Bodies of Water

Bodies of Water draws from the Yoruba proverb Omi Leyan (humans are water). Developed through a peer exchange with the Future of Dance Company in Lagos, the video work grew out of shared movement research, merging Yoruba rhythms and contemporary dance into new modes of dialogue. The process unfolded across the Lagos cityscape, inside the studio, and through site based encounters such as visiting the Badagry Slave Route. The experimental dance film bridges diasporic experience with ancestral knowledge, returning to the diasporic notion of Yemoja as water mother and memory keeper as a way of orienting these exchanges. This work was made possible with support from Kulturaustausch program of Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion, and Fonds Darstellende Künste.