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Photo © Harry Clark
#BlackBoyJoyGone: Realise
#BlackBoyJoyGone: Realise a Black disabled/neurodiverse-led night of performance empowering Black men to speak up and share their stories of mental ill health and trauma.
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Alongside the #BlackBoyJoyGone film, 4 Black men and transmasc artists premiere brand new works across artforms to share their experiences, provoke public discussion, and support collective healing.
Bola Olagunju introduced “Tearing Flesh”.
Randolph Matthews, who is the composer of the #BBJG music introduced a reimagined version of the interviews, lyrics and music.
Tayo Aluko presented “Dodging Bullets” for the first time.
Chad Taylor performed an adaptation of his piece “Closer To My Dreams”.
This work premiered at HOME, Manchester and later toured to Riley Theatre, Leeds, and Blackfest festival, Liverpool in 2023.
This project is supported by Mind, BFI Doc Society, HOME, Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Red Earth Collective, and The Hull Afro Caribbean Association.
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DIRECTED AND PRODUCED: Ashley Karrell
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Adam Lowe
COMPOSER: Randolph Matthews
PERFORMERS: Tayo Aluko, Chad Taylor, Randolph Matthews, Bola Olagunju
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#BlackBoyJoyGone
#BlackBoyJoyGone (#BBJG) is a BFI Doc Society funded 25-minute hybrid documentary by and for Black men (trans and non-binary masc inclusive) that opens up the conversation about mental health, trauma, and finding strength and healing through community and brotherhood.
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The film, released in 2022, blends dance, poetry, and first-person storytelling with magical realism and indigenous African spirituality to create a safe space for sharing and explore how Black men can find healing and transformation.
Working collaboratively with mental health organisations and individuals in the UK, including Mind charity and Black mental health professionals, this project has reached out far and wide to amplify the voices of Black men who are often marginalised and underrepresented in accessing support and wellbeing services.
The title ties in with the celebration of Black men through the #BlackBoyJoy motif. It is a play on how we’re never ‘too far gone’ if we seek the right help.
To date, the film has been screened 36 times in 26 cities and 7 countries, later receiving a Grierson’s British Documentary Awards nomination in 2023.
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DIRECTOR: Ashley Karrell, Isaac Ouro-Gnao
PRODUCER: Melanie Abrahams, Ashley Karrell
CO-PRODUCER: Hannah Bush Bailey
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Lisa Marie Russo
EDITOR: Tonye Mak
SCREENWRITER: Isaac Ouro-Gnao
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Robert Macfarlane
PRODUCTION DESIGNER: Rhian Kempadoo-Millar
SOUND: Robert Wingfield
MUSIC: Randolph Matthews
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It Begins In Darkness
It begins in darkness is a dance full of ghosts.
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.
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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.
It begins in darkness is an environment for processing the fear, anger and confusion which arise from the histories of slavery and colonialism that haunt the present.
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CONCEIVED AND DIRECTED: Seke Chimutengwende
CHOREOGRAPHY AND TEXT: Seke Chimutengwende with the dancers
DANCERS (2023 TOUR): Isaac Ouro-Gnao, Adrienne Ming, Mayowa Ogunnaike, Kassichana Okene-Jameson and Natifah White
ORIGINAL CAST: Rhys Dennis and Rose Sall Sao
CREATED WITH INPUT FROM Alethia Antonia
DRAMATURGY: Charlie Ashwell
LIGHTING DESIGN: Marty Langthorne
COSTUME DESIGN: Annie Pender
COMPOSER: Aisha Orazbayeva
DOUBLE-BASS ON SOUNDSCORE: Hugo Abraham
SOUND TECHNICIAN: Michael Picknett
VOCAL COACHING: Randolph Matthews
RESEARCH CONSULTANT FOR R&D PHASE: Sita Balani
PRODUCTION: Lucia Fortune-Ely, Metal and Water
PRODUCTION MANAGER 2023/2024: Michael Picknett
PRODUCER 2022 AND 2023 TOUR PLANNING: Eve Veglio-Hüner
COMPANY TEACHERS: Seke Chimutengwende, Shannelle Fergus
PHOTO CREDIT: Harry Clark
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THE BURNT CITY
The Burnt City is the latest production by award-winning company Punchdrunk (Sleep No More), who make genre-defying experiences for audiences around the world. Inspired by Aeschylus’ Agamemnon and Euripides’ Hecuba, The Burnt City transports the greatest of Greek tragedies to a sprawling neon metropolis.
