Our Bodies Back, Sadler's Wells Digital Stage

Following the depressing cancellation of all previously announced shows for the remainder of 2020, Sadler's Wells has now brought us more cheering news with another exciting offer in its Digital Stage season: Our Bodies Back, a short film put together during lockdown in collaboration with Breakin' Convention.

Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, Our Bodies Back honours the lived experiences of Black women past and present.

The short film stages the poem We Want Our Bodies Back by the American poet and performance artist jessica Care moore, and is directed by Sadler's Wells associate artist Jonzi D.

Jonzi D is a name familiar to Sadler's Wells audiences, hip-hop aficionados in particular, as he is the veteran director of the hugely popular annual Breakin' Convention. This year's edition of the hip-hop festival was stymied by the Covid-19 lockdown; so Our Bodies Back will go a little way towards mitigating the withdrawal symptoms many of us might be feeling.

Filmed remotely during lockdown, it is a multi-national collaboration, choreographed and performed by Axelle ‘Ebony’ Munezero in Montréal, Canada, Bolegue Manuela (b-girl Manuela) in Hanover, Germany, and Nafisah Baba in London, and blends the spoken word, dance and visual art.

With soundscape design from saxophonist and MC Soweto Kinch and narration by jessica Care moore herself, Our Bodies Back is an ode to Black women, affirming universal experiences of pain and trauma as well as pride, power and beauty, that transcend borders and narrow national cultures.