JOMO TO THE WORLD
“We're London babes, Multidisciplinary artists, a couple, years deep. We're huge lovers of music, curious about consciousness, lovers of movement, intrigued by the universe of animation, fanatics of surrealism, attracted to light.”
Words Fiyon Gibson // BTS Images Shokirie Clarke
Multidisciplinary artists, Sannchia Gaston and Tajana Tokyo break boundaries with their creative house, JOMO.WRLD — celebrating movement, storytelling, and individuality.
JOMO, an acronym for ‘Joy Of Missing Out,’ focuses on what truly resonates with them, ‘the joy of missing out on things that aren’t for you.’ As artists pivoting from dance to film, Sannchia and Tajana emphasise no restriction to their creativity, and JOMO.WRLD thrives on this freedom. While their paths to dance were different, the pair bring their unique experiences that informs their creative work.
Tajana Tokyo (Left), Sannchia Gaston (Right) - Shot by Renee Maria Osubu
For Sannchia, dance was a passionate hobby rather than a career. What started as ‘breaking’ with school friends, grew to a deeper love for streetdance, after watching DaBoyz at Theatre royal stratford East, featuring a few well known london dancers, namely Kyberlee Jay — who later took Chia under her wing. Several years later, Chia became inspired by the film Rize, where she found a new love for Krump. The rawness and spirituality attached to it led her to become a member of Buckness Personified, and performed on some of the most prestigious stages including Sadler's Wells Theatre, The San Francisco International Hip Hop Dance Festival, and a guest performer and competitor at the ‘Illest Krump’ battles in Paris.
With an interest in ‘making things’ such as mini docs and ‘silly’ webcam videos, Sannchia’s first endeavours with production was with her collective of friends, Donnie Sunshine and Ricky Rxse, known as House of Alt — who are well known for their viral ‘ShakKapella’ series with musician ShakKa. Chia later got a job at a production company, but it wasn’t until she met Tajana that Sannchia knew directing, as a black female, was a real possibility. After meeting commercial reps and EP’s, Simon Oxley facilitated her first commercial job with Puma and JD Sports, now the rest is history.
Tajana started her journey interested in contemporary dance, which led her to studying at the Brit School and then Bird College, landing a role in Lion King in London's West End after finishing Bird. But, not feeling in the right space, her career developed to commercial dance — where she would perform with several artists, and tour with the likes of Lily Allen, Janelle Monae and most notably as one of Beyonce’s 2016 Formation tour dancers.
Yet, with Chia’s same curiosity of ‘making things’, Tajana experimented with other creative outlets, picking up skills in editing, photoshop, graphic design, and photography. ‘I didn’t know what I was going to do, I just knew I had an urge to learn something else.’
Feeling suffocated by the dance industry, Tajana eventually stepped away from it. Her first love is music and couldn’t fathom making things without it, so she moved into music video directing. With music videos came movement, and dance naturally found its way back to her.
Choreography Tyrik Patterson // Waddah Sinada
Cast Michele Zan as Matteo // Gabriel Goux as Jean // Yos Clark as Ettien // Kikz Katika as Zuri // Lisa Sainvill as Akira // Fatou Bah as Afiyah // Benjamin WIlliams as Manny // Tajor Brown as Kumari // Robia Milliner as Blair // Belen Leroux as Jazmyn // Aahkilah Corenlius as Iman // Sweetny ojule as Winnie // Webster Opiyo as Campbell // Keith Alexander as Cooper // Tyrik Patterson as Isaiah // Genesis Lynea as Ocean // Remi Black as Ovi
Today, the two creatives assert their artistic identity and champion the visibility of movement artists, in the debut film of their inaugural series Morphin’ Colours titled, Ninth Life.
The duo felt compelled to create films where dancers take centre stage, addressing the lack of recognition dancers often receive. Ninth Life, is a dialogue-free narrative set in a London pub, blending dance and storytelling to explore themes of attraction, sexuality, creativity and simply, fun.
Prior to its release, we spoke to Sannchia and Tajana who delved into the film’s creative process; what inspired them; the impact they want to make; and their creative aspirations.
What fuelled you to start this project?
Hunger to f*cking make something where we had sign-off and to put dancers at the front of a story. Hunger to express ourselves.
