Mufutau Yusuf's Impasse Uses Dance to Examine the Role of Memory in the Construction of Identity

Mufutau Yusuf, Impasse, image credit Luca Truffarelli:

Mufutau Yusuf is a Nigerian-born Irish choreographer, performer, teacher, and curator, living between Brussels and Ireland. Born in Lagos, he moved to rural Country Meath, outside of Dublin, Ireland, at age nine with his father and discovered contemporary dance at sixteen through the Dublin Youth Dance Company. Raised in a culture where movement and dance are integral to its heritage, Yusuf was drawn to the opportunities in Europe, where he saw the potential to cultivate a professional career in dance.

He later trained at the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance, and since graduating in 2016, has performed with leading companies such as Wim Vandekeybus/Ultima Vez in Belgium and Liz Roche Company, Irish Modern Dance Theatre, Emma Martin/United Fall, and Catherine Young Dance in Ireland. Currently, he is a choreographer-in-residence with Ireland’s National Dance Company, Luail.

Yusuf’s unique voice has earned him a respected place within contemporary dance ecology. His acclaimed piece Òwe—Yoruba for “proverb”—premiered at the Irish Arts Center in 2022. Combining personal and archival materials with immersive visuals, soundscapes, and a blend of traditional and contemporary movement, it is an investigation of identity, particularly of Yusef’s Nigerian roots. 

Sound design is integral to Yusuf’s choreography. In Pigeon, a work that navigates the intersection of language and cultural fusion, he juxtaposes recordings from Nigerian markets with those from Cork’s Moore Street Market, Dublin. 

His recent piece, Impasse, commissioned by Arts Council Ireland, features a soundscape by composer Mick Donohoe, layering abstract sounds, tearing noises, and Bach-inspired compositions. Motivated by Yusuf’s interest in racial and political identity—particularly as it relates to the Black body in contemporary Western contexts—Impasse is a compelling exploration of ethnicity, identity and the experience of the Black diaspora. Delving into questions of representation, misrepresentation, and invisibility Yusef uses the piece to; “further understand my relationship with my Black body and its experiences within a contemporary Western society. This raised questions on the notion of representation, misrepresentation, and lack thereof.”

Mufutau Yusuf, Impasse, image credit Patricio Cassinoni

Performed as a duet with the Congolese dancer, Lukah Katangila, Yusef delves into the role of memory in the construction of identity. Drawing on both his own experiences and those of his collaborator as migrants, he examines themes of assimilation, diversity, and representation, using dance as a medium to explore the complexities of belonging and selfhood. In a 2022 interview with The New York Times he explained “As migrants, you always improvise, attuning yourself to your surroundings, and that comes across in my work.”

Originally premiered at the Dublin Dance Festival 2024, Impasse has since toured across the UK, including a standout appearance at the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe, where it earned a five-star review from The Guardian as "a piece of magical stagecraft" marking Yusef as "a choreographer to watch." Before its London premiere at Sadler’s Wells Lilian Baylis Studio on Thursday the 14th and Friday the 15th of November, Yusuf will present Impasse at the Festival Afropolis, QDance Centre in Lagos. 

Mufutau Yusuf, Impasse, image credit Patricio Cassinoni

About Impasse

Creative Team:
Mufutau Yusuf (Junior) – Choreographer / Performer / Set Designer
Lukah Katangila – Performer
Tom Lane – Sound Design & Composer
Mick Donohoe – Composer
Matt Burke – Light Designer
Alison Brown – Costume Design

Maryam Yussuf – Prop Design
Ikenna Anyabuike – Text / Spoken Word
Rima Baransi - Rehearsal Assistant
Lisa Mahony – Production Manager
Lisa Krugel – Stage Manager / Set Assistant 

Mufutau Yusuf, Impasse, image credit Luca Truffarelli:

Wayne McGregor Employs AI In One Choreographic Work & Addresses The Climate Crisis In Another This Week @ Sadler's Wells In London

text by Lara Monro

This week, the multi-award-winning choreographer and director Wayne McGregor CBE will present Autobiography (v95 and v96) and UniVerse: A Dark Crystal Odyssey at Sadlers Wells, London. 

For over twenty five years, McGregor’s multi-dimensional choreographic work has radically redefined dance in the modern era, securing his position at the cutting edge of contemporary arts. Take, for example, his appointment as the first choreographer from a contemporary dance background to be Resident Choreographer at The Royal Ballet in 2006, where he has created over twenty productions that daringly reconfigure classical language. 

