By Ella Mesma
It’s such a joy to offer and reflect on some of the magic of Displace Yourself Theatre. I’m going to start with the kind of aspect of care that I really experienced on a very deep level while choreographing Displace Yourself Theatre’s newest production that was heartwarming and refreshing.
Unfortunately, maybe surprisingly, I feel that in many arts organisations that aspect of care hasn’t really been considered, and it can be quite an uncomfortable place because you’re often exploring deep topics and being expected to really go there while at the same time not being supported or held.
It’s become something I’m quite passionate about and it’s been really amazing to work in a space where I’m really seeing that passion for championing artists’ wellbeing come through. It was refreshing to be encouraged to explore my own wellbeing in a very true and slow way. And I’ve really found that because these self-care opportunities were set up in such a lovely way, it’s a big part of why the results from our R&D performance were so powerful.
Developing choreography
One of the parts I worked closely with was the scene where death tries to understand what sassy means. I was very intrigued by gender in that scene. I’m always intrigued by the social constructs of gender, and our individual interpretations of gender. This scene felt like a really nice place to explore these ideas of gender. It also felt very true to work with the skills and talents of the cast and the diverse dance styles and abilities. From this place, it felt true to find what each individual’s understanding of sassy was and to find movements that resonated for them, rather than defining the ‘sassy’ movement to be one certain way. To support the artists, we covered some dance training in Flamenco, Samba as well as some traditional contemporary dance.
It was really beautiful to explore sassy in this way and create a space for people to find what that means to them through movement. We also gave the artists tasks, like asking them to step out and compose themselves in the energy of sassy and then come back into the room as sassy. That was a real joy, especially watching certain individuals who weren’t quite sure who their character was, really find their characters through the exercise.
Staying authentic onstage
At the first sassy session we were thinking about some of Fabiano Culora’s somatic movement techniques like ‘on and off’ and how not to put on a mask on the stage but to be who you are. I had just come back from a wonderful woman’s house, who’s a spiritual master near Doncaster. And she had said to me: to get what you want, you have to be who you are. And I remember thinking, I need to write this down. So while I was walking to my phone I started chanting to get what you want, you have to be who you are. I shared this story with the group and we talked about that phrasing and how we can come from a place of authenticity when exploring our sassy instead of a performative place.
We also used a variety of warm-ups to help us get into our inner sass. Like a writing exercise that asked our inner sass to tell us how they are or using warm ups and stretches. We also used freestyle movement to help us find our inner sass. These exercises helped the cast introduce and find their sassy and storyteller characters. It was a real pleasure to witness their characters come to life.
I’m really excited to see this show performed in 2025. It’s been a pleasure to be part of such an amazing team. Because wellbeing is at the forefront of Displace Yourself Theatre’s practice it means that people can show up as their whole selves and it’s really joyful. It’s just really refreshing to be in a space full of whole hearted people working towards a similar goal.