As working directors it’s really cool that we get to sharpen our directing skills on-the-go, but at the end of the day, we aren’t making things that are a full representation of us, so it left us with a deep desire to create for ourselves.
Can you walk us through your creative process of Ninth Life?
Ooouf how long have you got? Let’s try to make it concise. We started by selecting the music, REKERE TRIBUTE by European 305. Having it to start helped us structure the piece. then We kind of did the casting and writing simultaneously — we really built the characters around the cast, and even though there is no dialogue, there were many iterations of the script. We started collating references for movement, light, camera, and blocking etc, that we put into a visual bible and this helped us direct the choreographers, (Tyrik J Patterson and Waddah Sinada), on which sections to focus on. The cast became familiar with the script, their characters and relationships.
Creating the movement was mostly done in an R&D fashion in rehearsals. We referenced a sketch of the pub to help communicate blocking, which we approached similar to how they do it in theatre, where everyone has a track from start to finish. It was honestly a very fun but a very involved process.
How do your movement backgrounds influence the way you approach storytelling through film?
Sannchia I guess the fact that Ninth Life is non-dialogue. Approaching our storytelling through body language first, is testament to our movement backgrounds being an influence. It also made sense because dance/movement really emotes, and we’re feelers, so much can be lost in words/dialogue. There’s a quote that says, ‘words were designed to hide feelings,’ and that really resonates with us. But me specifically, because I don’t feel like I’m the best with words.
Tajana I don’t think we realised how informed we were to tell a story through body. We were able to direct our cast through postures, and eye focuses and just general details in body language. We learned that even pedestrian movement is dance, it’s an everyday universal thing even if it’s not musical.
Why did you choose a London pub as your setting?
What says Brit more than a pub lol. We were inspired initially by a piece called Enter Achilles by the physical theatre company, DV8, which is set in a pub. Our interest to explore attraction through body language came from our experience at a day party we go to called, AmapianondChill. It was in a pub in Catford that was actually called, Ninth Life.
What do the different characters in your film represent, and how do they add depth to the story?
Because there are no words, all roles were important. Eye contact and traffic all had reason and helped give visual depth. Even if someone was in the back of the frame, or didn’t have the most screen time, they had a story and a purpose, which was all part of building the world. Our characters represent firstly, the spectrum of sexuality that we’re around, the creatives we’re around — whether that be dancers, actors, filmmakers, DJ’s, stylists, or people that just like to create for fun.
How did you approach blending dance with London’s cultural identity in the film?
London is a melting pot of cultures, which subsequently influences the movement. In this episode, we have a section called slow-whine, and because of London’s Afro-Caribbean influence, most people are familiar with a slow-whine. Also, Amapiano coming from South Africa brings its own movement influence. So we had Webster and Sweetny choreograph some social grooves, and we had subtle nods in other parts of the visual too.
What emotions do you hope to evoke in your audience through your film?
Enjoyment! We prioritise the experience and the feeling. The story is important, yes but audiences so far have walked away expressing visceral feelings, and the definition of what it feels like and means can be different for everyone.
Do you want viewers to interpret the film in their own way, or is there a specific message you want to convey?
A bit of both. This method of filmmaking draws you in to watch a little differently, so we don’t necessarily want people to walk away with the same idea. But we’d like people to question how they judge by what they see, what unconscious biases are being evoked? The body and energy can tell you everything you need to know.
What was your vision for the fashion in the film, and how does it compliment the story?
Thank you for asking because that means that you think it was stylish! Firstly we had our wonderful stylist friends help us, Ade Winterz, Jamie McFarland and Shaquille Ross-Williams. The inspiration was London, and us — the people we are around! We had some really cool brands featured; Mowalola, Mugler, By:Jamie, Golf Wang, to name a few. We really hope to build on that. With the lack of dialogue you are invited to really pay attention to the body and consequently, the clothes.
Did the vision of everyone involved contribute to the final product, if so, how?
Yes, in so many ways but one specifically we can talk on is with our characters, Ovi and Iman. We initially didn’t see them having a connection, it was going to be a gay story which left Ovi barking up the wrong tree. However, through the rehearsal process we saw they had natural chemistry so we let that shine too. With the cast overall, we tapped into what felt close to their personalities, so they all really gave parts of themselves to their characters.
