Raising a child in a world that feels increasingly fractured and uncertain is a complicated task. How do you share the complexity of our current condition without bending the truth or being nihilistic? The answer for the Olivier Award-winning dancer, choreographer and composer Dickson Mbi, who was contemplating these very questions while trying to put his son to sleep, lies in the folk stories his parents would narrate to him when he was younger. His new production, TELLUS, is foregrounded by these questions. Arriving at Sadler’s Wells East from 21–24 October, the show weaves together contemporary dance, African folklore and an immersive score to explore humanity’s fractured relationship with the natural world.
Co-written with poet Nick Drake and developed with mentorship from Complicité’s Simon McBurney, TELLUS marks an ambitious new chapter for Mbi. His solo Enowate, co-commissioned by Sadler’s Wells and the Barbican, won an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance in 2023. Now, returning to East London with his first ensemble production for his company, the choreographer brings an epic, myth-inflected story of climate change, ancestral memory and our responsibility to the planet to a part of London he calls home.
Drawing on Mbi’s Cameroonian heritage and inspired by the mythical water deity Mami Wata, TELLUS follows a young boy who finds himself in a village devastated by drought. Guided by an Old Lady who also takes the form of a goddess, the boy begins to understand how humanity has forgotten to care for the land and sets out on a journey to restore balance between people and nature.
With references ranging from grime and hip hop to classical contemporary dance and African traditional movement, the production pairs these styles with an original score by Mbi, led by African vocals and Chinese percussion, and performed live on stage.
Catch a performance of TELLUS at Sadler’s Wells East from Wednesday 21 to Saturday 24 October.