Image: Ella Mesma by Camilla Greenwell
Award-winning dancer, curator and choreographer Ella Mesma creates deeply personal and empowering work, using dance and theatre as a platform to express ideas around politics, society and community. Her latest piece, Ladylike, which is at Dance City on Thursday 12th July, is a celebration of wonderful women and a provocative protest against sexual violence, sexism, gender stereotypes and the masks we wear.
The Ella Mesma Company aims to undo limiting beliefs by exploring and celebrating identity, and so it makes absolute sense that Ella would create a work inspired by the #metoo and #timesup movement. Themed around the slang word for women as ‘chick’ or ‘hen’, Ladylike is a ceremonious undressing of timeless and universal stories of four women; simultaneously absurd, funny, disturbing and intimate.
Ella Mesma likes to mix it up. Having trained in contemporary dance at Laban, the London School of Contemporary Dance and the Graham School in New York, she draws from diverse dance styles and traditions including Afro Cuban, hip-hop, capoeira and aerial dance to create a unique movement language.
In dance, you can explore the most sensitive of realities, that’s the message here. Dance can change perceptions. Dance can engender transformation. Ella Mesma is unafraid, and she is talented. Nothing is off limits for this bold creative artist. Are you ready to join the conversation?
