Welcome to Hotfoot Online! This issue comes hot on the heels (excuse the pun) of the Big Mission, State of Emergency’s festival celebrating the here and now of Black Dance, which took place in Swindon from May 8-10, 2008. ADAD partnered with State of Emergency and Swindon Dance to host a debate and evening reception at the festival on Friday May 9th. This debate centered around career pathways in dance and ADAD received a clear mandate from those present to be at the leading edge of creating pathways for artists who are part of the African Diaspora. The other strong message that emerged from the discussions was the need for artists to take responsibility for the progression of their own careers and be willing to reinvent themselves in order to be successful. A full report on this event will be published in the next issue of Hotfoot.

In this issue, we look at career reinvention from the perspective of two artists. We talk to Denise Rowe, co-founder of Tolo Ko Tolo about the re-launch of her company earlier this year and we hear from Shelley-Ann Maxwell, a Jamaican dance artist who is making in-roads into the London dance scene. Ukachi Akalawu reintroduces us to the new and improved ADAD Advocates our voluntary ‘think-tank’ and task force made up of 5 dance professionals. In Celebrating 5 years of ADAD Trailblazers, I argue that through this annual fellowship programme, ADAD is cultivating artists who are not afraid to reinvent themselves, but are creating their own ‘rules of engagement’ in dance. Also, catch up with ADAD News and celebrate the achievements of our artistic community in ADAD Celebrates!