In conversation with Sadler’s Wells Dance on Screen artists
The Lions Are Coming by Folu Odimayo, Image by Camilla Greenwell
Article | Taylor Anderson
Three short films by Folu Odimayo, Kieran Lai & Emma Farnell-Watson, and Mythili Prakash, launch on Sadler’s Wells Digital Stage platform taking on the task of reimagining classic works from Pina Bausch and Rabindranath Tagore for the screen.
The Lions are Coming, Aṁṁonia and Mollika, are the latest set of micro commissions available to watch for free on the platform. Last year, the artists were selected out of a talented pool of 189 applicants who responded to the Sadler’s Wells public call out for creators to produce “a unique short dance film engaging with the theme of The Classics ReFramed”, in collaboration with an in-house team of videographers.
Dance for screen is in its boom era. Prior to 2020, we largely consumed this cinematic art form through music videos, movies, recorded stage performances and TV competition formats. We did not know then that there would be a demand for dance to be digitally accessible and more widely shared than ever before.
Sadler’s Wells’ Digital Stage: Micro Commissions initiative provides an opportunity for aspiring performers, choreographers and art directors to take a leap into the digital space. But the prospect of embarking on the challenge can be daunting, so we caught up with the creators to deep dive into the creative processes behind their distinctive pieces. Let’s meet the artists…
Please can you introduce yourself.
Mythili: I am Mythili Prakash, a Bharatanatyam practitioner and choreographer.
Folu: I’m Folu Odimayo, I’m a director and choreographer. I was born in Nigeria to a mixed Nigerian and Trinidadian family and I grew up in South London.
Emma and Kieran: We’re Emma and Kieran and we’ve been working together choreographically for the last few years fusing together our styles.
Describe the vibe of your piece in three words.
Folu: Solidarity, community and empowerment.
Mythili: Reflection, memory, love.
Emma and Kieran: Provocative, human, disharmony, desire. There may have been a mix up, we said three, but four is good too!
Mollika by Mythili Prakash
What is the biggest influence on your work?
Folu: Two big influences on the work and the projects that I am currently developing are two pieces of writing. The first is a book called “The Faggots and their friends Between Revolutions” by Larry Mitchell, which is a “part- fable, part- manifesto”. It looks at the LGBTQIA+ community just after Stonewall, the challenges they face within society and the joys that are created and experienced within the community. The book has been a bit of a bible for me over the last year, and though it was released in 1977 it is still painfully relevant and important.
This quote was a big starting point for ‘The Lions are coming’ film: “NOTHING CAN DEFEAT THE SPIRIT OF THE EARTH: The fairies know that the earth will not tolerate the men much longer. The earth, scarred and gouged and stripped and bombed, will deny life to the men in order to stop the men. The fairies have left the men’s reality in order to destroy it by making a new one”.
The second is a text one written by a Queer Lebanese American writer Afeef Nessouli, which looks at the building of resistance in communities against the systems that try to pull them apart. “Resistance is born in Grief, Resistance is organised in tragedy, Resistance lives in bodies made of grit. Resistance is bigger than this moment and this day. But it’s what becomes of us in the hardest hour, Resistance is not one man, one group, one plan. It is the energy conjured by all of us irrespective of our backgrounds, our nations or our cause. The Binary of hyperconsumeristic colonialism verses the humanitarian majority has been carved out clearly. Resistance is how we experience trauma and tragedy and get up and demand freedom from tyranny more loudly than before.”
These two quotes were large inspirations behind the work as they are texts that really offer up hope and strength, particularly for marginalised communities and majorities in the world. And I think they help us to look forward to possibilities of a better future.
Aṁṁonia by Kieran Lai & Emma Farnell-Watson
Emma and Kieran: We’re fascinated by what makes us human, how we connect, and why we do what we do. We want to tell stories that move people, challenge them, and make them ask questions.
Our language is all about storytelling. We’re really curious about finding connection between styles that haven’t been fused before. We work mostly with contemporary, contact improvisation, krump, hip hop, threading and tracing.
Aṁṁonia is an exploration in the unseen, the wipe clean, the hidden from view. It examines the unspoken power structures and hierarchies that confine society within class boundaries. Taking inspiration from Pina Bausch's seminal work "Pina," the film follows two cleaners who begin to imagine and inhabit the lives of the guests through the possessions they find in a dishevelled hotel suite. The movement reveals how different objects shape ways of moving, characters, and power dynamics.
Mythili: Inspiration. It is always the experience of something that catalyzes a desire to create. In this case, it was the song. I heard my friend Sushma Soma sing this song, and while I've heard the song many times, something about Sushma's rendition made me think of my mom. As I closed my eyes and listened, I felt the pain, beauty, and fragility of time and aging, and seeing my mom move through life's ups and downs.
meet the artists
Kieran Lai & Emma Farnell-Watson by Emily Almodovar
Hi Emma and Kieran, what was the biggest challenge you faced when adapting your choreography for screen?
Emma and Kieran: We began with a lot of exploration in the studio and made a huge amount of material. The challenge was to refine the movement we had made in order to best tell the story. We had to strip a lot of things back, tweak and adjust moments, to allow us to dive deeper into each character and their journey through the film. We had to figure out which moments best drove the narrative forward, and would be most impactful for screen.
Folu Odimayo by Emily Almodovar
Hey there Folu, what is the most important lesson you learnt when creating your piece?
