About the piece

Impasse is a compelling exploration of ethnicity, identity, and the experience of the Black diaspora.

Impasse is a powerful, driving, and charged duet that seeks to understand the politics of the black body in a contemporary western society. Through striking imagery, raw physicality and emotional intensity, the performance challenges the historical racial projections of blackness–its crudeness, threat, sexuality, rage and immorality–unveiling its power, grace, sensuality, tenderness, intelligence, and love.

About the company

Mufutau Yusuf is a Nigeria-born Irish performer, choreographer, and teacher, currently based between Ireland and Brussels. A graduate of Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance, Mufutau has collaborated with renowned companies and artists, including Wim Vandekeybus/Ultima Vez, Liz Roche Company, Irish Modern Dance Theatre, Emma Martin/United Fall, and Pan Pan Theatre, among others. In 2022, he debuted his first full-length work, Òwe, which premiered in New York before being showcased at the Dublin Fringe Festival and various other venues across Ireland and Europe. His latest creation, Impasse, premiered at the 2024 Dublin Dance Festival and is currently touring across Ireland, Europe and Nigeria, receiving widespread acclaim. Mufutau is a resident choreographer with Luail, Ireland’s national dance company, and holds associate artist positions with Solstice Arts Centre and Liz Roche Company. He has been awarded the Irish Arts Council Dance Bursary in 2020, and the Project Award in 2022 and 2023. Mufutau is passionate about improvisation and has shared his expertise at numerous festivals and institutions, including Tipperary International Dance Festival and the University of Limerick. He is also a co-curator of TW1 (Train With One), a bi-monthly workshop platform that connects the Irish contemporary dance scene with continental Europe.