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L U D A L A

love. blackness. joy

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Supported by Albany & Tamasha Theatre

"ludala" means "joy"/"happiness"  in the Yakurr dialect of Cross River State, Nigeria

Celebrating and exuding

Black love and Black joy, the collection

of concepts are a response to

"where our smiles form." 

Form. Mind. Spirit. Energy.

 A fusion of dance, poetry and good vibes captured through short film and outdoor theatre.

Elements collide through living art.

After the many, many unprecedented (yuck) changes COVID-19 presented us with, our LUDALA project (for stage) became the "LUDALA Collection" - 3 short films, made earlier this year and will be debuting at this year's digital Edinburgh Fringe Festival (everybodi say yeh yeh!) supported by Eclipse and Summerhall - as part of our eclipse award 2020. AND NOW we will bringing one of these short films to life through a LIVE outdoor theatre GDIF performance of "Is Dat U Yh?".

INSPIRED BY:

 

Healing
Sunday's Best 
Ancestors 
A ṣọ ebi 
The cookout 

Laughter
"It's not like you knew your dad anyway"

FILMS

> Is Dat U Yh: the journey of way back when I used to trec from Elephant to Narm, and how a dragging from 'indomie' into another realm changed my life!

> Endures the healing power and enduring vitality of love and relationships through movement 

Gele: the childhood wonder of seeing a matriarch manifest her native crown

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'GELE' image by Ify

"Black love is celebrating history, heritage and being proud of

who you are in a world where we're constantly told 

we aren't worthy or are less than"

- Bola Agbaje

R&D WEEKEND 2020

Following many postponements due to COVID restrictions, in the middle of December we embarked upon the first stages of our research and development following a zoom discussion on Black Joy & Black Love that gave us some of the pillars within those two overarching themes.

THE JOY WE FOUND

 

As you'll see in the videos talking to our performers, this weekend amplified for us all how joy is an integral part of Black culture - a culture in of itself.

Something there's so much of, and so many different forms of, that we often forget we have access to due to the everyday and long withstanding

traumas we battle.

Not just laughter, but how we laugh; full body rolling and fleeing from the scene as we proclaim we're "done", "finished" or "dead"

Secret shading conversations that require only dexterity in our eyes and eye brows

From FOOD to CHURCH, #BlackJoy is always just a nostalgic track away

THE LOVE WE SHARE

 

Largely framed by a history of systematic and continued division, our journey into #BlackLove and its lack of representation brought us to the need for healing in our culture: generationally, romantically

and what may be the most important - a love of self

The comfortability, understanding, the regal kinship; loving yourself first, you embrace the same parts of you shared with your kin - from crowns of coils, kinks and curls atop every shade of melanin; to honouring and empathising the sacrifices of those that came before us

 

Brotherhood, Sisterhood, Family; our love is joy. LUDALA explores joy tumbling over through the commemoration of blackness

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The Sugar Shack by Ernie Barnes