Alongside his multiple cross-sector collaborations and role at The Royal Ballet, Studio Wayne McGregor is the creative engine of his life-long enquiry into thinking through and with the body. The 30+ works created since being established in 1992 (as Random Dance) showcase the evolution of his distinctive visual style and reveal the movement possibilities of the body in ever more precise degrees of articulation. 

McGregor’s Autobiography (v95 and v96) is the latest iteration of Autobiography (1.0), a series of unique dance portraits inspired and determined by the sequencing of his own genetic code. The work upends the traditional nature of dance-making by using the new AI tool AISOMA to hijack his DNA data through its specially created algorithm, which overwrites the configurations of 100 hours+ of his choreographic learning to present fresh movement options to the performers. The meshing of artificial intelligence and instinct converge to create a totally unique dance sequence that complements the medium’s ephemeral quality. 

While v95 and v96 shines a light on the cutting edge innovation capabilities of dance and future facing technology, UniVerse: A Dark Crystal Odyssey is a moving meditation on the climate crisis. Inspired by the Jim Henson cult classic, The Dark Crystal, it depicts an Earth driven by extremes and urgently in need of healing; a modern eco-myth that asks how we can come together to be whole again. The combination of cutting-edge costumes paired with the digital landscapes creates a stunning blend of fantasy and documentary. 

Autobiography (v95 and v96) will be showcased this Tuesday and Wednesday (March 12th & 13th), while UniVerse: A Dark Crystal Odyssey will be showcased this Friday and Saturday (March 15 & 16th) at Sadlers Wells, London. 

scene from Autobiography (v95 and v96)

scene from UniVerse: A Dark Crystal Odyssey

Lara Monro Interviews Choreographer Holly Blakey In Anticipation of the Premiere of Cowpuncher My Ass →

Photo of four dancers dancing in unison in front of large windows

Photograph by Max Barnett

Born in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, Holly Blakey found contemporary dance as a teenager. After she was rejected by a number of well-known dance schools, she attended University of Roehampton where teaching dance was the only option. What was initially a devastating and painful life transition turned out to be a profound moment for Blakey, leading to a fruitful career as a choreographer. Free from the confines of institutional models and languages of dance, she created her own — one that advocates drama and our lived experiences. 

Honesty, intimacy, and a sense of community feed into her work, as does her fascination with music, film, and TV. Her ability to emulate pop culture has led Blakey to traverse multiple creative industries such as directing music videos for musicians who include Florence Welch and Coldplay. She also had a longstanding collaboration with the late fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, whose widower Andreas Kronthaler, has designed the costumes for the return of her performance of Cowpuncher My Ass. This Wild West dance show, scored by Mica Levi, takes the notion of the hyper masculine, yet camp cowboy, as a starting point to explore the archetypes of masculinity through non-linear perspectives.  

Cowpuncher My Ass will be playing at Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, Wednesday 15 February at 7:30 pm. 

Autre’s London editor at large, Lara Monro, spoke with Blakey in between rehearsals to discuss how the performance challenges what might be deemed acceptable in choreography and much more. Read more.

Repeat: Sculptures By Janet Levy, Choreography By Diane Gemsch @ SWB Experimenthaus In Zurich

As we navigate our lives in these times of a pandemic, the question about home and living becomes even more pronounced. Janet Levy questions what is home and what is the significance of home, collecting objects from her surroundings to create a site-specific sculptural installation. In kind, Diane Gemsch creates an emotional response by physically bringing this action to movement while engaging with the house and sculpture installation.

Repeat is on view by appointment through May @ SWB Experimenthaus Neubühl, Westbühlstrasse 59, 8038 Zurich-Wollishofen. photographs by Rudolf Moser

 


Undanced Dances Through Prison Walls During a Pandemic Is A Virtual Performance Space Of Embodied Liberation

In 2016, choreographer and educator, Suchi Branfman, began a five-year choreographic residency inside the California Rehabilitation Center, a medium-security state men’s prison in Norco, California. The project, dubbed “Dancing Through Prison Walls,” developed into a critical dialogue about freedom, confinement, and ways for surviving restriction, limitations, and denial of liberty through the act of dancing. The dancing abruptly ended in March 2020, when the California state prison system shut down programming and visitation due to Covid-19. The work was rapidly revised, and the incarcerated dancers began sending out written choreographies from their bunks to the outside world. The resulting collection of deeply imagined choreographic pieces, written between March and May of 2020, became Undanced Dances Through Prison Walls During a Pandemic.

