Francesca Matthys, Joshua Yates and Wency Lam
Resolution Festival 2024
About Francesca Matthys, Joshua Yates and Wency Lam
Stap (St-AH-p) by Francesca Matthys
Stap (St-AH-p) a new solo work, draws from the performers’ ‘Stepping in Situ’ practice informed by her South African lineage, spiritual and artistic practice. In conversation with original adaptations of the Nama Stap Rite of Passage Dance, the practice acknowledges the pelvis as a site that holds ancestral wisdoms, intuition and identity. The work draws from this aesthetically and thematically as she reconfigures these connections as a South African away from the land of many of her ancestors, now living on the land that echoes the colonial histories of her people.
About The Artist
Francesca Matthys is a South African interdisciplinary dance artist, writer, facilitator, and Kundalini Yoga teacher based in London. Her practice is rooted in connections to ancestral wisdoms through movement, text, collaboration/community. Francesca has collaborated with esteemed artists and produced her own work in dance, theatre and film in South Africa and internationally. She has been part of collaborations supported by The British Council and Arts Council England. She participated in TalentLab23 at Théâtres de la Ville Luxembourg as part of The Zebras Crossing Collective which she co-founded in 2022. Francesca is a Creative Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg.
Cast and Credits
Choreographer and dancer: Francesca Matthys
Costume design and creation by Mia Tongo Mesembe
Live Music by Michael Mendones
Yonder by Joshua Yates
Yonder is based on a story written by the choreographer. A non-binary character who uproots their previous life and creates a new identity elsewhere, cutting all their existing ties. The piece picks up years later, as their only sibling finds them, and persuades them to return to their hometown. Portraying feelings of unfamiliarity, becoming, solitude, and curiosity through the lens of the main character, Yonder explores how these feelings affect both the relationship with this character’s only sibling, and the actions that follow.
'I can't even indulge enough to understand what it is'
About The Artist
Yonder is based on a story written by the choreographer about a non-binary character who uproots their previous life and creates a new identity elsewhere, cutting all their existing ties. The piece picks up years later, as their only sibling finds them, and persuades them to return to their hometown. Portraying feelings of unfamiliarity, becoming, solitude, and curiosity through the lens of the main character, Yonder explores how these feelings affect both the relationship with this character’s only sibling, and the actions that follow.
Cast and Credits
Rehearsal director/Dancer: Nicola Adilman
Dancers: Jordan Boyle, Tom Rowlands, Ella Sophoclides and Hsinyu Wu
Photo credits: Michelle Rose
Costume Design: Jacob Elliott Roberts
Music: Tommy Khosla
Dear Adult, by Wency Lam
Dear Adult, bring your little ones to this theatrical manifestation of a storybook. The adult narrator will talk you through a child’s adventure into the inner world where we can fly, become an astronaut, and tell our friends the secrets of the underworld. But what will happen when the narrator steps into the story? Dear Adult, is a dance theatre performance for all ages, fun for children and thought-provoking for adults. It takes the form of children’s storytelling while discussing how our childhood can continue to affect us as adults. Dear Adult, listen inward, do you hear what the child has to say?
About The Artist
Wency Lam a migrant dance theatre artist. Wency’s practice is a mixture of movement practices from her multiple roots including somatic practice, contact improvisation, and open-style choreography, Chinese dance etc. In their creative work, Wency endeavours to transmit sensations. There lies a strong connection between my more personal somatic practice and the more public-facing performances.
Wency has presented work in the Sheffield Fringe Previews 2023, Resolution Festival 2023, London Festival of Contemporary Church Music 2022, London Festival of Architecture 2022, and her short film has received an Honourable Mention from Student World Impact Film Festival 2022.
Cast and Credits
Producer & Director: Wency Lam
Devising performers: Maggie Chan Tin Lok, Eden Rae Nathenson, Wency Lam
Art director: Maggie Chan Tin Lok
Sound design: Michael Tang, Jonathan Yang
Dramaturgical support: Tenzin Choezin
Photo credits: Romina Dazzarola Forno