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A completely unique dream-like experience, brought to life through physical performance, dance, sound and light. Isaac played the dancing/acting role of Askalaphos, helper of Hades and Persephone, and as the all-singing, all-dancing bar host ‘Icy’ for the underworld cabaret PEEP.
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DIRECTED: Felix Barrett, Maxine Doyle
CHOREOGRAPHY: Maxine Doyle
DESIGN: Felix Barrett, Livi Vaughan & Beatrice Minns
SOUND DESIGN: Stephen Dobbie
LIGHTING DESIGN: F9, Ben Donoghue & Felix Barrett
COSTUME DESIGN: David Israel Reynoso
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Boy breaking glass
Boy Breaking Glass is a dance theatre ensemble piece inspired by the poem of the same name written by Gwendolyn Brooks - the first Black female poet in the United States to receive a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. With a mix of dance and music, the work features Alesandra Seutin’s signature style of theatre.
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“After reading the poem ‘Boy Breaking Glass’ by Gwendolyn Brooks, I started reflecting on the ‘Boy’ and wondered why he was breaking glass?
Boy Breaking Glass is an ode to all the brown artists who may be in the shadows or forgotten and who have paved the way for so many including me. A memory to their existence and that they once shined and somehow did not get the opportunity to break through and stay visible. And for the young dancers who like me need self-reflective models to inspire their journeys. In creating such work, I am assuming great responsibility, to which I bare proudly.”
- Alesandra Seutin, Artistic Director, Vocab Dance
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ARTISTIC DIRECTOR AND CHOREOGRAPHER: Alesandra Seutin
PERFORMERS AND COLLABORATORS: Akeim Toussaint Buck, Isaac Ouro-Gnao, Nosiphiwo Samente, Rose Sall Sao, Sean Graham, Moses Ward
REHEARSAL DIRECTORS: Sadé Alleyne & Jo Leahy
COMPOSER: Randolph Matthews
MUSICIANS: Vidal Montgomery, Nicholas Hewlett, Stefano Ancora
ORIGINAL COSTUME DESIGNER: Kimie Nakano
PRODUCED: Uprise Rebel
PRODUCTION MANAGER: Salvatore Scollo
LIGHTING DESIGNER: Salvatore Scollo
LIGHTING TECHNICIAN: Michael Morgan
SET DESIGN: Ryan Laight
RECORDING STUDIO ENGINEER: Keenan Bailey
SOUNDS ENGINEER: Andres Pascua Montejo (UK) & Diederik De Cock (Brussels)
PHOTO CREDIT: Camilla Greenwell
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INTERGENERATIONAL TRAUMA
The work premiered at Serendipity’s ‘AfroManifesto’ programme at The Chapel Gallery, Leicester, and featured in their magazine ‘Black Ink’ in 2021. It later appeared on Google Arts & Culture’s Black History Month feature following a commission by Arts Council England.
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What traumas have been passed onto us? What deeply distressing experiences are we holding onto? What lasting effects are we likely to replicate and pass on to the next generation?
Attempting to answer these questions, Intergenerational Trauma by Isaac Ouro-Gnao and Ashley Karrell is a series of photographs and film vignettes that explore this very concept. Through somatic movement and breathwork, the visuals highlight how trauma is held in the body and how it can be released.
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PERFORMED: Isaac Ouro-Gnao
PHOTOGRAPHY AND CINEMATOGRAPHY: Ashley Karrell
PRODUCED AND DIRECTED: Isaac Ouro-Gnao, Ashley Karrell
COMMISSIONED: Serendipity, Google Arts & Culture
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PALATABLE
Drawing from the Oreo as a metaphor, Palatable questions the meaning of assimilation for the Black diaspora in western and European society, how assimilation is thrust onto us, and what that assimilation looks like.
Palatable featured in the exhibition section of The Oreo Complex in 2018.
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Easy on the eyes, easy on the ears, easy on the tongue. There seems to be a pressure to edit ourselves in order to assimilate and fit into an environment. Whether that's through the way we talk, act, or even by what we wear.
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WRITTEN, CHOREOGRAPHED, PERFORMED, PRODUCED AND DIRECTED: Isaac Ouro-Gnao
POETRY TRANSLATION: Afi Ouro-Gnao, Kofi Lucide Hator
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Tobi ‘Odd Venture’ Izedomi
EDITING: Imoje Aikhoje
MUSIC: Isaac Ouro-Gnao
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The Oreo Complex
Rooted in hip hop dance, west African agbadza, poetry, and visual arts, The Oreo Complex marks Isaac Ouro-Gnao’s first full-length theatre piece. It uncovers the intergenerational discriminatory label and its relationship to assimilation, and the effect these dynamics have on our mental health and identity.
