10 Highlights for dance of the African Diaspora UK-wide

Cultiv8 ’07 was hosted by Merseyside Dance Initiative and celebrated ‘African & Caribbean dance in the 21st century’. Following the success of Cultiv8 '05, a pilot project of Dance Northwest, Merseyside Dance Initiative the festival profiled dance works by artists from the African & Caribbean Diaspora including Zimbabwe, Jamaica, Burkina Faso, the USA and United Kingdom. The programme included Urban Bush Women's Nora Chipaumire, Glenmore Reid, Movement Angol and Serge-Aimé Coulibaly. The Festival also featured a seminar event "Cultural Intelligence - Laying Down Roots/Passing on Knowledge", which highlighted the importance of ensuring high level educational provision for young people, through the formal education system, and into Professional Development of artists.

The Flatfeet Festival hosted by Movement Angol at the Southbank Centre in London and DanceXchange in Birmingham was another highlight. Featuring performances from Movement Angol's artistic director Francis Angol, Serge-Aimé Coulibaly from Burkina Faso and the UK's Jane Sekonya , the festival demonstrates the vibrancy and diversity of contemporary African dance in the UK. The FlatFeet festival was also extended with the launch of Movement Angol’s dance education and outreach programme that opened the performances at the Southbank Centre in September.

Irie! Dance Theatre moved into their new space at the Moonshot building in New Cross. The Moonshot Centre, which opened in September 2007, was rebuilt to provide the borough with a first-class community facility incorporating a nursery, crèche, state-of-the-art ICT space, fully equipped dance studio and café. The refurbishment was funded by Lewisham Council and Grinling Gibbons Surestart, in partnership with Deptford Green School, IRIE! Dance Theatre and the Playhouse Nursery. Irie! Dance Theatre is a company that has stood the test of time, having worked in African and Caribbean dance for over 20 years.

ACE Dance and Music moved into their new space in Birmingham, just in time to launch their new touring production Skin. Artistic Director Gail Parmel worked with two established International choreographers of critical acclaim; Akiko Kitamura from the Leni-Basso Dance Company of Japan and Vincent Mantsoe from Soweto South Africa to create Skin, ‘a show which explores what lies beneath the skin, where our skin begins and ends, the spirit of unity and all the things that we all share.’ ACE (African Cultural Exchange) was established in 1996 and is led by Gail and Ian Parmel.

ADAD Trailblazer (2006/7), Adesola Akinleye, received the Bonnie Bird new choreographer’s award, which helped her create a new work Climbing with Bare Feet. The piece was based on Ralph Ellison’s book, The Invisible Man. Later in the year, Adesola went on to win a commission from Dance in Herts for a site specific piece called Trace, which was performed in St, Albans.

Dance Writer and Researcher, Dr Brenda Dixon-Gottschild delivered a riveting key-note lecture at the Black Britons and Dance conference held at De Montfort University in June 2007. The conference was convened by professor of Dance, Ramsay Burt and brought together Black dance artists and academics to stimulate thinking and critical writing about the issues surrounding dance creation and performance by Black British artists. Brenda Dixon Gottschild is author of several books including The Black Dancing Body: A Geography from Coon to Cool, Digging the Africanist Presence in American Performance, Dance and Other Contexts.

Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp was appointed as Chief Executive of The Place in London and took up his new post in September 2007. Tharp had a distinguished career as a dance artist. He received professional training at the London Contemporary Dance School and performed with London Contemporary Dance Theatre from 1981-1994. His career has included working as a dancer, choreographer, director and teacher.

Christy Adair completed her book, Dancing the Black Question: The Phoenix Dance Company Phenomenon. Published by Dance Books Ltd. the book ‘interrogates the factors which contributed to the success of the Phoenix Dance Company. This title locates Phoenix as a significant artistic force in British contemporary dance. It draws on a range of primary sources including the Company archives and interviews with members of the Company from 1981-2001.’

The success of Breakin’ Convention at Sadler’s Wells and the re-mounting of the B-Supreme (female Hip-Hop) festival at the Southbank Centre, demonstrated that Hip-Hop theatre is continuing to grow and have an impact on larger audiences in the UK.