, but as a living practice of community, joy, and refusal.
Performed by five artists and co-created with the site, Coiling Against the Sun invites audiences into a shifting space of rhythm and relation. The show closes with a shared moment where spectators become twirlers, jumpers, and co-creators. A kid-friendly version is also performed in the afternoon.