Editorial
by Jeanette Bain
It is an honour for me to welcome you to this edition of Hotfoot online. Firstly, I have to thank Jeannette Brookes for the brilliant work she has done to develop Hotfoot online over the past months. Hotfoot will now be edited by our new Communications Officer, Dora Jejey, who has really taken the baton and run with it since we both arrived in June. As new ADAD Director, I am looking forward to continuing to use Hotfoot as a medium for celebrating the achievements of artists working with forms of dance of the African Diaspora across the UK; and as a forum for developing fresh ideas for discussing how we can grow from strength to strength as a sector.
Earlier this month, I visited a well-known dance venue to watch a performance by a contemporary dance artist. As I entered the theatre and made my way to my seat, I was greeted by a group of black teenagers. They were obviously very excited to be in the theatre and were chatty and friendly. They struck up a conversation with me and my colleague, asking us if we liked this choreographer and telling us about the various exciting choreographers that had taught them during their A/S Level dance course. They asked if I was a dancer and where I was from. They were excited that I was from Jamaica like some of their parents. Just out of curiosity, I asked them whether they had done any African or Caribbean dance on their course. The answer, of course, was no, but one of them did give me a vibrant demonstration of the African dance that her mother does …quot; bouncing her shoulders up and down and contracting and releasing her upper body.
What a pity, I thought, that these young people have very little idea about the diverse dance forms that have travelled with our communities over the years. What a pity that they don’t know that there are dances that belong to them; dances that might help them understand who they are. What a pity that it is highly unlikely that they will see African or Caribbean-based companies performing on the main stage of this particular theatre. I wondered how many of them dreamed of being dancers, and how many of them would simply dismiss the idea for lack of encouragement and role models. This experience was a real wake up call for me in my role as ADAD Director. It confirmed to me that there is still so much more to be done to support the practice and appreciation of dance of the African Diaspora (DAD), and to raise the profile of the artists who are currently making work in the UK …quot; not only to have an immediate impact on the cultural landscape but in order to chart a path for future generations. Our ‘Think Piece’ in this edition is a combination of two articles which highlight the lack of education opportunities and professional progression routes within DAD. The writers are recent ADAD Trailblazer Akosua Boakye, and Rozelle Kane, a dancer in search of professional training in African dance.
However things are not as grim as they might seem at first glance. There is a lot to celebrate in the DAD community. Reflecting on the past few months, there have been some very significant ‘happenings’. Both Irie! Dance Theatre in London and ACE Dance and Music in Birmingham, now have their own purpose-built spaces after working long and hard on their capital projects. In this issue we feature some photos of ACE’s base and catch up with Artistic Director Gail Parmel about how it feels to move into this new phase of the company’s development. In addition to this, the opening of the Bernie Grant Arts centre (BGAC) marks the beginning of a new phase of development for performing arts from diverse communities. On November 30th ADAD is looking forward to partnering with BGAC to host a lecture demonstration by ‘H’ Patten of his new piece The Cotton Tree.
This autumn, we have also seen the mounting of two festivals that are of great significance to us as a community. The Cultiv8 ‘07 festival, the first phase of which took place from September 27th-29th, is a project of Dance Northwest, Merseyside Dance Initiative, which was billed as ‘a celebration of African and Caribbean dance in the 21st century’. It included performances and seminars from artists from Zimbabwe, Jamaica, Burkina Faso and the United Kingdom. The final Cultiv8 event will be a performance by New York based, Urban Bush Women, on November 27th at the Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool. It was exciting for ADAD to see one of our 2006-07 Trailblazers, Chrissie Adesina, leading an educational workshop during Cultiv8 ‘07. It was also inspiring to see past trailblazers Bawren Tavaviza and Irven Lewis performing new work at Decibel. In this edition of Hotfoot, Chrissie Adesina is featured alongside fellow Trailblazers Naomi Green, Akosua Boakye and Adesola Akinleye, in a reflection on the impact Trailblazers is having on DAD artists.
The second festival was Francis Angol’s Flatfeet, which ran from October 21st to 27th. Flatfeet featured the work of three contemporary African choreographers …quot; Francis Angol, Serge-Aimé Coulibaly and ADAD Traiblazer (2003-04), Jane Sekonya. Each presented new work for two nights at London’s Southbank Centre and one night at DanceXchange at the Birmingham Hippodrome. The performances were complemented by a very rich open access education programme which included a choreographic lab, classes in contemporary African (Francis Angol), traditional Caribbean (Oneil Pryce), Nigerian Tiv, Street jazz and African fusion (Jane Sekonya), and a lecture by Peter Badejo OBE. In this edition Ukachi Akalawu reviews the Flatfeet performance at the Southbank centre.
Last but not least, ADAD would like to congratulate our Trailblazers for 2007-08. They are: Sean Graham, Victoria Igbokwe, Imani Jendai and Donna Lettman, Their biographies have been added to the ADAD website, so be sure to have a look at who they are and what they plan to get up to this year.
With all this going on, it’s an exciting time to be taking over the reins at ADAD. Read on for more news and views from ADAD, and the DAD Community.
Jeanette Bain, ADAD Director
