The movement director Coral Messam is describing her experience of a stroke. “It’s a horror movie. It’s a betrayal. From the time I was conceived, I was meant to move. This is far, far from who I was. It is soul destroying to the maximum.”
When it happened in 2023, the Wolverhampton-born choreographer had just created the explosive dance in Steve McQueen’s film Blitz, and was preparing Stranger Things: The First Shadow, the spectacular stage prequel to the Netflix hit.
These productions enhance a gleaming CV that ranges from Small Island at the National Theatre to movement and intimacy direction across both stage and screen. Michaela Coel adored Messam’s piece Run It Back for Talawa Theatre Company and brought her on board for the rivetingly embodied I May Destroy You. “I create work from the heart,” says Messam. “It’s my superpower. I seem to bring out the magic in a cast – I’m all about you being yourself, and just having a really good time.”
We’re sitting in a bar tucked behind the stalls at London’s Phoenix theatre, where Stranger Things opened in 2023. Messam only recently returned to the theatre, but says: “I feel like I’m home.” Protecting her affected left arm, she navigates twisty stairs and dark spaces without help, but warns me that there will be tears – the emotional volatility resulting from the stroke is only enhanced by revisiting the professional highs and the “cruel” reverses of the past months.
Blitz followed her collaboration with McQueen on the exuberant Lovers Rock in his Small Axe series. “I will do anything for him,” she says, “we have the same instincts.” For Blitz, set in London in the darkest days of the second world war, she choreographed sequences for the swanky Café de Paris and the underground club where Saoirse Ronan and CJ Beckford hurl themselves into ecstatic swing. “A lot of the bands in these clubs were African American and African Caribbean, the elite of the elite,” she says. “There was a conglomerate of races and cultures – same-sex and mixed-race couples, it was all happening.”
Her work for Stranger Things began with an enigmatic video call with “two charismatic gentleman” who turned out to be directors Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin. She was recommended by the National Theatre’s Rufus Norris, who said: “You’re looking for a fucking good movement director called Coral.”
Messam immersed herself in research, figuring out how to make this eerie world move, and landed on the lindy hop. The athletic mid-century dance craze born in African American culture ignites the play’s small-town setting. Messam told the cast: “You can’t look like you’re from this century. The key is in the music – it will give you a different rhythm. It’s 1959 – rock and roll is opening the cracks, the youth are being rebellious, Elvis is doing sexy things, whoa!”
Each teen character embraces lindy differently: “It’s freedom for them all.” Except for troubled Henry Creel who will grow into Vecna, antagonist of the TV show. “The dance freaks him out,” Messam explains. “Everything’s sweating, he doesn’t like the uncontrollability.”
Henry’s troubles go beyond reluctant booty-shaking. The show exposes the bodily flux of adolescence. “Initially, we don’t quite see Henry’s eyes. He’s closed off, a teenager going through multiple transitions.” Under stress, he morphs into a monster capable of terrifying violence. “I tried to think like a doctor,” Messam says. “I looked at anatomy and physiology, how the spine and pelvis change. How does bone shift? What does it do to muscle and organs?” On stage, Henry’s entire body appears to reset itself.
As the workshops progressed, Messam was getting headaches (“I thought: it’s the menopause”), but just before rehearsals began, in July 2023, she had a stroke, alone at home. She lists what she describes as a succession of traumas: the sudden stroke itself, eight weeks in hospital, a difficult spell in rehab, plus the end of a six-year relationship. “I couldn’t walk, I could hardly talk. From being on top of the world, loving life, being free in my body, it was a massive change. Literally like being in hell.”
Her left side was the most affected. Uncannily, Henry’s transformation also begins with his left hand, which had become a focus of her movement research. Messam looks down at the left arm she holds against her, the parallel unavoidable. “His body is no longer his. It has this other thing that controls him.” The tears fall.
Sitting with us is neurophysiotherapist Carly Christensen, who has worked with Messam since they met on a retreat in November. “A stroke has huge impact,” Christensen says, “but when I met Coral, I knew she was still in there.” The pair share a daunting work ethic: “Coral is disciplined, she’s an athlete. She knows what it takes.”
“On the retreat,” Christensen says, “Coral was like, I can’t go back to work until things are normal.” Shortly after which, “Coral taught the entire therapy team how to lindy hop in 10 minutes!”
Messam is edging back into work. She has met the current Stranger Things cast and talked about the dance. “That was quite a big thing for me – I didn’t want to be scared of it.” Her energy is returning and she is taking on a “very little project” with an associate. Despite all the loss and grief, she says, “I want to be stronger than I was before. I’m a lover of life, and I’m not done yet.”
