Elisabeth Mulenga is a choreographer and performer creating unflinching autobiographical work that examines themes around obsession, intimacy, and the sense of being haunted by lost individual and collective futures. Her German-Zambian heritage and second-generation immigrant experience underpins her research into hauntology. Drawing from a Pentecostal Christian upbringing, Mulenga's choreographic language is informed by the performance of rituals and the notion of constant observation by both physical and spiritual beings. Though no longer identifying with Christianity, religiosity has shaped Mulenga’s creative process, often working with intent repetition, gesture and in silence. Her work is rooted in a continuous awareness of the interplay between physical sensation and emotional reaction.

Mulenga’s recent work, Christ Alone, premiered at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in October 2024, before being programmed at The Royal Opera House as part of the Black History Month programme in October 2025, curated by Royal Ballet Principal Dancer Marcelino Sambe. Critic Lily Hyde described the piece as ‘the boldest piece I’ve had the pleasure of seeing in the Royal Opera House’ (Gramilano, 2025). Nilgün Yusuf described the piece as ‘a marked display of public ritual and buried truth’ (The Reviews Hub, 2024).

Elisabeth Mulenga is a Sadler’s Wells Young Associate Alumni. During this period, she was commissioned to create three stage works, Beloved (2022, Lilian Baylis Studio), Ida’s Solace (2023, Lilian Baylis Studio) and Christ Alone (2024 onwards, Sadler’s Wells Theatre). She also created a film in collaboration with director and photographer Camilla Greenwell, published on Sadler’s Wells Digital Stage.

Mulenga’s solo piece ‘Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani?’ won the Choreographic Innovation Award in the Grand Final of BBC Young Dancer 2022 at The Roundhouse - selected by an industry panel including Artistic Director Emma Gladstone. Her full-length solo, Dolores, premiered at The Mount Without in Bristol in 2024, and was restaged for Farce Gallery’s Holy Fools Exhibition in November 2025. She has also performed durational solo improvisations at venues such as Cafe Oto, Lilian Baylis Studio, Blue Elephant Theatre and The Good Rice Gallery.

In 2026, Mulenga will be the director of a short film adaptation of Christ Alone, produced by Sunken Lane Productions, with support from Sadler’s Wells and cinematography by Laura Aguilera. She is currently developing a solo performance, The Back Of Her Neck, with support from Sadler’s Wells and Cove Park. The Back Of Her Neck will premiere in February 2026 at The Place Theatre.

Mulenga was dramaturg and rehearsal director for Lewis Walker’s Bornsick, commissioned by the Serpentine Gallery. In 2023, she collaborated with Household Pictures, Mycoworks, and Yume Yume as a movement director and performer for the Descent Into Fungal exhibition at Buro Stedelijk in Amsterdam in 2023. Often working alongside musicians, Mulenga has also worked with musicians such as Damsel Elysium and Madison Willing on movement and performance coaching.

At present, Mulenga is researching the simultaneous potential for vulnerability and deception available in live performance, often distorting recognisable gestures of intimacy to create atmospheres that are both evocative and uncanny. She’s exploring how inauthenticity can be as resonant, valuable and revealing as vulnerability, working with cycles of alienation and reconciliation in her work that can sustain and make evident the agency of the performer within the vulnerable themes explored.

Performance work for other artists & companies includes:  Holly Blakey, Miles Greenberg, Marina Abramović Institute, Miley Cyrus x Lost City Immersive, Alison Goldfrapp, Bullyache & Charles Jeffrey Loverboy; Clod Ensemble, Pepa Ubera, Leo Kay, Magnus Westwell, The Mandrake Hotel, Ryan Heffington, Wolf Alice, Robyn, Yann Tiersen, Sampha, John Lewis, Coinbase, Dove, Coach, Harry Price, Later with Jools Holland, Antler Theatre, Boston Gallacher, Household Pictures, Adam Kammerling, Sofar Sounds, Dickson MBI, BBC Young Dancer, Dickson MBI, Curtly Thomas, Nelta Kasparian, Livia Rita, Catinca Malaimare, Lewis Walker, Ivan Michael Blackstock and Russell Maliphant.