TELLUS, the new dance work by Dickson Mbi received its London premiere at Sadler’s Wells East last week, drawing warm reviews from the national press.
Co-commissioned and co-produced by Sadler’s Wells, schrit_tmacher Festival NL and DanceEast, TELLUS is Mbi’s first ensemble piece for his own company. Inspired by the Cameroonian deity Mami Wata, it follows a young man estranged from Mother Earth who finds himself in a village ravaged by drought. Mbi not only directed the production, but choreographed the work for eight dancers and composed the original score, which is led by African vocals and Chinese percussion. The text is co-written with poet Nick Drake, with mentorship from Complicité’s Simon McBurney. The performances marked a homecoming for the Olivier Award-winning Mbi, who grew up in Stratford.
In The Guardian, Lyndsey Winship says the muysic “creates a confident, textured world... full of haunting melody and emotional pull. The music effectively shapes and enhances the action and speaks with the dance” and described Mbi as a “bold force in dance”. The Reviews Hub awarded the production five stars, the only full-marks notice of the run according to one roundup. The Financial Times also reviewed the work, describing it as a Cameroonian fairytale reworked into a climate change fable.
