HOLD/STILL
Ikùn | Mufutau Yusuf
Following the international success of the duet IMPASSE (Dublin Dance Festival, Sadler’s Wells, Lowry) and the outdoor solo Proses on neither here nor there (Aerowaves Spring Forward 2026), Mufutau Yusuf embarks on a new creation for 2027, developed under the new name of his company IKÙN.
HOLD/STILL is a solo performance exploring what happens when a body is prevented from completing its own ritual of transition. Drawing inspiration from the iconic play Death and the King’s Horseman by Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka, it examines interruption, agency, and the lasting impact of imperial power on the body and its rites.
“HOLD/STILL began from my growing frustration with how easily the world learns to live alongside violence. Not only spectacular violence, but the quieter forms: the slowing down of certain lives, the constant negotiation for dignity.”
In the play a ritual is cruelly forbidden by the colonial powers – creating a permanent societal wound. For the artist this rupture becomes a metaphor about what happens when continuity is repeatedly broken; when a body is denied the right to move freely, mourn fully, transform openly, or belong without condition. At the same time, it insists on the body as a site that continues to carry memory, refusal, and possibility. Even under pressure, even under interruption, the body holds forms of knowledge that power cannot fully erase.
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Mufutau is a Nigeria-born Irish choreographer, performer, teacher, and curator based between Ireland and Brussels. A graduate of Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance, Mufutau is a dancer with Wim Vandekeybus/Ultima Vez in Belgium and in Ireland with Liz Roche Company and John Scott’s Irish Modern Dance Theatre.
As a performer, he has worked with Emma Martin/United Fall, Catherine Young Dance, Pan Pan Theatre, Anton Lackhy, Ricardo Ambrozio, Ian Kaler, to name a few. Mufutau debuted his first full evening work in 2022, titled ‘Òwe’, which premiered in New York and subsequently at Dublin Fringe Festival and various other venues and festivals across Ireland and Europe.
His most recent work ‘Impasse’ premiered at the Dublin Dance Festival 2024. Mufutau is a resident choreographer with Luail, Ireland’s national dance company, an associate artist with Solstice Arts Centre and Liz Roche Company, and a recipient of the Irish Arts Council Dance Bursary award 2020 and Project Award 2022 and 2023. His passion for improvisation and sharing has bought him to share his teaching practice to various platforms, festivals, and institutions such as Tipperary international Dance Festival, University of Limerick, the American University in Washington, among others. Mufutau is also a co-cutor of ‘TW1’ (Train With One), a bi-monthly workshop platform which aims to bridge the gap between the Irish contemporary dance scene with that of continental Europe.
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Concept & performance: Mufutau Yusuf
Text: Dagogo Hart
Sound: Tom Lane
Design: Niall McKeever
Lighting: Matt Burke,
Costume design: Laura Fajardo Castro.
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For more information, check availability, please contact eckhard@eckhardthiemann.com.