Ekleido is a choreographic duo formed by Hannah Ekholm and Faye Stoeser. Working across live performance and film, they create energetic and dynamic works that bring together dance, electronic music and visual art. Drawing influence from both contemporary dance and underground club culture, their collaborative practice explores movement as a form of communication, connection and expression.
This exhibition presents a living archive of Ekleido’s work, tracing the intersections between choreography, film, performance and visual art. Central to their practice is the idea of movement as a shared language, a way for bodies to ‘draw’ through space and communicate beyond words. Drawing from club culture, with music as their starting point, Stoeser and Ekholm combine contemporary dance and underground dance styles to carve out a collective movement language.
Alongside three performance films by Ekleido, the exhibition includes photographs from live performances, behind the scenes footage and objects from sets. Artworks created through workshops with local schools and community groups are also featured, extending the artists’ collaborative process beyond the studio and into the wider community.
Situated within Harbour House, a building shaped by creativity and movement, with studios hosting daily dance and movement sessions, the exhibition reflects on how movement can heal, connect and bring people together.
Visitors are invited to take part in a free movement based activity within the gallery space, responding physically to the shapes, gestures and imagery encountered throughout the exhibition.
About the exhibition:
The name ‘Ekleido’ was created by Hannah Ekholm and Faye Stoeser to describe their collaborative movement language and creative partnership. It combines references to ‘echo’, reflecting the way movement is repeated and shared between bodies, and ‘kaleidoscope’, suggesting shifting mirrored patterns, symmetry, and constant transformation. The name also draws from the Greek word eido, meaning ‘to perceive’ or ‘to discover’.
Together, these ideas reflect the duo’s interest in collaboration, connection and movement as a shared form of expression. Their practice is rooted in working closely with one another, with other artists and with the wider community, using dance as a way to communicate, respond and create collectively.
The exhibition is divided across three gallery spaces, each representing a different aspect of Ekleido’s performance practice. Together, the rooms explore the many forms movement can take, highlighting dance as a space for perception, collaboration, storytelling and connection.
Room 1: Rorschach
The first room in the gallery features images from Ekleido’s stage performance ‘Rorschach’. Inspired by Rorschach inkblot tests, the work sees a trio of dancers creating symmetrical shapes using their bodies as “ink” in motion. Originally developed as psychological tools exploring perception and interpretation, the inkblot forms are reimagined here through movement and choreography.
Through Ekleido’s distinctive movement language, combining contemporary dance with underground club and battle styles, the performance explores themes of perception, connection, and collective form. The score for the work was created in collaboration with British electronic musician Floating Points.
Alongside photographs from the performance are artworks created by pupils from Kingsbridge Community Primary School and Kingsbridge Community College. Developed during workshops led by Ekleido, these pieces explore playful mark-making, gesture and expressive movement.
Visitors are invited to take part in a free movement based activity within the gallery space, using the Polaroid camera to create images inspired by the shapes, gestures and imagery encountered throughout the exhibition. Photographs can be taken home or displayed within the gallery as part of the evolving exhibition.
Room 2:
Nepenthe
The second gallery space explores Ekleido’s recent film work ‘Nepenthe’. The film is presented alongside a miniature reconstruction of the domestic set featured within it, as well as behind the scenes images from the filming process.
The title ‘Nepenthe’ refers to the mythical Greek remedy believed to soften sorrow and ease painful memories. Told entirely through dance and movement, the film follows two women drifting through memories suspended in time, attempting to reshape emotional experiences from a place of empowerment and connection.
Drawing from Hannah and Faye’s own experiences, the work reflects on how they discovered a shared movement language and what dance has come to represent within their lives and creative partnership. Throughout the film, the dancers move between domestic interiors, dreamlike forests, and underground dance spaces, creating shifting landscapes of memory, freedom, and expression.
At its core, Nepenthe explores female friendship and chosen family, tracing how connection and community can help reshape the stories that define us. The work considers how movement can reclaim memory, becoming spaces for healing, belonging, and self-expression.
Room 3: Splice
The final gallery space presents ‘Splice’ in two formats: a live performance recording and an art film shown on rotation. Ekleido performed this work as part of Kingsbridge Fair Week 2026 Celebrations in the town square on the opening day of the exhibition.
‘Splice’ explores the balance between limitation and possibility through the relationship between two dancers solving a physical puzzle together. Rooted in collaboration, the choreography requires the performers to rely on one another, responding through trust, rhythm and shared movement. Influenced by club styles including New Way Voguing, a dance style that continually evolves by incorporating elements from other forms, the work reflects Ekleido’s interest in movement as an open and evolving language.
A key part of the creative process was improvisation, with the dancers experimenting with movement, setting tasks, and creating choreographic ‘rules’ that shaped the final performance. Combining contemporary dance with underground club styles, the work brings together different dance backgrounds, experiences and influences to generate new forms of movement and connection.
Music formed the starting point for the piece, featuring an original score by electronic musician Floating Points. The evolving electronic soundscape and intricate rhythms mirror the detail and intensity within the duo’s choreography, drawing further influence from club culture and collective dance spaces.
The film version of ‘Splice’, directed by Jordan Chandler, translates the live work into a cinematic form where choreography, lighting, colour and visual design remain in constant dialogue. As the dancers move through shifting physical and emotional states, movement becomes a way of navigating tension, trust, and transformation.
