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Imagine a world that’s whole not divided into parts,
There’s no boundaries or borders that are blocking our path
You can follow all your goals and dreams and believe in your heart
There wont be no one trying to drag you down or tell you you can’t
All you have to do is believe in yourself and work hard
Then the sky is the limit and we can all FLY!
This month, On The Goddxx Path, we opened the module FLY, which is all about intuition, imagination, and unlearning the beliefs that create the glass ceilings.
How are you Ella?
This month in the world has been heavy, and full of hope. This month for me has been about tithing, and making and protesting and praying… and music… music always gives me hope when it gets hard (so all the links above are to songs/a playlist for hope).
I have also been making a show:
Ọkan is a new production by Akeim Toussaint and myself, with martial dances at its core. We have been exploring how to work with (and honor) Salsa and Wing Chun as martial dances to explore themes around astrology, duality and oneness, dynamics of relating, gender roles and fluidity (as well as ethnicity and heritage), transformation and animism, resulting in a cosmic blend that transcends binaries.
I am so grateful to the team from our masterclasses with Gil Del Prado and Leo Au Yeung, to our knowledge exchange with the older generation of dancers, to DJ Lubi Jovanovic and Talia Castro-Pozo, to our amazing performers Ffion Campbell Davies and David Evans to our live musicians!!!! 🙂 (This is my first time ever to have the privilege of working with live musicians and it makes me realize I am a musician! and how much I love it and want this to be my forever place!) Azizi Cole and Joel Steadman, to Eva Martinez our amazing Dramaturgy, and of course to The Place team for producing this dance epic, To PDSW and to Yorkshire Dance for having us this past two weeks: thank you!
The name Ọkan, means Oneness, Conscience, and Heart in Yoruba, and as we have been making this work, we have spoken of the need for humanity to heal… we have held space for the uncomfortable moments when we disagree or experience creative tension and we have seen that by having integrity and speaking to those things, we have been tending to our internal world and that that also transforms our external world, and so as we create this work in this space, so too we are healing the divine masculine and feminine within and without… what a beautiful journey it has been!
Ọkan has been Co-Produced and commissioned by The Place and is supported using public funding from Arts Council England. The work’s creation has been supported by Pavilion Dance South West and Yorkshire Dance, with further support from FABRIC, South East Dance and the British Council.
I hope to see you at our sharing (My least in person piece of work this year!) at Yorkshire Dance on the 24th November (more information below) Biggest loves,
Ella “Maya Gandaia” Mesma xxx
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