Meet ADAD's 2007/08 Trailblazers
Sean Graham
Sean is a freelance fusion artist whose work often mixes dance and spoken word. His choreography has been performed at Stratford Circus, Sadler’s Wells, the ‘Move It!’ dance exhibition at the Olympia stadium and as part of the successfully toured play ‘Locked In’ by Fin Kennedy. He is currently working with the Royal Opera House and East London Dance on the ‘Demon Juice’ project. In 2008 Sean will be presenting commissioned work by The Big Mission Festival showcasing new black choreographers and at Resolution! 08.
Sean has worked with Adesola Akinleye, Jonzi D, ShortMan, Zena Edwards, Luca Silvestrini of Protein Dance, Bonnie Oddie, Angela Micheals and Robert Hylton. Since 2004 he has been touring nationally and internationally with the Irven Lewis Dance Company. Sean has also founded his own company, Sean Graham Dance Theatre (SGDT).
Sean will use his bursary to do further research and development for four pieces of work in progress. He is particularly interested in cross art-form collaborations and will be working closely with Spoken Word as a complement to his choreography. Through this process he aims to strengthen and solidify his individual artistic identity.
Victoria Igbokwe
Victoria is a dancer, choreographer, project manager and Nike Athlete. Her work in Contemporary and Street dance has been performed at Sadler’s Wells, Stratford Circus, The Royal Festival Hall and the Peacock Theatre; aired on Channel 4, BBC1 & 2 and Pop World. She has created work for Impact Dance, East London Dance, Nike UK/Europe, EMI Records and D-physics Choreographic Collective, of which she is a founding member.
She has worked with artists including Jeanefer Jean Charles (Big Dance 2006), Akosua Boakye, Hakeem Onibudo and Kate Mummery. Vicki is also Creative Projects Manager at East London Dance.
Victoria will use the fellowship to broaden and further develop her skills as a choreographer. She currently creates works drawing from Contemporary and Street Dance and wants to integrate elements of House Dance into her choreography. She will travel to New York to work with House Dance International.
Imani Jendai
Imani is the founder/Artistic Director of ‘Free Expression Dance UK’ (FED UK), a Black Dance organisation based in Manchester, UK. FED UK has a broad based emphasis on dance education and culture that has been operating for the past 12 years. Imani has made a professional career of teaching dance in both community and Primary educational settings, providing a service for young students, as well as mature and older people.
Over the years, Imani has trained and performed with leading teachers and practitioners throughout the UK, including African Cultural Exchange, Company Fierce, Jacky Guy and Francis Angol.
Imani will use the Trailblazers bursary towards research and development for a one-woman tap performance show called “Tap Lyrical”. The piece, which will explore her life as a Black British woman, will experiment with fusing tap with traditional and modern African and Caribbean movement vocabulary.
Donna Lettman
Donna’s career has spanned the disciplines of research and performance in dance. Her performance experience has focused on African and Caribbean raditional forms and her research has looked at traditional African dance from an anthropological perspective. Donna now holds an MA in Anthropology of Dance from Roehampton University. She is the founder and artistic director of Performance II Dance Theatre Company, which is based at The Hat Factory in Luton.
She has worked with dance companies in Britain, Africa and the USA including Irie! Dance Theatre, National Tumars of Kenya, Edna Manley School of Performing Arts (Jamaica) and Talawa Theatre.
Donna will use the bursary to do practice-based research on Orisa dance in Nigeria. This research will feed into the creation of a documentary video and photographic exhibition about this dance form. Her work will be done in collaboration with the Performing Arts departments at Obafemi Awolowo University and Ibadan University in Nigeria.
