Commissioned by London Contemporary Dance School and made in collaboration with LCDS third year students Joao Costa, Margherita Giuliodori, Bethanie Hayes, Tasha Hess-Neustadt, Eevi Kinnunen, Andrei Nistor, Maya Riuz, Yasmin Roberts, Piers Sanders, Daisy Mae Smith.

Alaladalaba Row is a doodled dance riddle and a danced tongue twister in song-form. We understand Alaladalaba Row as a state of mind for rigorously imagining alternative realities while simultaneously practising precise parts from the pitiless play-plot Paprika Hell, full of poisoned peppers, plunder, panic, pigs, plagues, pests, petrification, and pure pain.

The piece was never performed in the theatre due to the coronavirus pandemic. Below is some of the text we were working with.

Paprika Hell, characters:

Jemima = a village girl

Delilah: Jemima’s mother

Jamilcar = Jemima’s sister

Clancy = Cow Nr 1

Ron = the evil spice man

Jalina = Jemima’s sister

Jemima, an orphan girl

John, an underdog boy

Jemma Jemima, the love interest

Delilah and Delilah, John’s parents

Janice = Cow Nr 2

Fancy = Kind woman at the market

Ron = the little riddler

Janice = Jemima’s sisters

John = Cow Nr 3

John = Jemima’s love interest

Ron = the little riddler

Ron = John’s dog

Johnron: Ron’s cat

Ron= the carpenter

Ronny = a fairy

RonJohn = the priest

Amima: the priest’s cat

Paprika Hell, dialogue:

Jemima: John, I’m afraid.

John: Jemima, don’t worry. We can do this together.

Jemima: John, oh John, do you see them? They are coming this way.

John: Jemima, quick! We need to get Ron!

Jemima: John, oh, John, the villagers are coming!

Cow Nr 1 comes running in.

Song:

There is a dark cow 

in the cavernous depths of your heart

There is a dark cow

Hiding in the darkness

Riddle:

Ron wrote a little riddle, a riddle that riddled wrong. Long did little Ron long to solve the riddle that was wrong. But the riddle was so strong and the riddling took so long. Little riddler Ron riddled wrongly on and on. This is the little riddler’s Alaladalaba song.