Let's Dance International Frontiers 2023 Brochure

WELCOME

Welcome to Let’s Dance International Frontiers 2023 (LDIF23) as we examine the theme Uncovering the Dance Within: Origins and Authenticity. We will be exploring a range of dance techniques and practice, looking at their history, heritage and honouring the guardians of their legacy, whether this is delving into hoofing, Talawa Technique or Nagare Technique and multidisciplinary ways of working. The range of dance performances, masterclasses, conversations and our annual conference gives voice to how artists have reimagined and provided vision and reflection to little known techniques, forms and approaches to dance from the African and African Caribbean Diaspora. We celebrate International Dance Day and International Jazz Day with a new commission that plays with the kinship and shared history between tap and jazz, where the lines blur between dancer and musician as they meet in conversation. The world premiere will bring together Soweto Kinch, respected saxophonist, composer, poet and MC, Lee Payne and Annette Walker, two leading exponents of a new generation of tap dancers in the UK, Freddy Houndekindo, a versatile movement director and choreographer based in Sweden, and Cameron McKinney, founder of Kizuna Dance, based in the US.

There will be opportunities throughout the festival to participate in dance and discussion through the annual conference and the Dance Dialogues series with contributors including Gladys M Francis, Thomas Talawa Prestø, Antoine Hunter, Alexandria Davis, Anita Gonzalez and Tia-Monique Uzor.

Rising dance talent takes centre stage with the return of Signatures and Black British Dance Platform, two initiatives that support an eclectic variety of artists both international and home grown. We are also excited to share experimental works from the Black Digital Dance Revolution, an initiative supported by dance organisations throughout the UK using technology to push the boundaries of how artistic work is created, documented, shared and taught.

As the finale to LDIF23, we are delighted to present the UK Premiere BLACK HOLE: Trilogy and Triathlon a multidisciplinary performance choreographed by the award-winning movement artist Shamel Pitts, co-created and performed by his Brooklyn-based arts collective TRIBE. LDIF23 is a gathering like no other, a holistic exploration of not just what we call dance but the artforms and people that form the movement within and around it. We look forward to seeing you there, Let’s Dance!

Pawlet Brookes MBE CEO and Artistic Director Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage

Cover Image: Shamel Pitts / TRIBE in BLACK HOLE.

Photographer Adeboye Brothers.

Pawlet Brookes MBE, Photograph by the Unloved

LAUNCH

LET’S DANCE INTERNATIONAL FRONTIERS 2023 LAUNCH

Saturday 29 April 2023

7:00pm

Mercure Leicester – The Grand Hotel £18 | £16

Let’s Dance International Frontiers 2023 returns with another unique launch event to celebrate International Dance Day (29 April) and International Jazz Day (30 April) and embracing this year’s theme Uncovering the Dance Within: Origins and Authenticity

Commissioned by Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage, Dance Inside the Music explores the kinship between dance and jazz music, with specific reference to the traditions of hoofing – tap dance in its most percussive form - and contemporary movement. This is the place where the music moves and the movement makes music.

A talented line up of artists join force for a performance to remember. Award winning alto-saxophonist and MC, Soweto Kinch is one of the most exciting and versatile young musicians in both the British jazz and hip-hop scenes, amassing an impressive list of accolades and awards on both sides of the Atlantic, including two MOBOs and two UMAs.

A polymath, Annette Walker is a versatile dancer, actor and musician as well as a consultant and researcher. She is one of the leading exponents of a new generation of tap dancers taking the stage with style, grace and rhythm.

Starting within swing and the lindy hop circuit, Lee Payne has graced the stage in Singin’ in the Rain and Riverdance, alongside dancing for such artists as Enrique Inglesias, Gabrielle, Wyclef Jean, Brian Harvey, Steps, S-Club 7, The Honeyz, The Appleton Sisters and many more.

Cameron McKinney is no stranger to Let’s Dance International Frontiers since his Leicester debut in 2015; he has been a Choreography Fellow at The School at Jacob’s Pillow, an Alvin Ailey Foundation New Directions Choreography Lab Fellow, a Hearst Choreographer-in-Residence at Princeton University and an Asian Cultural Council Individual Grantee.

Freddy Houndekindo is an interdisciplinary artist situated at the assemblage of music, dance and performance. He joined Cullberg the national and international contemporary dance company based in Stockholm, Sweden in 2018.

The evening will also see the launch of Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage’s partnership with Howard University.

Image: Soweto Kinch, Annette Walker and Lee Payne. Photographer Stuart Hollis. Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage.

