Alesandra Seutin
“Dance for me is a way of expression and through my work; I intend to speak volumes” - " Alesandra Seutin, Artistic Director, Vocab Dance Company. Alesandra Seutin fuses African traditional dance with contemporary and urban dance styles to create Afro-pean dance from a feminine perspective. Seutin’s recent work has been broad, developing her practice and profile both in the UK and internationally. Seutin works as a choreographer, dance artist and teacher. Seutin’s Vocab Dance is steadily becoming an established UK dance company.
“The regal Alesandra is a commanding presence” **** The Independent
As an independent dance artist, Alesandra created work for Phoenix Dance Theatre, Theatre Centre, 12º North Dance Company alongside works by British choreographers Antonia Grove & Gary Clarke and State of Emergency. In 2010, Alesandra utilised her Trailblazer fellowship bursary to develop her skills as a dance artist with a trip to Senegal to participate in professional workshops at Germaine Acogny’s Ecole des Sables. Alesandra was subsequently invited to return to Senegal to continue her training and she is now a qualified teacher of the Germaine Acogny dance technique (the only one in UK). Alesandra’s recent solo ‘This is not Black’ has been Premiered at Lilian Baylis Sadler’s Wells, is touring Europe and Africa; the solo has recently been commissioned to be presented as a full length piece in September 2014 as part of Southbank Centre’s Africa Utopia.
www.vocabdance.co.uk
Freddie Opoku-Addaie
Freddie Opoku-Addaie is a British-born choreographer, performer and educator of Ghanaian heritage. He juxtaposes instinctive movement, ritualistic folk practices, structured choreography, with rules and parameters of gaming. The results are viscerally affecting dance pieces which explore universal notions of the group, the individual and the outsider.
Show of Hands is his current touring work, as well as international collaboration in development ‘Unplugged Bodies’ ( Phase 1) a co-creation with Korean Dance Artist Kyoung Shin Kim.
Freddie used his Trailblazer fellowship to support the re-staging of his piece Set in Stone, which was originally created on the East London Youth Dance Company, commissioned by Youth Dance England as a part of New Directions 2008. The piece explores a Ghanaian playground game and indeterminate outcomes. For this Champion Fellow award Opoku-Addaie is developing ‘Remain /s’ ( working title), a group work that looks fragility journey to resilience.
www.freddieopoku-addaie.com
