Alexandrina Hemsley started Yewande 103 in 2020 to formalise and expand their values of care, support and connection. Yewande is Alexandrina’s middle name. It means, ‘mother has returned’. There is a tender determination and commitment to both uphold and further understand intergenerational, cyclical patterns of expression and repair.

Through the connective tissues of dance, writing, film, collage and poetry, Yewande 103 enables Alexandrina to resource, process, explore, share and advocate for multiple ways of embodied being. Hers is a lifelong work, forever shaped by profound processing and the seeking out of reparative, embodied alternatives after/alongside violences of racism, misogyny, inadequate care and institutional failings of arts and healthcare sectors.

Yewande 103 is co-held with Nancy May Roberts (Metal & Water).

About the Commission

For this commission, Yewande 103 will develop, rehearse and preview a powerful new performance installation, Many Lifetimes. This live work builds on Director Alexandrina Hemsley’s body of work exploring dynamic cycles of repair through watery symbolism (Maelstrom 2021, Fountain 22).

In the run-up to the Y103 rehearsal and production period, we will work with Dance City students on the Many Lifetimes movement score. Students will develop constellations of solos that navigate sites of change, encompassing choreography, improvisation, score building, & creative writing.