It begins in darkness is a dance full of ghosts. It is an environment for processing the fear, anger and confusion which arise from the histories of slavery and colonialism that haunt the present.
In this stark, stripped back performance, five dancers move through a series of mysterious and experimental rites of passage, channelling past, present and future tensions through their bodies and voices. As if to exorcise the haunted house of history, the dancers whisper, jump, wrestle, shiver, wail and laugh, filling the space with horrors, both real and imagined.
Seke Chimutengwende is a choreographer, performer, movement director and teacher, and has been researching the connections between horror and the histories of slavery and colonialism since 2019. You can also see him perform in Forced Entertainment’s If All Else Fails later in our season.
“Possessions, dancing as haunting, the invisible. Such characterful performances”
National Reviews Editor of Theatre Magazine, Ben Kulvichit
Please note there is a strict no latecomers policy for this performance. Please arrive in plenty of time for the performance to start at 7.30pm. Anyone arriving after the show has started will not be allowed entry.
Haunting, dance and colonial legacies
Please join us for a discussion on the themes within this work following the performance (8:45 to 9:30) with Seke Chimutengwende and dance artists in the show. Professor Imogen Tyler (Professor of Sociology at the University, social activist) will chair our discussion and be joined by Professor Alan Rice (Director of UCLan Research Centre in Migration, Diaspora and Exile, co-chair of the Lancaster Black History Group), Fabiha Askari (Councillor, Lancaster Black History Group, Library Research, Engagement and EDI), and Lela Harris (artist - you can see her exhibitions at Lancaster University Library and Judges Lodgings).
Suitable for: Age 12+
Public Workshop: Saturday 21 October (this was originally scheduled for 20 October in our brochure). Find out more and book your place here.
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