STUN

It is said that Clay is the matter that we are made of. Buried in that matter are the memories that mould our experiences, our understandings and gestures. Memories that seem to belong to a time long before our very thoughts were shaped. Ancient yet familiar, they accompany us from places that only our cells have been.

In CLAY Asha Thomas, American contemporary dancer and Yinka Esi Graves, British flamenco dancer, draw from their collective memory and experiences to create a unique language between them. It is their very dancing that goes in search of the past whilst being informed by it. One dancer of half Jamaican and Ghanian descent and the other from a long line of southern baptist preachers, explore the connections between who they believe themselves to be, and the unconscious parts that make up who they are.

It is the place where this duo’s dance influences cross that evokes memories of imagined lands, all to the unique soundscape of flamenco and electric guitarist Guillermo Guillén.

CLAY is a powerful game between solo pieces and explosive pas de deux, of their rhythms and unique expression. It asks us to locate the parts of ourselves that have formed over long periods of time, surviving the wear of migration to still be found today.

Choreographed and performed by Yinka Esi Graves and Asha Thomas