Image: I am dancing alongside Harold Offeh, Samra Mayanja, and Ebun A Sodipo. Though we were all in separate studios or homes due to the pandemic, we wore yellow to represent joy and took turns dancing to the camera. Throughout the session, we shared our favorite tunes and experimented with movement scores, playfully exploring different ways to embody joy through dance.

Image: Harold Offeh, Joy Inside our Tears, 2021. Image courtesy the artist and the Wellcome Collection.

Joy inside our Tears

Participation in Harold Offeh’s video commission Wellcome Collection London, United Kingdom, 2021

—On Joy

Photos by Steven Pocock

Joy Inside Our Tears

Description: The dance floor offers a fleeting moment of euphoric release. Across history, dance has been a powerful means of expressing religious devotion or subverting social norms. Many communities use movement to process trauma and facilitate healing.

Originally commissioned before the pandemic, the work was reimagined in response to physical distancing measures. Dancers perform guided movements—from shaking to passing out to slow-motion dancing—based on instructional scores. The piece explores the complex interplay between collective trauma and public expressions of dance, highlighting both its redemptive power and its darker undercurrents.