With mental health reported to be the primary driver of disability worldwide, and in the wake of increase in the rates of homicide and suicide we see in males comes a beautiful and vulnerable new show from Ella Mesma Company.
Building upon themes of religion and science, the dancers pulsate to Afro House and Kuduro rhythms, intertwining folkloric, contemporary, and hip-hop into a codified subculture. Ella Mesma Company have created a new ritual to contemplate masculinity, mental health and ‘dis-ease’: fear around ‘unknown’ and ‘cultural contamination’ as it ‘spreads from one generation to the next’. Foreign Bodies tells the stories of individuals on a human level and throws light on the bigger story: xenophobia, ancestry, evolution and power structures historically.