Meet the Artist

Editorial by Jeanette Bain-Burnett

ADAD is committed to supporting professional artists working with dance of the African Diaspora (DAD). It’s an exciting and daunting mission but not half as challenging or inspiring as the lives of the artists themselves. In this issue we meet a handful of artists who are on the cutting edge of DAD - creating new, innovative work. We meet Alesandra Seutin, Artistic Director of Vocab Dance, whose Afro-eclectic contemporary dance is making waves in the capital; Upswing Aerial, the only black-led circus company in the UK and James Mweu, experimental contemporary dance artist visiting from Kenya as part of Woking Dance Festival’s Dance Dialogues exchange programme. We also get a glimpse into the future with students on Irie! Dance Theatre’s new Foundation Degree.

This is going to be an exciting year for ADAD. We will be hosting the first Festival of Dance of the African Diaspora from June 5-7, 2009. The event will feature performances, workshops, talks and more. Watch this space! We look forward to this event becoming a regular highlight of the UK dance calendar. For more details of ADAD events, see the ADAD News page. We are also proud to announce ADAD’s new Trailblazers 2008/09 - Lola Adodo, Roni Cheesman Freddie Opoku-Addaie and Karensa Louis. For more about this year’s Trailblazers and their projects, click here. So all in all, we’re looking forward to a great year. Keep checking the ADAD website to stay up to date with our activities!

Here’s wishing you a very happy and fulfilling 2009!