“Having creative control pushes you to really make a decision for yourself, not the brand, not the audience, you really ask yourself what do you want? It’s necessary because you learn yourself.
You learn what you like, you learn what you dislike. You gain a voice. Directing feels like a form of manifestation, there’s this thing that exists in your brain and then you get to actually see it all come to life, it’s quite magical actually.”
JOMO.WRLD
What barriers have prevented dancers from receiving more recognition in the past?
Tajana I’m going to speak specifically to commercial dancers, and I think honestly, it’s not being in the front of stories. I think dancers aren’t afforded true recognition because their achievements are actually attached to the artist they’re behind. Once they aren’t dancing for that person anymore, it’s easy to forget and move on to the next.
Do you think dancers are starting to gain the spotlight they deserve, or is there still a long way to go?
Yes they are starting to and yes there is still a way to go. Projects like the Jungle music videos and what NERD did with Mette are great. And dare we say it, but social media has made a difference too — although it comes with the battle of professional dancers competing with TikTok dancers, so yeah, some movement, but a way to go.
How do you envision your work contributing to the broader conversation about the role of dance in storytelling?
Well we’re drawn to movement artists first, so they’re always going to be championed in what we create.
We hope the [Morphing Colours] series will shift the wider perception of the talent and skill needed to be a professional movement artist.
Professional dancers have something special, they’re athletes and body movement specialists.
Should we reach a major streaming platform or have A24 or HBO involved? That will absolutely affect how dancers are compensated and positively change how a dance artist can exist through-out their careers and after.
What do you hope to achieve for the broader dance community by elevating movement artists through your work?
Tajana I think I’m a better dancer now and it’s because I know myself and my language. You’re trained to be good at everything so you can earn a living, but we’re not all great at everything, I would hope that our work can celebrate individuality in movement language. That you can be recognised and earn money from your personal movement expression.
Sannchia Very few are afforded the luxury of retiring like sport athletes or actors. So my hope is that dance artists can focus and dedicate themselves to dance without the worry of stability after their dance career.
How do you envision Morphin’ Colours growing and evolving in the future?
Even though our work will be available online, we will always have an experience attached to an episode. We love the energy cultivated by people in the same space, it's just such a magical way to share and celebrate the work. Bigger budgets, bigger experiences, working with dancers worldwide, and our series Morphin’ Colours to be the start of a movement, (no pun intended).
How do you envision future collaborations with other artists?
Working with designers on bespoke pieces for the series, kind of how Jean Paul Gaultier was the costume designer for the film, Fifth Element. Or even a brand that aligns with our world would be amazing! Sharing the script with a music producer and building out the score with them, or finding existing music. Because dance and music are synonymous, we also imagine a world where music artists could feature in our stories as themselves, blurring the lines of reality and fiction.
Looking ahead, are there any specific artists or brands you’re eager to work with?
We are open to anyone that would like to collaborate if it's aligned, but off the top of our heads we think; RedBull — we know they support the dance community; the same with Nike; and even a brand like Deep Heat that focuses on recovery or injury prevention. H&M Move, Gap, Calvin Klein, Levis, Converse, Doc Martens. And food brands — athletes need sustenance!
Collaborating with artists, this is a big one! It would be a dream to collab with the likes of Pharrell, Tyler the Creator, Jay-Z and Beyonce, Kendrick Lamar, Doechii and Willow Smith. These are artists we are really inspired by. With music at the core of our creations, we’re attracted to how they each approach their artistry in story-telling.
Dance artists of all styles from all over the world, choreographers from all over the world. We really like Paris Cavanagh’s movement and musicality, but we aren’t limited to dance artists. We're inspired by movement in general and would like to work with athletes; Simone Biles, Noah Lyles, Julian Alfred, Sha’Carri Richardson, the list goes on.
Can you give us a teaser of what’s to come in the next episode of Morphin’ Colours?
We are super excited about the next one. Without giving away too much; it's about focus, drive, competition, pushing your body to its limits and the deep want and desire for something. It’s about the super power that unfolds when you use your mind to self regulate.
Are there any new creative directions you're excited to explore in upcoming projects?
We created JOMO.WRLD to facilitate our play. So absolutely, whatever comes to us. Comics, merch, live performances, immersive experiences, the list goes on.
