“I had a love-hate relationship with ballet because it didn't accept my body.”
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Recorded live at the Barbican Centre as part of Dance Umbrella Festival 2024, Kelechi Okafor (host of the Say Your Mind podcast, actress, director & public speaker) and Mamela Nyamza (choreographer of HATCHED ENSEMBLE & dancer) interrogate and discuss Black body politics, the body as a tool for decolonisation and liberating your movement practice. The discussion is chaired by Azieb Pool, Artistic Director & CEO of Bernie Grant Arts Centre.
Video chapters
00:00 Introducing the panellists
01:21 Movement practice and its relation to body politics
09:09 The body as a tool for decolonisation
17:12 Confronting the colonial gaze
19:50 Liberating your movement practice
26:37 Audience question 1 – How do you push past body politics in the work you do?
35:04 Audience question 2 – How do you care and find rest within your bodies?
41:31 Approaching Mamela Nyamza’s work Hatched Ensemble as an audience member
42:23 Takeways from the panel discussion
Moving with Equity: A panel discussion on body politics was filmed on location at Barbican Centre, on 9 October as part of Dance Umbrella Festival 2024.
Commissioned and created by Dance Umbrella
Presented in partnership with the British Council and Barbican
Filmed by Henry Curtis
Edited by Henry Curtis and Isabella Hubbard