Regional Events

Our regional events are held in collaboration with other key organisations working in the sector to encourage networking and identify issues pertinent to the sector in different parts of the country.

Past Regional Events

Manchester Forum

On the 8th of October 2005 we travelled up to Manchester to support and collaborate with Dance Initiative Greater Manchester (DiGM) who hosted an exciting Afro Vibes showcase which consisted of a practitioner’s forum in the afternoon and a sharing of work in the evening. ‘Funmi Adewole, the ADAD Chairperson, spoke to the artists about career progression and professional development issues that were challenging the artists in the North West region. The day was very informative and ended with enjoyable performances from African Spirit, Movement Angol, Afrocats, Free Expression, Hohodza Band and Santa Yalla.

Bristol Forum

The last weekend of October 2005 saw us in Bristol hosting our last Regional forum for the year. I had the opportunity to meet some highly motivated artists working in the South West region. The artists were still winding down from the exciting time they had at the Tribe of Doris Festival, which came highly recommended. The forum looked at the challenges of working in isolation and practical solutions or options to help develop their careers given the need for more artistic mentors and dance manager support in the South West region. Some of the artists, such as Sam Mbogo, Rachel de Garang, Katie Burrell, Claudia da Silva, and Tolo Ko Tolo dance company developed some proactive solutions such as agreeing to link their websites, and grouping together to hire rehearsal venues as a collective group of artists and develop a strong communication network so as to facilitate the finding out of opportunities and events and musicians in Bristol. The artists received some valuable information on marketing, fundraising and support agencies in the region.

If there are any artists in the South West region that were not able to attend and would like to receive the notes please feel free to contact Pamela Zigomo at ADAD who will distribute them to you.

The weekend in Bristol ended with an enjoyable evening at State of Emergency and Dance Bristol’s ‘Trans …quot; Mission’ platform which was held that evening. The platform showed some exciting work from Bristol based Tolo Ko Tolo, a Traditional African dance company and a group of young people put together by Dance Bristol who worked with touring dancers Stewart Thomas, Garry Tomlinson , Karensa Louis, Louise Katarega and Joanna Moven. The dancers gave moving performances to pieces choreographed by Maria Ryan, Bawren Tavaziva and Donald Edwards.

International Choreographic Laboratory at Woking Dance Festival

Sunday 25 March 2007 - Choreographic Development and Artists Exchange day
Venue: Rhoda McGaw Theatre
Time: approx 10am - 5pm
Cost: £10 (Lunch Included) for participants - £5 (Lunch Included) for observers

Woking Dance Festival in association with the Association of Dance of the African Diaspora (ADAD) and Movement Angol Dance Company present a day of cross cultural exchanges looking at approaches to choreographic development.

Dance artists Andreya Ouamba & Fattou Cisse (Senegal), Imed Jemaa (Tunisia), Kebaya Moturi (Kenya) and Francis Angol (UK) will host a practical workshop day to explore creation of new work that is developed within a non western framework. This will be an opportunity to network, explore, question and widen ones knowledge and understanding of new and different ways of presenting dance as a language of expression within a contemporary theatrical presentation.

Artist Biographies

Andréya Ouamba - Born in Pointe- Noire in Congo Brazzaville, Andréya Ouamba began his artistic career in 1993 when meeting Chrysogone Diangouaya (Artistic Director of the ballet theatre, Monana, and founder of the Mabina-Danse Festival in Brazzaville). He joined her ballet company and became Assistant Choreographer. In 1995, after touring in the Democratic Republic of Congo (ex-Zaïre), Andréya Ouamba directed his first choreographic performance L’Haleine which won 1st Prize at the Mabina-Danse Festival. In 1999, he was invited to the Ecole des Sables in Toubab Dialaw (Senegal) under Germaine Acogny’s direction. As a performer, Andréya has worked with Carlos Orta (USA), Flora Théfaine (Togo) and Avi Kaiser (Israel). Living in Dakar since 2000, he has collaborated with Marianne Niox on the performance titled, Le Cimetière des masques and has also worked with Michelle Rioux (Canada) and Pier Ndoumbé (Cameroon). That same year, he created the Compagnie 1er Temps dance company and directed his own history in Pluriel. In 2002, the Compagnie 1er Temps toured throughout France via Paris, Limoges, Clermont-Ferrand and Basque Country. The choreographer met Elsa Wolliaston and was then invited to the “Atelier du Monde” at the 2002 Montpellier Dance Festival under Bernardo Montet and Susan Buirge’s direction. He then met American choreographer Reggie Wilson, who designed a solo performance for him titled Tales From the Creek and participated in a workshop on choreographic composition at the Royaumont Abbey (France) under Susan Buirge’s direction and at the Académie de l’interprète with Bernardo Montet. In October, he left to be part of “Chantier en construction” as a resident at the Main d’oeuvres artistic venue organised by the IXKIZIT company, under Joel Borges’ direction.

In 2003, the company toured in Africa (Marché des Arts du Spectacle Africain (MASA), Mozambique, South Africa, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Mali). He directed “R” in collaboration with Kyung-eun Lee (Korean choreographer met during his stay at the “Atelier du Monde”), a show presented at Modafe 2004 (The 23rd International Modern Danse Festival) in Seoul. In 2004, he participated in the “Festival Tanz im August” in Berlin with Pression and was in charge of a workshop for dancers and choreographers. His new offering, Impro-Visé was presented at the TanzMesse in Dusseldorf, the Festival Kaay Fecc 2005 and the TanzFestival in Bielefeld.
In 2005, he created Chair de Poule, a new choreographic performance for five dancers. In addition to his personal activities, he teaches and is in charge of numerous workshops in Dakar.

Edwin Kebaya Moturi has been a performing artist and choreographer for the last eight years in the fields of dance, music, puppetry, and object theatre in Kenya and in Europe. He has directed and written plays for radio and stage theatre projects as well as a Dance trainer within the African Arts Ensemble, a forum for training and rehabilitating young dancers.

Edwin has worked on continuous African contemporary dance performances with his own and other creations in Africa, Europe and Latin-America. Some of the main techniques he is employing are: improvisations in African and contemporary dance as well as visual and object dance theatre. Edwin is currently building his own dance company in Nairobi Kenya, UKENIA dance theatre.