WHAT A BLOOMIMG EVENING!
Words Bob Ramdhanie Photography Clive Clunis
And before you think I am swearing...read on! The weather, like the people on High Street Tottenham on Saturday September 28th, appeared indifferent. Well it’s autumn, I mused to myself, but then I remembered that only a few hours earlier, the famous football team from the area only managed a 1-1 draw against a local rival whilst the third London team was confirming its position at the top of the Barclays Premiership. Whatever the reasons for the somber feel, I was slowly walking towards the Bernie Grant Arts Centre.
Named after one of Guyana’s leading sons, the late Bernie Grant MP, the Centre is a community space for people to express themselves through arts and education. Tonight would be the closing finale of ADAD’s Bloom Festival 2013. Oh...there’s the blooming reference!
The audience, of approximately one hundred and twenty, was diverse in terms of ages, cultural backgrounds, colour and sexes and needed only a gentle prompt from the MC to get ‘into the spirit’. The evening featured works by five choreographers each imbibing the spirit of Africa in different ways - moving from a rich source on the vast continent but travelling on different tracks, towards no common goal, besides that of reflecting variety, hybridity, excitement, creativity and joy.
AQ Arts opened the evening with ‘Bearer of the Rose’. A trio of young women, simply dressed with short wraps, allowing their bodies to reflect and interpret the music of Bobby McFerrin and African drums with ease and mixing repertoire from different styles of dance.
‘METH (Media Eats The Humans)’ was a quintet with a difference. Their direct connection with the giant screen upstage, whether simply staring at a huge blank screen or being bombarded with information of all sorts, meant we faced their backsides for almost the entire performance, but that was cool, real and commonplace as the media appears to have grabbed the world in its clutches with an ever-growing release of new gadgets.
The force that is media, in all the catch phrases, symbols, logos that was reflected on the large screen sucked the performers ‘in’ but yet there were moments when they broke free and ‘thought and reacted for themselves’ only to find that they were caught by this magnetic pull, which at times, totally engulfed them. Dynamic, exciting and packed with energy.
‘JJ Spirit of Carnival’, performed by JAGUYDANCE embodied the essence of the Caribbean. Its choreographer’s hallmark was immediately pronounced as bodies rippled to an eclectic range of music. The suite provided a combination of movements from West Africa and the Caribbean and the story of falling in love, contact with the spirit world and human fragility unfolded with ease and accessibility.
Following the freedom of spirit and movement of the previous work from the Caribbean, a solo dancer entered. A single stream of white light, coupled to a compelling piece of music (piano and violin) engaged your every muscle as Nathan Geering skillfully and powerfully told a story of ‘The Last Dance’. Was it despair, or was it fear or fulfillment? With pain, anger, reflection, the solo performer held the audience’s attention for its entirety and perhaps or possibly, there is genuinely ‘light at the end of the tunnel’. Brilliant!
The final work, presented in seven parts, was entitled ‘Dealing with it’ by Tabanka African and Caribbean Peoples Dance Ensemble. The pieces flowed seamlessly from individual to duets and trios, telling stories that according to the programme notes, “reflect how members of Tabanka have dealt with racism, sexism, oppression, prejudice and challenges that they have faced as Africans, as Caribbeans, as pioneers and as a “village” in Norway. This is their pride, their fight, their frustration, and their survival”.
The totality of the whole embraced the beauty and power of the African woman - a symbol of strength and continuity; the energy and strength of the African in the diaspora; the polyrhythmic artistry of the human body and the absorption and utilisation of attitude and nuances of the modern world.
A music combination that featured interesting pieces from around the world cushioned and sustained a dynamic repertoire that has grown out of Africa into an evolving and engaging form in Europe. How apt that this final piece encapsulated everything that the late Bernie Grant spent his political life fighting for!
The evening was enriching. Pieces were, for the most part, thematic and rooted in stories or events and activities that many recognised. Dance vocabulary, both complex and less so, were performed with a high degree of panache as movements from the Caribbean, Africa, Europe, the UK and America linked together in harmony, producing in its wake a new formula, innovation and a sense of continuity between ‘traditions’ and a new dance discourse.
The presentations, with mixtures of solos, duets, trios and more encouraged the audience to relax and ‘feel’ the vibes and that worked very well. The banter between MC and audience, the impromptu ‘dance off’ from two members from the audience, the stage setting and lighting - minimalist in it entirety - all added value to powerful, positive body movements and an overall enjoyable evening.
As an Arsenal fan, it was a blooming good evening!
Dr Bob Ramdhanie is an arts consultant/partner in Arts Management @ soundsinfocus.co.uk