CONFERENCE

UNCOVERING THE DANCE WITHIN: ORIGINS AND AUTHENTICITY CONFERENCE

Tuesday 2 May 2023

10.00am – 5.00pm Curve RR2 £80 | £70 Concession £60 Early Bird (Ends 14 February 2023)

The theme for both the festival and conference for Let’s Dance International Frontiers 2023 is Uncovering the Dance Within: Origins and Authenticity, focusing on dance techniques coming out of the African and African Caribbean Diaspora, their connections to geography, location, heritage, history and people. The conference will celebrate artists and practitioners who have reimagined and provided vision and reflection to little known techniques, forms and approaches to dance. What do we mean by embodied practice? What does it mean to be authentic in dance? How do we map dance practice within and beyond the confinements of geography? How do we recognise African and African Caribbean Diaspora influences?

Contributors include: Gladys M Francis (Guadeloupe/USA)

Opening Keynote

Associate Dean for Academic Student Affairs and the Humanities in the College of Arts and Sciences at Howard University, Gladys M Francis establishes infrastructures to support experiential learning, ensuring that all the students in the College of Arts and Sciences benefit fully from Howard’s location in the US capital, as well as globally. Associate Dean Francis is a native of Guadeloupe. As Professor of Africana, French, and Francophone Studies, Dr Francis explores issues of identify formation, race, gender, trauma, and cohesive intercultural immersion through the arts. Her transdisciplinary research involves: Theory and Cultural Studies; Africana Studies; Postcolonial Studies; Visual and Media Studies; Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

Since 1998 Prestø has spent his time actively carving a place for the Black dancing body in Scandinavia. As the originator of Talawa TechniqueTM and founder of Tabanka Dance Ensemble, he has shared Caribbean and African dance with more than a quarter of Norway's population. His company reached the semi-finals on Norway's Got Talent, being the first time a full Black group has ever advanced on Norwegian TV Shows and performed traditional dance live. Talawa TechniqueTM is taught on five continents and is continuing to strive to show the relevance of ancient power with a modern use.

Thomas Talawa Prestø (Trinidad/Norway)

Alexandria Davis (USA)

Dancer, Actress, Teaching Artist, Choreographer, and Screendance maker, Alexandria Davis holds an MFA in dance choreography from the University of Michigan. Alexandria earned her BFA in Dance Performance and Dance in Medicine certification from the University of Florida. Born and raised in Gainesville, Florida, Alexandria's movement sources from her community upbringing and academic investigations of dance forms like Liturgical, Modern, Jazz, Heels/ Stilletto Jazz, Funk, Ballet, Contact Improvisation, HBCU Marching Auxiliary technique, Hip Hop, Stepping, West African Rhythms, Contemporary, African-Caribbean Motifs, Vogue, Chinese Fan, Laban/ Bartenieff fundamentals, and Katherine Dunham technique.

CONFERENCE UNCOVERING THE DANCE WITHIN: ORIGINS AND AUTHENTICITY CONFERENCE

Freddy Houndekindo (France/Sweden)

Freddy Houndekindo is an interdisciplinary artist situated at the assemblage of music, dance and performance. His artistic practice is rooted in street dance: hip hop and electro dance. He studied contemporary dance in the Conservatoire National superior de Musique et de Dance de Lyon (France) and modern dance at the Folkwang Universität der Künste in Essen (Germany). In 2018, he joined Cullberg as a dancer. He was granted the Tanzrecherche NRW, in 2020 to support his artistic research. His films have won several international prizes, and in 2021 he received the Riksteatern stipendium to further investigate the relationship between film and dance. As a movement director he has worked with Vogue Scandinavia, H&M, WEEKDAY, HOPE and CAP74024.

Shamel Pitts (USA)

2020 Guggenheim Fellow Shamel Pitts is a performance artist, choreographer, conceptual artist, dancer, spoken word artist, and teacher. He began his dance career in Mikhail Baryshnikov’s Hell’s Kitchen Dance and BJM Danse Montreal. Shamel danced with Batsheva Dance Company for 7 years, under the artistic direction of Ohad Naharin and is a certified teacher of Gaga movement language. He was a 2020 Jacob’s Pillow artist in residence and a 2021 New York Dance Award winner (The Bessies). Shamel is the Founding Artistic Director of TRIBE, a Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary arts collective.

Antoine Hunter (USA)

Antoine Hunter is an award-winning choreographer, actor, dancer, poet, speaker, mentor and Deaf advocate. The founder and artistic director of Urban Jazz Dance, Hunter has performed with Savage Jazz Dance Company, Nuba Dance Theater, Alayo Dance Company, Robert Moses’ Kin and the Lorraine Hansberry Theater. He was head choreographer for D-Pan: Deaf Professional Arts Network ASL music video: ‘Call Me Maybe’ by Carly Rae Jepsen.

Cameron McKinney (USA)

With more than 17 years of Japanese language study, Cameron McKinney (Artistic Director of Kizuna Dance) created the company with the mission of using contemporary floorwork to devise works that celebrate Japanese culture. He was recently selected as a 2019-20 US-Japan Friendship Commission Creative Artist Fellow to collaborate with renowned Japanese choreographer, Toru Shimazaki. No stranger to LDIF since his Leicester debut in 2015, he has been a Choreography Fellow at The School at Jacob’s Pillow, an Alvin Ailey Foundation New Directions Choreography Lab Fellow, a Hearst Choreographer-in-Residence at Princeton University, and an Asian Cultural Council Individual Grantee.