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An Oreo (a.k.a Bounty/Coconut) is a person of Black ethnicity or heritage labelled ‘Black on the outside but white on the inside’.
Through west African and Black British history, the piece highlights how important it is to own our identities and to be the ones in charge of the Black identity narrative in the UK and western society.
The R&D of The Oreo Complex was commissioned & supported by Artists4Artists and Redbridge Drama Centre as part of Man & Men showcase. It was later platformed by Rich Mix during the Roots & Beyond festival in 2018, by Serendipity in 2019 as part of the BHM Live programme, and Siobhan Davies Dance’s Open Choreography Performance Evening.
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WRITTEN, CHOREOGRAPHED, AND PERFORMED: Isaac Ouro-Gnao
MUSIC: Ffion Campbell-Davies
PHOTOGRAPHY: Foteini Christofilopoulou
EXHIBITION PHOTOGRAPHY: Carole Edrich
VIDEOGRAPHY: Tobi Izedomi
EDITED: Imoje Aikhoje
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Father Figurine
Father Figurine questions the stigmas around the mental health of men and boys through provocative hip hop theatre. It is Body Politic’s first full-length piece. First performed as part of The Place’s dance festival ‘Resolution’ in January 2018 and later toured in Autumn 2019.
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Father Figurine talks about the fragilities and vulnerabilities in men and young boys. Figures show young people are affected disproportionately with over half of mental health problems, starting by the age of 14 and 75% by 18.
This piece combines poignant spoken word poetry with hip hop dance, to explore the fractured relationship between a father and his son and their inability to healthily deal with a traumatic event.
Will they be able to share their emotions with each other? Or will they fall into the statistic of nearly half of men believing they can’t express their feelings?
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ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Emma-Jane Greig
WRITTEN: Isaac Ouro-Gnao
CHOREOGRAPHY: Stephen Brown and Derek Mok
PERFORMERS AND ADDITIONAL CHOREOGRAPHY: Isaac Ouro-Gnao and Tyrone Isaac-Stuart
ORIGINAL LIGHTING DESIGN: Damien Roberts
RELIGHTER, AUTUMN 2019 TOUR LIGHTING DESIGNER: Joe Price
DRAMATURGICAL SUPPORT: Maxwell Golden
PRODUCER: Lee Griffiths
PHOTO CREDIT: Josh Tomalin
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POLARITY
Heavy thoughts. Heavy mind. Polarity, Isaac’s first solo piece, is a physical embodiment of the 'over-thinking' thought process of someone with anxiety.
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The piece was made for Body Politic’s 4th year anniversary in 2016, an event of performances from artists and community linked to Body Politic curated by Isaac Ouro-Gnao.
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CHOREOGRAPHY: Isaac Ouro-Gnao
VIDEOGRAPHY: Habib Ouro-Gnao
EDITOR: Imoje Aikhoje
MUSIC: ‘K/Half Noise’ by Múm, ‘The Nervous System’ by Hawk House
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REFLECTIONS
Created by Body Politic and written by Isaac Ouro-Gnao, Reflections highlights the internal pressures we place on ourselves that can often lead to distorted thinking, low self-esteem and vulnerability.
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Accompanied by powerful spoken word and dynamic movement, Reflections takes you on a journey exploring the highs and lows of mental health in young people.
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ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Emma-Jane Greig
WRITTEN: Isaac Ouro-Gnao
CHOREOGRAPHY: Stephen Brown and Derek Mok
PERFORMERS: Tobi Oswald Oduntan, Isaac Ouro, Emma-Jane Morbey, Amy Elliott, and Emily Parpas Georgiou
LIGHTING DESIGN: Damian Robertson
PHOTO CREDIT: Josh Tomalin
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The Trees Told Me A Secret
“I miss who I was. I miss how I was.”
Through spoken word poetry and dance improvisation, this piece looks at the effects anxiety has on the identity.
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It looks at the internal battles we have when we feel our mental health has changed us, and how we attempt to return to who and what we once were.
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WRITTEN, CHOREOGRAPHED, AND PERFORMED: Isaac Ouro-Gnao
DIRECTED: Imoje Aikhoje
MUSIC: Coloring – Kevin Garrett
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