She is a River

A world premiere, this live performance includes specially devised music, sound and movement by artist Nwando Ebizie.

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In this immersive and interactive show, you will be invited to inhabit the space of the historic Tilbury Cruise Terminal and experience past and future visions crafted by the artist through collective actions. In a dreamlike atmosphere, the story of the river goddess Thamesis will unfold, and you find yourself part of a ritual of collective emotions.

Full of surprises, you may hear  unusual public announcements through the station’s Tannoy system, encounter a strange indoor market, join a dance with some of the performers or simply just sit back, have a drink or some food and absorb the unfolding ritual. 

This performance will take place on Windrush Day and will include a commemorative moment at the very place passengers disembarked.

This new work has been produced by Nwando in collaboration with physical theatre performers from East 15 Acting School. The music for the work includes a new orchestral score recorded by musicians from Docklands Sinfonia working alongside Guildhall Young Artists. 

Nwando Ebizie is a British-Nigerian multidisciplinary artist, and is a constellation point for a spectrum of multidisciplinary works that call for RADICAL change.

She challenges her audience to question their perceived realities through art personas, experimental theatre, neuroscience, music and African diasporic ritualistic dance. Carving out her own particular strand of Afrofuturism, she combines research into the neuroscience of perception (inspired by her own neurodiversity) and an obsession with science fiction with a ritualistic live art practice. 

Nwando’s award-winning work has toured across the world. She has performed in Tokyo (Bonobo), Rio de Janeiro (Tempo Festival), Berlin (Chalet), Latvia (Baltais Fligelis Concert Hall) and Zurich (Blok) as well as across the UK from Home MCR to the Barbican and Southbank Centre.

'Ebizie’s The Garden of Circular Paths at the Hepworth Wakefield soothed me into a daze where I could have danced, jumped and swooped without even noticing.' The Guardian 

'The vocally explosive afrofuturist music of Nwando Ebizie celebrates differences of perception through rhythms of myth and magic.' THE WIRE

'Dreamy, hallucinogenic and magical yet feverish with protestation, Ebizie conjures up an equally bombastic and longing, quitter cosmology of her own making. Those waiting with bated breath for such a rich, stimulating tapestry won’t be disappointed. The Swan is a most deeply felt and multifaceted debut.' Monolith Cocktail (on Album The Swan)

'Just going once in a lifetime was a privilege' Metal (on Extreme Unction)