We're Here Because They Were by Fabíola Santana

We’re Here Because They Were

by Fabíola Santana

Presented by Word of Warning at Company Chameleon

A movement ritual of care and resilience — to nurture our connections to the elders and ancestors.

How has colonialism impacted the care we have received from our elders?
How did we experience their resilience?
What nurturing strategies can we share with each other to help us thrive, in a mainstream society that seeks to racialise and dehumanise us?
Can we create rituals and spaces to care for ourselves?

Women from the Global Ethnic Majority — whose families have been impacted by colonisation — share their own histories of care, resilience, legacy, and how these stories live in their bodies. Going beyond everyday storytelling, they transform those energies into a live experience.

This performance draws upon a phase of R&D that focused on weaving personal storytelling, movement, dramaturgy, and community.

(Last updated 22 April 2025)

Entry

Pay What You Decide: £15/£10/£5/£0 (advance booking recommended).

Tickets: book now on Eventbrite.

Time: Thursday 29 May 2025, 7.30pm (doors open 7pm; performance ends about 8.30pm; after an interval there will be an optional postshow Q&A).

Location: Company Chameleon, 6 Barrass St, Openshaw, Manchester M11 1PU.

Travel: Gorton station is a 3-minute walk and we suggest arriving on the 18:57 northern train from Piccadilly; alternatively you could take the 219 bus.

Access

Age Advisory: 14+ (parent/guardian/carer discretion).

Content Warnings: please click here.

Features: a contemporary dance performance work with varied content including spoken English and Portuguese language; occurs in Studio 1 on the ground floor, a studio space with raked seating.

Queries: please contact Word of Warning via info@habmcr.com

Artists

Fabíola is an interdisciplinary Afro-Portuguese Liverpool-based artist. With a PhD scholarship in performance and decolonising studies (Liverpool Hope University) she is currently researching performance-making as a space where people from the Global Ethnic Majority can gather to centre their stories, be witnessed, and be nurtured — collectively creating a space for the ancestors to reverberate through us — pointing us toward the elders we want to become.
She is the maker of A Home for Grief supported by Lancaster Arts, Unity Theatre (Liverpool), Contact (Manchester), Tramway (Glasgow), and using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

Jessica Morgado is an emerging Cambridge-based dance artist. As a dancer and international collaborator her works include: WRESTLELADSWRESTLE by Jennifer Jackson Company (Cambridge); Turn 2024 with Fabíola Santana (Manchester); Company MARRAFA (Brussels); HOME by Luís Marrafa (Dilbeek, Belgium); Rebuild by Iolanda Rodrigues and Marina Sacramento (Portugal); Oi-to by Lia Vohlgemuth and Nuno Santos (Portugal).

WilL Dickie is an interdisciplinary artist whose works have received nationwide support and toured to over forty UK venues including: Southbank Centre, The Place (London), and In Between Time (Bristol). His recent show White Sun had its international premiere in Boorloo—Perth (Australia) as part of The Blue Room Theatre’s Summer Nights during Fringe World Festival 2025. White Sun was first developed in Works Ahead 2020-2022, commissioned by hÅb and Contact. His collaborative credits include choreography for Hanna Tuulikki; movement director at Regents Park Open Air Theatre; director of A Home for Grief by Fabíola Santana.

Credits

Created & performed by Fabíola Santana
Devised & performed by Jessica Morgado
Directed by WilL Dickie
Dramaturgy by Kaite O’Reilly
Choreographed by WilL Dickie in collaboration with Fabíola Santana & Jessica Morgado
Sound design by WilL Dickie
Lighting design by Andrew Crofts
Costume design by Miss Lei-Lei
Creative therapy support & collaboration by Claire Beerjeraz

Recipient of the Turn Prize 2024 supported by Dance Consortia North West using public funding by Arts Council England, and by Company Chameleon, hÅb, and Project Auske. Made possible by an Artist Residency with Metal Liverpool. In partnership with Unity Theatre Liverpool, Tyn-y-Parc Studio (Wales), and Liverpool Hope University. With thanks to Emmy Lahouel. Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

Image: Turn 2024 at Company Chameleon by Tamsin Drury

Websites

fabiolasantana.co.uk · willdickie.co.uk
Insta @fbs.santana · @jessicamorgado_ · @will_dickie_ · @kaiteoreillyo