Folu: I think the most important lesson I learnt from this film is to take the time to research and flesh things out. Ask constant questions about what is going on and why. This process has taught me a lot about trying to build layers into my work and developing it from just images and style.
Mythili Prakash by Kamala Venkatesh (Retouched by Emily Almodovar)
Hey Mythili, what is one thing we might be surprised to know about your piece?
Mythili: My daughter, Rumi, still refuses to watch it. She's so critical of herself. We all are! But that is part of why I wanted to make the piece. Just like the jasmine flower blooms at night and wilts in the morning, we all go through phases where we feel in "bloom" or in "wilt" - both as dancers and as people. But - like the flower - our fragrance remains. More and more, I want to embrace the honesty in "imperfection" and how incredibly beautiful that is. It is so hard to look beyond the conditioning and expectations of society, and find acceptance and appreciation in what is. But as I age, I'm working on it myself and I want my mom and my daughter to be able to see and appreciate the beauty of their own truths.
Aṁṁonia by Kieran Lai & Emma Farnell-Watson
What is one piece of advice you would give to aspiring movement directors, choreographer and performers?
Emma and Kieran: CREATE! Don’t wait for that job or that opportunity. Make stuff happen for yourself. Bring together people that inspire you and learn how to capture your work. Delve into your voice, what you want to say as a creative, and how you want to say it. It’ll give you the confidence to execute your ideas, and allow you to dive deeper into your creative expression.
Mythili: I would say to dancers who are making films, trust the "stay" that dance has - and try to bring that to film. Switching between edits and shots can be quite enticing, especially in a world where we are scared to lose the viewers attention in seconds. But live work requires "stay" for both the performer and the viewer. And if we can combine that with the intimacy of the camera - then we are finding a purpose for the genre of dance film.
Folu: My advice for aspiring movement directors, choreographers and dancers is to keep doing, keep exploring and collaborating. Really hone in on your craft, play around with the possibilities within it, keep on learning and growing from it and from others and build your creative communities. Everything is a lot easier with it. Alongside this I would also say, challenge the art form as well as yourself.
Mollika by Mythili Prakash
What is next for you all?
Folu: I’m starting to look for funding opportunities to carry on planning a series of works that will be a mixture of film and live work. The series is based on a poem I wrote a few years ago, which is where the title ‘The Lions are coming’ came from. The series is looking at some of the questions and challenges we are facing in the world today: technology, the environment and the relational shifts between communities. Each work will be in a different format such as a sitcom, cartoon and live dance work. So I’m just trying to see how and where I can make this happen, whilst researching and developing the concepts.
Mythili: As always I am working on new performance pieces. One is an older work "Jwala" that I made 10 years ago and am re-staging this spring in Brighton and New York. And another is a new work called "Durga's Daughters" which will premiere in March 2026.
Emma and Kieran: We’re really invested in continuing to fuse our styles; to create a recognisable and unique movement language, that tells provocative and moving narratives. We then want to take street dance styles, hand in hand with contemporary dance, into elevated and new spaces. To work not only in the commercial and advertising world, but also in the movie and feature film space. Overall our focus is to make impactful collaborations, with meaningful messages.
Thanks, you lovely bunch!
The Lions Are Coming by Folu Odimayo, Image by Camilla Greenwell
If this initiative is something you would like to apply for, then you’re in luck. The next public call out has been launched and this year, the theme The Floor Is Yours takes inspiration from The Dance Floor – the public performance space at the exciting new venue Sadler’s Wells East in Stratford. The deadline is 10am on Tuesday 22nd April 2025. The selected participants will receive £6,000 to create the films which will be launched in early 2026 on the platform. For full details of the brief and instructions on how to apply, click here.
For descriptions of the three micro commissions launched, see below and make sure you give them a watch.
AMMONIA – Kieran Lai & Emma Farnell-Watson
Aṁṁonia draws inspiration from Pina Bausch’s work, exploring the hidden power dynamics within society. The film follows two cleaners who, through the possessions they find in a messy hotel suite, begin to imagine and embody the lives of the guests. Choreographed by Emma Farnell-Watson and Kieran Lai, the movement reflects how objects shape character, power and ways of moving. Directed by Joe Connor, it delves into class boundaries and the unseen structures that confine people, using dance to express what’s often hidden from view.
MOLLIKA – Mythili Prakash
Mollika reflects on the ephemeral nature of time through the dancing body and the power of intergenerational relationships. This poignant dance film is inspired by Rabindranath Tagore’s song Amar Mollikaa Bone about the fragrant jasmine flower that blooms at night and wilts by morning. Directed by Pratyusha Gupta and Mythili Prakash, the film features dancer and choreographer Mythili Prakash alongside her mother and dance teacher, Viji Prakash, and daughter, Rumi Prakash-Gollapudi, with music arranged and performed by Sushma Soma.
THE LIONS ARE COMING – Folu Odimayo
Set in a decaying nightclub, The Lions are Coming follows three individuals trapped in the aftermath of an invasion by a group of land-hungry dogs. Once a central place for their community, they find their home reduced to a wasteland and on the verge of redevelopment. Inspired by the ideas of rebirth in the classic dance piece The Rite of Spring, director Folu Odimayo uses the setting of a queer club to look at wider themes of gentrification and colonialism. The film explores the resilience of marginalized and oppressed communities in their fight for reclaiming their spaces and lands, and the power of dance as an engine for change, togetherness and joy.
