A few weeks ago I was in the centre of Liverpool, wandering around the Black-E, a community arts centre with a rich history of supporting African and Caribbean cultural production. In the foyer, I found a temporary exhibit focused on the life and work of Professor Rex Nettleford, founder and artistic director of Jamaica’s National Dance Theatre Company. In the gallery downstairs was an exhibition featuring the history of the civil rights movement in Liverpool, alongside a slide show exhibiting archival photos of African and Caribbean dance companies performing and rehearsing at the Black-E. This history-rich setting provided a perfect backdrop for a day spent observing the second in a series of roadshows for British Dance and the African Diaspora (BDAD), a major Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project, led by Ramsay Burt, Professor of Dance History at De Montfort University in partnership with Professor Christy Adair, Professor of Dance Studies at York St. John’s University. This is ADAD’s first research consultancy and I have had the privilege of chairing the project’s steering committee, since its inception in February 2012.

Also supported by Phoenix Dance Theatre, Merseyside Dance Initiative, Birmingham DanceXchange and Liverpool International Museum of Slavery, the BDAD research project is an exciting opportunity for collaboration between universities, dance organisations, dance artists and public audiences to fill the major gaps which exist in current accounts of British dance history. One of the strengths of the programme is that it creates opportunities for dancers to tell their own stories in their own words. Focusing on Leeds, Liverpool and Birmingham the project includes a series of roadshows featuring conversations with artists; open dance workshops and performances by local professional and community-based dance artists and companies. The roadshows are complemented by academic study days, exploring current research within dance of the African Diaspora. The project will culminate in an exhibition and symposium at the Liverpool International Museum of Slavery, which will provide an opportunity for sharing the stories and perspectives that have been uncovered by the research. So far the researchers have engaged with the work of Namron, Phoenix Dance Theatre, Steel and Skin, Maxine Brown and Francis Angol.

The success of the project in creating this intended shift will have a significant impact not only on historical narratives about Black British dancers, but also on the freedom current practitioners have to define themselves in terms of their artistic vision rather than their ethnicity.

As an organisation working primarily with dancers and choreographers of African and Caribbean descent, ADAD has had an ambivalent relationship with the term ‘Black Dance’. The ADAD Heritage Project, launched in 2006, included the term in its title, yet questioned its longevity in defining such a dynamic, ever-evolving body of artistic work. Our more recent initiatives have sought to situate the work of the practitioners we support in the global context of dance from Africa and its Diaspora. Recently I was excited to see that Dr. Anita Gonzalez, a theatre and dance producer, researcher and lecturer from State University of New York, made reference to both ADAD and BDAD in a visiting lecture at Princeton University. Her talk cross-referenced current practice within dance of the African Diaspora in Britain with Mexican folkloric festivals and 19th century maritime performance, epitomizing the global nature of the discourse in which we can potentially engage when we begin to explore the practice of Black dancers.

The BDAD project provides a fresh opportunity for reflection about how best all the partners involved can ensure that we create a balanced and inspirational narrative about the history of Black dancers in Britain, while opening the door for thriving artistic practice in the here and now.