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The Unique Emma Skyum and Her Mindblowing Performance Piece at LFW24
Situated in Earl’s Court London, St Cuthbert’s Church was at the forefront of fashion affairs. This is where The Creatives hosted their runway showcase in February 2024. Presenting up-and-coming designers, models, stylists, and more, the vast team curated a stunning fashion event to aid London Fashion Week. A glamorous taste of Autumn-Winter 2024 (“AW24”) collections occurred with the company of a performance piece by ten skilled dancers. Emma Skyum was the master behind the piece and the creator of said choreography. She unleashed her mind onto the runway and expressed concepts through trained performers.
Dysmorphia by Emily Skyum
Emily Skyum herself, in an interview with SSEDITORIAL, explained what Dysmorphia Reimagination is.
“DYSMORPHIA [Reimagination] is a 10-minute immersive choreographic performance evolved from Emma Skyum’s original work DYSMORPHIA from 2022. The performance speaks to the sentimentality of the past and the future of self-development; the work opens a space where the audience admires the abstract of reflective and introspective thoughts about the passing of time. The work is a multifaceted hiatus that questions ideas of human body image and physical appearance. In addition, it attempts to balance the nuances between seriousness and irony. A movement vocabulary consisting of minimal yet strong gestures seems confrontational yet subtle, sophisticated and suggestive. The work combines fashion and movement while committing to a personal anecdote between the lines.”
My Experience of Dysmorphia Reimagination
I was presented with the opportunity to view this performance once backstage and a second time on the catwalk. The intricacy and interesting thought behind this performance blew my mind; I loved the show! Dance is an art form; this performance expressed it perfectly, converting emotion into movement. Entertaining, artistic, and avant-garde would be the most relevant ways to describe the performance, expressing deep emotion and story. Runway events usually provide a performance aspect when presenting garments, using models, music, alternative walks and executing stunts. It’s a revitalising application to a show when you can include versatile art forms.
A Meeting with Emma Skyum
Behind the curtain, I got an insight into Emma Skyum and her work as she kindly answered some of my questions.
Emma has always considered herself a thinker in all its aspects. Channelling this into dance and choreography has been more recent. She has always danced and created, too. “There are moments in my lifetime, so far, which channelled my career as a dance artist and choreographer in a specific way, turning points, I call them”, she said.
While living in Israel, Emma Skyum found moments of self-reflection and self-discovery. She found the freedom to delve into moments of spirituality, of what is raw, pure and stripped. This freedom taught her how to allow a stream of creativity to emerge from the self and its encounters. Since then, she has been creating work by drawing upon those findings and the methods she developed to preserve them. Her work, Dysmorphia, was a product of those methods that have carried her career so far.
Dysmorphia 2022
In the original work from 2022, she only featured seven dancers. However, with the reimagination, she allowed herself to step back and feel the immersive choreography come to life through new and brilliant talents. The cast of the reimagination comes fresh from the Runway Showcase, and in just two days, the cast managed to learn and perform the work, with its intricacies, in a real and authentic performance.
The choreographer describes bringing Dysmorphia back to life as a full-circle moment. In fact, when she created the work in 2022, she vaguely daydreamed about putting the performance in a fashion setting. So, receiving a commission from The Creatives Runway Showcase felt like an absolute dream come true. It is fair to say that Dysmorphia had had its time, a true full-circle moment.
Emma Skyum Talks About the Music
The music for the reimagination is an extended version of the original sound score from 2022. She believes minimalism and heavy bass “[allow] the movement language to grasp and stimulate the audience visually rather than through audio”. The stripped-back sound score encourages the audience, without distraction, to question the suggestive gestures and the meaning behind them. Emma said the music “creates an atmosphere where silence is a product of tension, and tension is a product of silence”. It challenges the audience’s alertness and attentiveness to details. The music encourages the atmosphere necessary to create a forum where fashion work can exist.
How Did Dysmorphia Happen?
The Creatives commissioned Emma to contribute to their runway showcase. This happened after having shared contacts during the previous season’s runway showcase. In her interview, she expressed her deep respect towards The Creatives as they allow emerging artists to express themselves on their platform. She also hopes that The Creatives might be an inspiration for other fashion shows in the future.
Emma also expressed her certainty about Dysmorphia. “When the team reached out to me, I had no doubt that it was the work to showcase. Although it had been a while since its creation, I enjoyed reimagining it anew, reflecting current times.” She even felt that with the passing of time, the work became less fragile and gained a stronger presence.
How Does It Feel?
Emma talked at length about how it felt for her to create and stage such a performance twice. “Surreal must be the word to describe my feelings then and now.” She mentioned that the work reads from a personal place, and in between the lines, she saw real and authentic movements in my body. She also explained her decision to step back from the cast this time: “Stepping back from being in the cast this time brought me personal closure, where the work was no longer a reflection of the personal but became a piece of art with its new and stronger presence”.
Ultimately, she felt proud as the creator, but she also loved seeing new and brilliant talent take on the older version and make it brighter with their skill and talent and through their trust in her as a choreographer.
Will Emma Skyum Return to the Fashion Scene?
Emma definitely would love to work again at London Fashion Week and hopes to obtain another opportunity. However, she understands it was an incredibly rare and stand-alone opportunity, and she feels extremely grateful for the reception from the audience and the team. She looks forward to when another similar opportunity arises in the future, and in the meantime, she will continue her work in dance and choreography through other platforms.
