In 2014 Project O, Alexandrina Hemsley and Jamila Johnson-Small, began working with Charlotte Cooper and Kay Hyatt on a show called SWAGGA. The work is rooted in dance and draws on other performance traditions, including a live soundtrack by Trash Kit and original compositions by Verity Susman. This collaboration was remarkable because it featured untrained dancers with the kinds of political bodies - fat, queer, older – that are rarely treated as creative, expressive or worthy choreographic subjects. Over two years SWAGGA was refined and performed for audiences around the country. Katarzyna Perlak documented the process and in 2016 created SWAGGA: A Study On Camera, a creative response to the live performance. The result is an extravaganza of mess, antisocial emotions and intersectional feminist sensibility.
www.acontemporarystruggle.com/swagga
About LADA Screens
LADA Screens is a series of free, online screenings of seminal performance documentation, works to camera, short films/video and archival footage. It is part of Live Online, LADA’s dedicated space where you can watch short videos and films drawn from LADA’s Study Room or generated through our programmes and initiatives.
Each screening will be available to view for a limited time only, and will be launched with a live event at our space in Bethnal Green, London. Online art magazine, thisistomorrow will also feature the films on their website for the duration of the screenings.
LADA Screens is curated by the Live Art Development Agency (LADA). LADA is a ‘Centre for Live Art’: a knowledge centre, a production centre for programmes and publications, a research centre setting artists and ideas in motion, and an online centre for digital experimentation, representation and dissemination.
For more information about LADA Screens please contact Alex Eisenberg.
