Taking part in 'Wrestleladwrestle' by Jenni Jackson

5/20/2025

Where do I even begin telling you about this?!

The story starts with one opened email and an invitation to participate in a workshop led by choreographer Jenni Jackson. I was longing for some physical activity, and not just any - for ages, those random yoga flow groups and fancy (and expensive) wellness gatherings hadn't been of any interest to me.

But that was about something else - Anglo-Bolivian artist & performance maker Jenni Jackson has been working in the field of contemporary dance for a long time. Before that she was a Judo champion and learned quite a lot about the enormous abilities of her body. I was intrigued and emailed Cambridge Junction, who were hosting the event.
Unfortunately, the places for the workshop were already filled up and I went back to my lazy hobby of watching tennis, which only exercises the six muscles of my eyes.

To tell you the truth, it was a tough winter. For the past couple of months I had a job that I liked and felt useful at last, helping artists with the logistic of their exhibitions and collecting data for a massive open call. Unfortunately the gallery had to close and I was once again, thrown in the unknown in the middle of winter, after spending most of my savings for my project in Japan and plane tickets to visit my mom in Bulgaria for Christmas. I booked the flights in late summer, not knowing that I will be out of job just after a couple of months.

Life happens and through all the obstacles I've always found myself in those positions, where if I don't jump high, I'll immediately start drowning. So when I saw another email about taking part not just in the workshops, but in the actual theater performance - I jumped at the opportunity. Otherwise, drowning in the sea of Indeed job offers was guaranteed. Not only did I not drown, but I gained a brand-new wrestling name - Fruit of The Doom! That's what turning tables truly is.

February fast approached, and the workshops began. I was thrilled to find out a wonderful performer I happened to meet at my old workplace was taking part as well. Jessica Morgado is a talented, classically trained dancer from Portugal, whose career has taken her to the UK. I was so happy to see her in motion, since we always discussed her dancing during our long and boring shifts. I remember telling her 'Girl, we need to do something together!!' and here it was at last - the thing turned out to be an inspiring performance.

During the first rehearsal I realized this will be a wonderful experience - I was part of a circle of women of different backgrounds, some experienced dancers and actors, and some were more like myself - just looking for a meaning and a purpose elsewhere, away from their office jobs and the gray 9-5 routine.

I can talk for days about all the beautiful emotions I felt, by being surrounded by those perfect strangers, towards whom I felt immediate sympathy and connection. The faces, the expressions, the beautiful ways we all started to own the space, dance, play-fight, converse, smile, sharing those silent moments of strength and weariness.

Special shoutout to Jenni's collaborator Bar Groisman, a great choreographer herself, for creating the coolest atmosphere during our rehearsals and making us all feel like Uma Thurman at least once a week.

The show received a 5 star review by The Stage and had an article dedicated to it at The Guardian - a testimony of Jenni's hard work with the Girl Gangs of Manchester and London, which performed before our Cambridge show. No pressure!

I found the show so engaging, because of the mixture of physicality and emotional story-telling that Jenni does, before and after demonstrating a series of Judo moves such as Hane Goshi - check this one out, it might save your life someday.

That's exactly how I felt about all these movements, the new awareness of your body strengths can truly save lives, or at least revitalize your being and make you feel like a bear coming out of torpor.

During the show, Jenni tells a few stories, inspired by her personal life, and one of them gave me chills every time. It was the most surprising thing that, during both shows, people were laughing at this bit. I often wonder, since I am coming from somewhere else, with a language so different from English, whether I am able to grasp the full meaning of things. To this day, I am still cautious of what I say and how I say it. The same goes to listening - I always wonder if I'll manage to extract the full meaning of what's said. But hey, not being a maximalist, truly helps.

Jenni tells the story about a trip with her mom. They saw a man who was carrying a bag full of mice. From time to time he was shaking the bag, which provoked someone on the bus asking why he was doing this. 'So they don't self-organise', he answers.

At the exact same moment when I felt chills on my spine, people were laughing. It felt almost upsetting - could they not hear what she just said?

To my ears, that was the saddest thing - how we humans always try to exercise forms of control over others, how deeply rooted in our nature is that 'shaking of the bag'. That instinct to overpower leads to the worst cases of violence, and empathy never comes as an impulse - it's the type of behavior that less and less comes natural to us.

Why do we lack empathy, why do we fail to react, when we see something that isn't right, how the body maintains and lose its energy in fights and conflicts with secondary matter - there is food for thought in abundance throughout the performance.