An Underwater Love Story
Foreign Bodies
Foreign Bodies is a healing ritual where the collision of difference takes us on a journey from fear and anxiety, to love and shared learning.
Foreign Bodies is An Underwater Love Story exploring what it is to be a citizen of the world in a backdrop of Brexit, Coronavirus and Climate Change.
Set between two TV channels on an over sized TV, the utopian underwater world documentary is the setting for a jellyfish love song, whilst a futuristic quiz show tests participants on their knowledge of British history… raising questions of what is true history and exploring themes of appropriation, adaptation, contamination and hybridity.
Can we all love each other?
Highlighting the absurdity of the British citizenship test, the work explores what is gained and lost through cultural exchange, and echoes the human stories of families, communities and the haunting legacy of power structures…
What do we find at the heart of civilisation?
Collaborating with technology expert Tarim and composer Sabio Janiak Ella Mesma Company have created a dance that crosses time, borders, cultures, oceans to explore what it is to belong to one heritage or to belong to many… and the interplay between heritage and a person’s identity as a citizen of the world.
Are there consequences to suppressing human nature?
In an age where the power and reach of the web connect and divide us, Ella Mesma Company combine stunning choreography, a fantastic cast and a touch of humour to connect and contrast the farcical world of a quiz show with the healing world of a nature documentary following jellyfish migration.
THEMES: Race, Racism, Gender, Identity, Love, Power, Fear, Brexit, Migration, Transformation, Colonialism, History, Herstory, Environment, Nature, Nurture, Society, Control, Orixás, Mythology, Healing, Shamanism