Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Harry and Meghan, Married …with children, the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, the Kelly Family, Charlie & Louise – (pop) cultural images often shape our understanding of family relationships. In the performing arts, film, literature, sociology and biology, identical twins represent a special kind of sibling relationship. They are templates for mix-up scenarios, objects of research and raise questions about individuality. Although it seems obvious that kinship and intimate, kinship-like relationships also work apart from physiognomic similarities, non-white and queer people repeatedly experience how these connections are denied to them. In “YO BRO” the choreographer and performer Joana Tischkau, together with her twin brother Aljoscha, chooses precisely these images and the social power structures linked to them, to explore their subversive potential.

Together they set out to choreographically deconstruct the powerful normative representations of the family in order to make alternative forms of togetherness and belonging visible. Using the performative potential of their bodies, they create images of similarity and difference, thus retelling family histories.