Alexandrina Hemsley
Alexandrina Yewande Hemsley is a dance artist and writer whose interdisciplinary practice deep dives into the sensorial and bodily—seeking breath and voice, amidst injustice and inequity.
In 2020, she founded Yewande 103, a dance company that connects dance with mental health by holding care-centred spaces for repair, joy and transformation. Y103 work is rooted in performance, poetry, film and racial justice and disability justice consultancy. We centre creativity as a tool for self-expression, with a focus on accessibility, care, and intergenerational exchange. Yewande means “mother has returned”—a name that roots the company in cyclical, nurturing, intergenerational and expressive approaches. Through immersive, embodied practice, we honour the body as a site of storytelling, resilience and transformation. Our stories live in our bodies.
Alexandrina/Yewande 103’s work has been commissioned by Sadler’s Wells, DaDaFest, Disability Arts Online, Somerset House, South East Dance, South East London Maternity and Neonatal System, TheaterForman, Dance City and more.
Alexandrina’s creative and critical writing has been widely published, including her essay, Feeling My Way Through Several Beginnings, is in Performance, Dance and Political Economy. Eds. Katerina Paramana and Anita Gonzalez (Bloomsbury Press).
