Turn 2025
Programme
→ artists · notes · entry · access · about · credits Updated 31 March 2025
Turn 2025 on 4 April presented by Word of Warning + Contact
Artists
Dais Leach · Emmy Lahouel (Meraki Collective) · JP Hon · KUDERA + MPEARSONATER · Maelstrom Theatre · Néa Synergy · Rachel Yan Ting Li · UMAMI‑i!‑MOVEMENT Participating artists subject to change.
Notes
This night of new North West dance presents eight short works in three spaces at Manchester’s Contact, starting at 7pm in space 1…
Dais Leach · Echoes of the Isle
This contemporary dance piece reimagines Caliban from The Tempest, transforming Shakespeare’s traditionally ridiculed character into a symbol of human vulnerability.
Interplaying spoken word, animalistic movement, and humanised gesture, the choreography explores Caliban’s longing for comfort, belonging, and a place to call home. Structured around rhythms inspired by Shakespearean iambic pentameter, the piece highlights both poetic order and life’s inherent unpredictability. Caliban’s journey reflects the unpredictability of modern existence, where stability can vanish in an instant, and highlights the human instinct to seek both inner and outer peace.
Dais is a Manchester-based dancer and freelance choreographer. They has performed, choreographed, and taught with various dance companies, groups, and community projects across Greater Manchester. Their personal choreographic practice involves blending traditional Shakespearean texts with contemporary dance — seeking to make Shakespeare more accessible, engaging, and inclusive for today’s audience.
Insta @daisleach_dance
Emmy Lahouel (Meraki Collective) · On Land & Lines & Other Space
A new dance theatre work-in-progress exploring myth, memory, and belief.
Blending movement, live music, layered soundscapes, and video projection, it examines the stories we inherit — about gods, history, and ourselves — inviting us to reflect on what we choose to believe and why. Rooted in folklore, lived experience, and cultural inquiry, this work doesn’t offer answers but instead creates a moment for reflection, questioning, and navigating the unknown.
How does it all end, or is it start?
Content Warning: please click here.
Created & performed by Emmy Lahouel · Musical creation & performed by Alan Keary
Emmy (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist and organiser working nationally and internationally across cultural organisations, venues, and unusual spaces. Originally training in physical & dance theatre she has since gone on to work as director, producer, performer, and facilitator for various artists and organisations including: Contact, Selina Thompson, Eclipse Theatre, Ergon Theatre, Z-arts, MIF, Ludus Dance, HOME, Company Chameleon.
emmylahouel.com · Insta @emmylahouel @merakicollectivept · X @EmmyLahouel
JP Hon · How Are You?
This piece explores JP’s emotional journey, navigating the cultural differences and her personal struggles after moving from Hong Kong to the UK.
The choreographer and performer questions the complexity of adaptation and the gap between how we feel and what we actually express, revealing our fragilities and vulnerabilities.
Content Warning: please click here.
Sound designer & performer: Lalsangliana Zadeng · Includes quotes from Home by David A Thornton
JP was born & raised in Hong Kong and graduated from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in 2021, majoring in contemporary dance. In 2022 she moved to the UK to continue her journey as an international dance artist. Currently Manchester-based, she is working as an apprentice company dancer with Company Chameleon. JP trains in various dance styles and movement practices, including contemporary dance, ballet, popping, acrobatics, hip-hop, jazz, and yoga. She is passionate about blending these styles, exploring interdisciplinary possibilities, and maximizing versatility in her work.
Insta @jp.hon @sangliana_zadeng
KUDERA + MPEARSONATER · What Have We Become?
KUDERA + MPEARSONATER is an ongoing collaboration between garment designer and textile artist Alena Kudera + dancer and performance maker Mary Pearson, in search of an embodied and felt response to environmental crisis.
Content Warning: please click here.
KUDERA’s collection of garments and accessories are made from single use plastics, fast fashion, and other materials destined for the landfill · Solo danced by Mary Pearson · Immersive digital habitat co-created by electro-acoustic composer Caterina McEvoy, and multimedia artist and production designer Noel Jones · Made in collaboration with dance makers Amy Voris and Laura Doehler · Part of a larger work-in-progress supported using public funding by Arts Council England, Developing Your Creative Practice.
Insta @kudera.a @mpearsonater
Maelstrom Theatre · Unapologetic (work-in-progress)
A darkly comedic dance-theatre work exploring the shifting visibility of women in the dance industry.
