One Drop by Sonya Lindfors at Dance Umbrella festival
One Drop, a new performance by Sonya Lindfors & working group, is a speculative summoning, a decolonial dream, an autopsy of the Western stage and an operetta.
Defying definition and belonging to multiple categories, the work dives into the poetics and politics of relations, creating a performance that reignites connections lost or forgotten.
The title of the work refers to two separate concepts – the one drop rhythm which is a reggae style drum beat as well as to the one drop rule of the Race Separation Act, created in the United States in the early 1900s, according to which a single drop of “Black blood” made a person “Black” despite their appearance. Through its multiple starting points, the work interrogates the ghosts of the Western stage and its entanglements and relationships to capitalism, coloniality and modernity.
Award winning Cameroonian-Finnish choreographer and artistic director, Sonya Lindfors creates important work exploring power, representation and Black body politics. She is the Artistic Director and founding member of UrbanApa, an interdisciplinary and counter hegemonic arts community that offers a platform for new ideas and feminist art practices.
A Big Pulse Dance Alliance co-production. Co-produced by Dance Umbrella.
Presented in partnership with BAC.
Supported by the Finnish Institute in the UK and Ireland.
One Drop at Battersea Arts Centre, Grand Hall on Thursday 19th and Friday 20th October at 7pm. Ticket prices: Thu 19 – Pay What You Can (recommended £18); Fri 20 – £18/£15. Get your tickets here (opens a new window)!
People behind the project
Sonya Lindfors
Sonya Lindfors is a Cameroonian - Finnish choreographer and artistic director that also works with facilitating, community organizing and education. Her performance works have been shown and supported by Beursschouwburg, Kampnagel, Spring Utrecht, Black Box Theater Oslo, among others.