From stage to poem: FEDORA and Versopolis launch their first transmobility exchange

‘FEDORA – VAN CLEEF & ARPELS Dance Prize 2025 Winner’

A performance ends, but its echoes continue – in memory, in language and in the conversations it inspires. The first transmobility exchange between FEDORA and Versopolis brings together poet Ruth Lasters and Northern Ballet dancer Gemma Coutts for an encounter between contemporary poetry and dance, exploring artistic expression, vulnerability and the well-being of those who create.

On 19 May 2026, Ruth attended the London premiere of Northern Ballet’s Gentleman Jack at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, within the FEDORA Prizes Biennale programme. Choreographed by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, the ballet brings the life of Anne Lister to the stage: a nineteenth-century diarist and landowner whose determination to live and love on her own terms continues to resonate today. Through movement, music and storytelling, the production explores desire, identity and the courage to challenge social expectations. Discover the production.

Following the performance, Ruth wrote ‘Hat’, an original poem conceived as an ode to Anne Lister. The poem transforms the experience of watching ballet into a language of its own, where bodily sensation meets defiance, tenderness and wit. A top hat pulled down over the heart becomes a sieve and, finally, a fragile covering of glass. Through these shifting images, Ruth reflects on the freedom to love and the vulnerability that accompanies it: ‘to love is to hand in all self-deceit.’

The exchange continues in a Versopolis podcast conversation between Ruth and Gemma Coutts, who performs the role of Anne Lister. Together, they revisit Gentleman Jack and ‘Hat’ from their distinct perspectives, exploring how a story moves between artistic forms and how witnessing another artist’s work can open new creative possibilities. Their conversation considers the contemporary relevance of Anne Lister’s story, the relationship between language and movement, and the emotional demands of making intimate experiences public.

Mental health and artistic well-being are central to this dialogue. Moving between the solitude of writing and the collective rhythms of ballet, Ruth and Gemma discuss creative processes, vulnerability, precarious careers and the support artists need to sustain their work. Their exchange opens a wider conversation about how European cultural platforms can make room for care, reflection and meaningful encounters across disciplines.

This first mobility marks the beginning of a collaboration inviting poets from the Versopolis network to experience FEDORA Prize-winning opera and dance productions, respond through original poetry, and enter into conversation with their creators. Connecting live performance, poetic reflection and podcasts, the initiative offers audiences new ways to encounter both the work and the human experiences behind it.

Listen to Ruth Lasters’s ‘Hat’ and to her conversation with Gemma Coutts – a meeting of poetry and dance that continues beyond the curtain call.