About Resolution: next steps

Discover the next generation of choreographic talent in a double bill showcasing emerging artists whose distinctive approaches to movement first caught our attention at Resolution Festival.

COPTERS AND HEARSES 2: HEALER COMPLEX

JJ James and Joca Veiga

COPTERS AND HEARSES 2: HEALER COMPLEX topples headfirst into a world of sacrifice, healing and spiritual psychosis. In the second instalment of their collaboration between dance and fashion, choreographer JJ James and fashion designer Joca Veiga move beyond the glossy facade of the runway to expose the darker side of the wellness industry and its obsession with self-optimisation.

Performed by an ensemble of five dancers driven by blind faith into commercialised healing rituals, HEALER COMPLEX unravels the promises of an industry that turns self-care into a commodity. As the pursuit of healing becomes increasingly consuming, the work asks: are we ever truly “fixable”, and how far will we go in the name of self-improvement?

About JJ James

JJ James is a Bristol born performer and choreographer based in London. Since graduating from Rambert School and VERVE 22, they have worked on a wide range of productions in gallery spaces, stages and screen. Their emergent choreographic work centres around queerness, performance art and current culture online and on land.

About Joca Veiga

Joca Veiga is a Portuguese designer based in London, and is a graduate of Middlesex University. After graduating Joca worked as a menswear designer for the likes of Givenchy and Vivienne Westwood, credits include Doja Cat, Rosalía and Lisbon Fashion Week.

Credits

Supported by Arts Council England, BalletBoyz, Middlesex University and ROMBAUT.

Cast & Creatives  

Choreographer JJ James

Art/Fashion Director Joca Veiga

Performers Yu-Chien Cheng, Darinka Bojorquez, Louisa Fernando, Samuel Dilkes, Sula Castle

Videographer Genevive Reeves

Photographer Klaudija Avotina

Lighting Designer Joshie Harriete

Composer Seirian Griffiths

Producer Michal Sobkiewicz

Its look is hot - couture kink - and its heart is cold.
Sanjoy Roy, COPTERS AND HEARSES, 2026

Sinfully good
So’l Jelenke, COPTERS AND HEARSES, 2026

Ring Me Hollow

Elisabeth Mulenga

Ring Me Hollow is a duet about unrequited love, deception and the desperate desire to be perceived as being loved.

Drawing on the atmosphere of a 1970s romantic thriller, the work follows two protagonists caught in an all-consuming pursuit of romance, where the boundaries between truth and fiction begin to unravel.

Inspired by fake memoirs and forged histories, choreographer Elisabeth Mulenga explores the stories we invent about ourselves and each other, and the lengths we might go to in order to sustain them.

Ring Me Hollow draws from Mulenga’s perception of experiencing unrequited love with the Christian God, asking what romance looks like when the object of your affection is conceptual.

About Elisabeth Mulenga

Elisabeth Mulenga, a Sadler’s Wells Young Associate alumni, is a choreographer and performer creating provocative, autobiographical work examining themes around grief, intimacy, and hauntology. Influenced by her Pentecostal Christian upbringing, her choreography draws from ritualistic practice and the effects of being constantly observed. Elisabeth’s work is rooted in a deep awareness of the interplay between physical sensation and emotional reaction.

Her recent work, Christ Alone, premiered at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in 2024 before being restaged at the Royal Opera House in 2025. In 2022, she won the Choreographic Innovation Award at the BBC Young Dancer Grand Final. She has presented work at venues such as The Roundhouse, The Place Theatre and EartH Theatre.

www.elisabethmulenga.com

Fellini meets Pina Bausch
The Reviews Hub, Christ Alone, 2024

4 Stars
There’s an undercurrent of fury in Mulenga’s work
Gramilano, Christ Alone, 2025

The dancers all play studied roles, some apparently on the edge of hysteria in this marked display of public ritual and buried truth.