Kwame Asafo-Adjei's Spoken Movement Brings FAMILY HONOUR to Sadler's Wells Theatre
Performances are Wednesday 14 & Thursday 15 September.
By: Stephi Wild Jul. 19, 2022
Internationally award-winning choreographer Kwame Asafo-Adjei brings this newly expanded full-length ensemble production of Family Honour performed by his company Spoken Movement to Sadler's Wells on Wednesday 14 & Thursday 15 September. Originally a duet, the work won France's prestigious Danse Élargie in 2018.
Family Honour is a raw exploration of family and personal trauma, putting audiences in the front seat for tense, honest confrontations that go generations deep.
A young girl, bound by the demands of tradition, religion and family, confronts her past rebellion against these pressures. Through a brilliantly unique meeting of hip hop and theatre, Family Honour asks how far one would go to uphold family expectations and whether it's truly honourable to do so or if it is another traditional taboo.
Family Honour is part of Well Seasoned, designed by Sadler's Wells' Artistic Director and Chief Executive Alistair Spalding and Breakin' Convention's Artistic Director Jonzi D and Director Michelle Norton. This programme is bringing exceptional and relevant shows by Black artists to the stage, celebrating Black dance.
Kwame Asafo-Adjei is a dance artist who fuses his hip hop training with contemporary dance and his Ghanaian background, helping create a unique style of movement that tackles the day-to-day realities he faces in his social surroundings. Often exploring the development of Black culture, themes of tension and release are ever-present in his provocative work.
Kwame is the Founder and Artistic Director of Spoken Movement, a company that has taken the elements of street dance and contemporary dance to create its own vocabulary in movement.
Spoken Movement Artistic Director and choreographer, Kwame Asafo-Adjei said,"Family Honour captures moments past present and future within a family dynamic, exploring the impact of religion and gender constraints within a particular cultural system. I want this piece to feel like an incisive view into what can be tense and difficult familial relationships, how they all affect each other and how power moves and takes shape within these.
The piece is set in a domestic space so that the audience feel like a part of the furniture. I want to take audience out of the privileged position as observer into a more intimate space, as a witness to the events that unfold. In doing so, the audience have a responsibility in choosing how they respond to what they've seen. Are they complicit? Does this piece reflect dynamics within their own families? What does this mean once they leave the theatre? At its core, the piece asks of everyone, what does family honour mean to them."
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