Alexandrina Hemsley is a dance artist and writer making work that aims to reclaim her identity as a mixed-race woman and tries to engage with the various cultural frameworks that mark her body on her own terms.
Her practice is frequently interdisciplinary and collaborative, being one part of duo Project O with Jamila Johnson-Small as well as working with Helena Webb & Rosie Heafford on Dad Dancing. Alexandrina has also collaborated with artist Katarzyna Perlak on photograph series Bounty Bars & Oreo Cookies. Her writing practice finds its home on Feminist Shakedown.
In 2017, Hemsley contributed to Iniva’s Research Network event ‘Predictions, Projections and Speculations’ where she presented research and performance from her collaboration with Chimutengwende in their Black Holes project. In the event Chimutengwende and Hemsley navigate and destabilise Afrofuturist explorations of time in order to provoke critical questions around existence, identity and erasure.
Her work has been commissioned by and presented at Sadler’s Wells, Battersea Arts Centre, Southbank Centre, Cambridge Junction, MDI, South East Dance, Chisenhale Dance Space and The Yard Theatre amongst others. Her critical writing has been published by Sick of The Fringe, an introduction into Selina Thompson’s Salt (Faber & Faber), SPILL Festival and new publication exploring queering the future, Hereafter (Unbound). Other publishing includes The Silver Bandage (Bookworks) and LADA’s Live Art Almanac Vol. 5.
Alexandrina lives and works in the UK where she is an Associate Artist at Cambridge Junction.