To call Ana Pi's “The Divine Cypher” Afro-Futurism would be pretty reductive. It's much more than that, being past, present and future all entwined. The Brazil born dance artist, clad in a kind of hybrid outfit of space traveller and African water carrier takes as her inspiration for the piece  Maya Deren's iconic documentary and book, The Divine Horsemen, an anthropological study into Haitian voudou. She first appears, as seemingly a figure of rebirth, feeling her way around the space, using her hands, feet and finally eyes, before deploying many, many styles associated with Black culture. There's samba, hip hop, jazz, swingbeat, go-go, afrofuturism, and amapiano, complete with whistle. The control and mastery of her body's limitations is extraordinary—she can contort, bend right back. and move each part almost as though trying on each component part for the first time. Carrying a massive plastic water bottle on her head obviously affects and draws attention to posture, balance and gait, a skill she said she only learned while researching and developing the piece.

She somehow also finds her way into playful segments too, with a lip synch and meditation on the space race, playing with her remote controlled Rover moon buggy. These moments are fine, and she has more props than Felix the Cat and his magic bag, but they do rather detract from her vision of storytelling, using her wonderfully sleek, agile little frame as canvas. A scene in which she turns a sacred circle of sugar into a symbolic, unabashed playground of youthful resistance is joyful, infectious and empowering. She kicks up the sugar like sand, tastes it in her mouth, lies down and gets her toes stuck into it. She is a mesmerising dancer, and has the most hypnotic presence which draws you in: wherever she takes you, you willingly go.