Ekleido: Femina

The Place, London
November 7, 2026

It brims to overflowing with energy and intensity. The dancing is outstanding from start to finish. There some innovative choreographic ideas. There’s a lot to like in the designs too. And yet, Femina, the first full-length work (meaning an hour) by Ekleido, aka the highly regarded duo of Hannah Ekholm and Faye Stoeser doesn’t quite deliver everything it sets out to.

The work is Ekholm and Stoeser’s first work for a larger ensemble and, at an hour, their longest to date. In terms of movement, it’s a fusion of contemporary dance, house, waacking, vogue and more. With its loud music complete with heavy repetitive beat, it yells club culture. If that’s all for you, you’ll probably love it.

The opening is striking. Lit by Joshie Harriette’s eight columns of moving spotlights and surrounded by shifting mist, the cast of six are in a line across the stage. Add in their baggy black jackets and skirts, and there’s a distinct suggestion of times past. It’s very cinematic. As they set to with some complex choreography largely for the arms and fingers, they sort of look like ancient warriors.

Harriette’s lighting is a choreography in itself. The way the six spotlights on each column move creates a continually changing picture. That he manages never to direct them in such a way that the audience is blinded is masterful. A flickering effect, not quite strobe-like but heading that way, is rather overdone, however.

When the cast join hands in a tight circle, one senses they are summoning something. As the incessant thumping soundtrack continues, the dancers respond, bodies pulsing relentlessly. There’s an air of rave, of trance about it. Driven on, it’s as if they’ve lost whatever individual agency they had. But music and dance do start to feel repetitive with an increasing sense of déja vu.

Hair seems to play an important role. More than once the cast toss their hair wildly, their tresses flying. Well, all apart from Jasper Narvaez, whose buzz cut puts him at something of a disadvantage.

After about twenty minutes, the mood changes as the soundtrack turns more sonorous. Two side-by-side duets are both very pleasing. Bodies fold and turn into one another very fluidly. Hair features again in one, as one performer puts another’s in a ponytail.

As the title suggests, Femina is a consideration of how femininity is perceived. How it is embodied and valued. Some of the imagery that follows is very stereotypical, which left me wondering whether they show how the choreographers see it, or how they believe other people see it, or what?

First there’s a womb metaphor. In the darkness, Stoeser lifts her black sequinned skirt to reveal, well, you can guess what, brought to life in red light by the hands and then heads of the others. When she ‘gives birth’, the figures that emerge appear monstrous. That’s linked to a picture of a many-armed Durga-like goddess; Durga being a mother-figure and the divine feminine energy in Hinduism.

Then comes choreography involving a lot of small sparkly handbags, which admittedly I couldn’t help but smile at, especially when they all finished up on one dancer’s left arm. There are silver, sparkly stilettos. Now, granted, those bags and shoes might be a very accurate picture of some women, but I struggle with them being representative of the wider spectrum of femininity. In fact, I couldn’t help wondering if all those glittering, girly, glam items came with a touch of sarcasm. It is unclear.

And therein lies the problem. Femina is brim with creative talent, it’s brim with dance talent. It is, at times, appealing, compelling, electrifying, mesmerising. All those words. And that’s all good. But it doesn’t quite do what it sets out to. It seems more about club culture than femininity; and it certainly doesn’t reference femininity through time as the publicity suggests.

The ensemble conclusion also says little. That it follows yet another Hofesh-Shechter-style rewind of moments from earlier in the piece, each separated by a momentary blackout, probably doesn’t help.

So, doubts here and there, yes. But Femina is a very polished show. It oozes confidence. The dancers are terrific. The designs are terrific. If you’re looking for a choreographic adrenaline shot, it will do the trick. It’s certainly another step, quite a big one, along in the development of Ekleido. Ekholm and Stoeser certainly remain ones to watch.