Through a fusion of contemporary, commercial, and mixed media movement with character-driven text, the piece follows performers at different career stages — emerging dancers in their 20s, established artists in their 30s, seasoned professionals in their 40s & 50s — grappling with the pressures of recognition, opportunity, and longevity in an industry that often renders them invisible.
Content Warning: please click here.
Performers: Bee Minett, Kyrah Decoteau, Lindsey Brocklebank, Rowena Gander, Sammy Allen, Sarah Jane Lockwood · Collaborators: Cara Marsh, Jasmin Saulo
Maelstrom is founded and led by Lindsey Brocklebank — an artist, academic, and researcher; the current performers and collaborators are artists, choreographers, performers, actors, and educators who work with Lindsey at Shockout or are based in institutions across the North West.
This group of females are unapologetic.
Insta @maelstromtheatre @bee_minett @kyrahdecoteau @lindseybrockleb @rowenagander @samanthamarieallen @sarahjane_dance
Néa Synergy · Io Sono Quien Soy
A powerful and emotional dance piece that explores the experience of having a mixed-heritage background, touching on themes of self-doubt, identity, and human
connection.
As two dancers, we navigate the tension of always feeling different — questioning who we are, where we belong, and why others care so much about defining us. Fear gives way to understanding, hesitation to support, and solitude to connection. Through movement, our journey begins in solitude, crawling through identities before encountering one another. The performance transitions from isolation to a celebration of culture and the embrace of our individual differences. The music shifts from poetic narration to Afro-inspired rhythms, mirroring our emotional transformation. This piece is a reminder that our differences are not barriers but the essence of what makes us whole.
Content Warning: please click here.
Néa Synergy is Manchester-based duo Nessa Ndong (she/her) and Beatrice Montefusco (she/her). Through dynamic movement, they explore themes of cultural heritage, belonging, and self-expression.
Beatrice is a Manchester-based Italian-Portuguese dance artist. She is a performer, choreographer, and movement facilitator passionate about sharing movement and creating meaningful connections. Her current practice explores cultural heritage through dance, integrating her background in ballet with African dance and capoeira.
Nessa is a dynamic dancer blending Afro dance, hip-hop, and contemporary styles. Originally from Equatorial Guinea and now Manchester-based, she delivers high-energy performances on international stages, celebrating culture and identity through movement.
Insta @neasynergy @bea_montefusco @nbnessa
Rachel Yan Ting Li · 灰.Ash
Drawing Lines, Creating Sides…
A reflection of the world we are living in today, drawing from personal experiences — especially living in a world where there is a mixture of cultures, backgrounds, beliefs and opinions.
How do we achieve common ground in the ‘Us and Them’ world?
Choreographer: Rachel Yan Ting Li · Performers: Rachel Yan Ting Li, Hannike Martens
Born & raised in Hong Kong, Rachel is a freelance dance artist, choreographer, and educator. Through her choreographic works, she translates her understanding of the world into dynamic and captivating movement. She trained at Rambert School of Ballet & Contemporary Dance and toured nationally with Emergence Dance Company. As a versatile artist, her career highlights include Let’s All Dance Ballet Company touring The Nutcracker and touring an original contemporary opera with Company Carpi: Disunited Jukebox.
Insta @rachelyantingli.dance @hannike_martens
UMAMI‑i!‑MOVEMENT · Lean In
Lean In: commit completely or more fully to something, especially when faced with difficulty or resistance.
Lean In: how close we really are when in relation to another. We explore what intimacy looks like when co-located with platonic care, disentangled from the explicitly sexual.
Lean In: exists as a counterpoint to aesthetic as outcome.
UMAMI-i!-MOVEMENT seeks to push back against the labelling of life’s minutiae, platforming intimacy as social reform.
Content Warning: please click here.
Supported by Company Chameleon.
UMAMI‑i!‑MOVEMENT is Maisha Kungu and Lily Antonia — a fledgling Manchester-based contemporary performance company who aim to delight, inspire, entertain, and leave a lasting impact.
Maisha works with structured improvisation as a means to unlock identity and freedom of expression, generating authentic groove within body and soul.
Lily’s work centres around human relationships, investigating movement as keys to connection and exploring the interplay of nature vs nurture through somatic practice and improvisation.
Insta @umami_movement @lily.antonia @maisha.kungu.dance
Image: UMAMI-i!-MOVEMENT by Joel Chester Fildes
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