Guided by the written and choreographic direction from inside the prison walls, the performers effectively dance these works into the “free” world. Highlighting six of the dances written/choreographed inside the prison by Brandon Alexander, Richie Martinez, Landon Reynolds and Terry Sakamoto Jr., this event includes a film of the written work transformed into embodied dances in sites throughout the Santa Monica civic center area, drawing focus to the nation’s school to prison nexus (Meiners, 2007), followed by a conversation with the eleven artists involved.

With artistic direction by Suchi Branfman and cinematography by Tom Tsai, the dances are powerfully narrated by Marc Antoni Charcas, Ernst Fenelon Jr., Richie Martinez and Romarilyn Ralston (formerly incarcerated movers and organizers) and choreographically interpreted by a group of brilliant choreographers: Bernard Brown, Jay Carlon, Irvin Gonzalez, Kenji Igus, Brianna Mims and Tom Tsai (all of whom have joined Branfman dancing inside the Norco prison). Each team was entrusted with bringing one of the written dances to action. Between them, they are steeped in hip hop, tap, breaking, performance art, quebradita, spoken word, Butoh and contemporary dance forms. Released from prison during the summer of 2020, Richie Martinez joins the cast as he narrates and performs in “Richie’s Disappearing Acts” which he wrote while incarcerated at the Norco prison during the pandemic.

In December 2020, Undanced Dances Through Prison Walls During a Pandemic was published by the inimitable Sming Sming Books. Benefiting the authors, Critical Resistance and California Coalition for Women Prisoners, the 2nd edition of the sold out book is forthcoming. This project was made possible by Art of Recovery, an initiative of Santa Monica Cultural Affairs.

Undanced Dances Through Prison Walls During a Pandemic is a free virtual event produced by 18th Street Arts Center that can be joined via Zoom April 16, 2021 6:30pm PDT (Spanish translation available)

Franco-American Duo FAUX REAL Releases New Music Video For "Second Sweat"

Faux real is the deranged child of Franco-American brothers Elliott and Virgile Arndt. In the summer of 2018, they invoked the union of their inner-gene genies and gave birth to faux realism. The brothers started playing their first shows as a duo with nothing but a couple of microphones, a flute, some handmade costumes and a weird/incestuous/compelling 30-minute long choreography. With no music online or a single confirmed show on the horizon, they took off on a month-long US tour in march 2019, with high hopes and low expectations.

They ended up performing over 30 times that month from SXSW in Austin, to Los Angeles and New York City, performing anywhere and everywhere the city would allow, from large venues to sweaty nightclubs to street corners, house parties, art galleries, illegal raves, or hijacking existing bills with impromptu slots. The two brothers are quickly becoming notorious for their wild, unhinged, retro-futuristic and avant-garde anti-rock performances, ranging from flute-infused 808 ballads to feverish stooge-esque self-flagellation, tongue-in-cheek frenglish poetry, faux athletics and improvised quasi-ballet.

Fixed: A Piece Choreographed By Chris Emile Of No)one. Art House @ MOCA In Los Angeles

Chris Emile and No)one. Art House presented a choreographed performance in response to Haegue Yang’s Strange Fruit (2012-13), part of MOCA’s permanent collection. Yang’s work takes its title from the anti-lynching anthem famously recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939. Using Yang’s installation as its stage, Emile’s performance examines the public display and consumption of violence against marginalized bodies and investigates how Black Americans process trauma. The performance expands the dialogue between Yang’s Strange Fruit and the protest song of the same name. Chris Emile, the choreographer, is the cofounder of No)one. Art House, a collective that produces movement-based installations in unconventional spaces throughout Los Angeles. photographs by Lani Trock

Opening Of take care Group Show @ Gas In Los Angeles

How do radical ambitions of “self-care” persist or depart from capitalist society’s preoccupation with wellness and the industry surrounding it, particularly when filtered through technological advances? How can we imagine personal wellness that complicates or diverges from capitalist and consumerist tendencies? Taking its name from the common valediction, which is both an expression of familiarity and an instruction of caution, take care, is a group exhibition that considers the many tensions surrounding the possibilities of self-care. Participating artists: Hayley Barker, Darya Diamond, Ian James, Young Joon Kwak, C. Lavender, Sarah Manuwal, Saewon Oh, Amanda Vincelli, and SoftCells presents: Jules Gimbrone. Gas is a mobile, autonomous, experimental and networked platform for contemporary art. take care will be on view through July 20, and can be seen from 12pm-6pm on Saturdays in front of BBQLA 2315 Jesse Street, Los Angeles CA 90023. photographs by Lani Trock