Anita Gonzalez (USA) Closing Keynote

Anita Gonzalez is a Professor of Performing Arts and African American studies at Georgetown University and a co-Founder of their Racial Justice Institute. She was recently Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and a Professor of Theatre at the University of Michigan where she promoted interdisciplinary and intercultural performance initiatives. Her edited and authored books include Performance, Dance and Political Economy, Black Performance Theory, Afro-Mexico: Dancing Between Myth and Reality, and Jarocho’s Soul. She has published articles in the Radical History Review, Modern Drama, Performance Research International, and Dance Research Journal and is a recent recipient of the Shirley Verrett Award for outstanding teaching of performance.

Image Credit: Cameron McKinney. Photographer Alice Chacon Photography

LDIF+ MASTERCLASSES

Sunday 30 April – Saturday 6 May

LDIF+ is Let’s Dance International Frontiers’ year-round programme supporting continuing professional development opportunities for dancers and choreographers. For LDIF23 we are delighted to be working in partnership with Zinnema and Tabanka Dance Ensemble as part of an exchange programme. The masterclasses cover a range of techniques rooted in the richness of the African and African Caribbean Diaspora.

Thomas Prestø Masterclasses and Theory Sessions

Sunday 30 April 11.00am – 12.00noon Dialogue Box

Monday 1 May 10.00am – 3.00pm Dupont Dance Stage School Wednesday 3 May 10.00am – 12.00noon Curve RR2

LIMITED AVAILABILITY

Thursday 4 May 10.00am – 2.00pm Dialogue Box Friday 5 May 10.00am – 11.00am Curve RR2

Saturday 6 May 10.00am – 3.00pm Curve RR2 £150 Student Bundle (All Classes)

A selection of theory and practical sessions designed to blend with participating dance artists’ own practices. The focus will be on the Talawa TechniqueTM, as the technique is capable of bridging various practices and approaches. Talawa Technique™ structures elements of African and Caribbean practices uniquely designed to facilitate poly-centrism, multiple movement qualities, grounding and poly-rhythm. Talawa Technique™ deconstructs and reconstructs these practices in such a way as to reveal the quality of each unique element by themselves, as well as the added accumulative potential achieved when these elements are intentionally recombined.

Participants must have some foundation in a form of Black dance, commercial, artistic or traditional and be used to using their bodies. Training in western styles is acceptable but is not a requirement. The curriculum will focus on professionality within Africana (Black based dances).

Image Credit: Freddy Houndekindo. Photographer Thomas Zamolo.

Guest Classes: £25 Per Class

Shamel Pitts Masterclass

Wednesday 3 May 1.00pm – 3.00pm

Curve RR2

2020 Guggenheim Fellow Shamel Pitts is a performance artist, choreographer, conceptual artist, dancer, spoken word artist, and teacher. He began his dance career in Mikhail Baryshnikov’s Hell’s Kitchen Dance and BJM Danse Montreal. Shamel danced with Batsheva Dance Company for 7 years, under the artistic direction of Ohad Naharin and is a certified teacher of Gaga movement language. He was a 2020 Jacob’s Pillow artist in residence and a 2021 New York Dance Award winner (The Bessies). Shamel is the Founding Artistic Director of TRIBE, a Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary arts collective.

Freddy Houndekindo Masterclass

Wednesday 3 May 3.30pm – 5.30pm Curve RR2

This encounter will be the opportunity of a co-creative instant inviting all knowledge, artistry and aesthetic, creating a safe space where non-discriminatory learning and giving can be exercised. During guided practices Freddy Houndekindo will introduce his primary improvisation and composition tools, based on two concepts: the dramatic-performative potential of bodies/object in space, with free and subjective association and the musical plasticity of bodies/ object which on a more rational ground, focuses on elementary forms and their rhythms.

Cameron McKinney Masterclass

Friday 5 May 11.15am – 1.15pm Curve RR2

This contemporary floorwork-based class will combine the grace of modern with the speed and fluidity of streetdance, capoeira, and house dance. The class activates oppositional forces and contrasting sensations to achieve fluid transitions in and out of the floor, focuses on how to move smoothly from high to low to high again, and on how to rediscover “the down” through the floorwork-oriented aspects of house dance, capoeira, and contemporary dance.

Antoine Hunter Masterclass

Friday 5 May 2.00pm – 4.00pm Curve RR2

Antoine Hunter is an award-winning choreographer, actor, dancer, poet, speaker, mentor and Deaf advocate. The founder and artistic director of Urban Jazz Dance, Hunter has performed with Savage Jazz Dance Company, Nuba Dance Theater, Alayo Dance Company, Robert Moses’ Kin and the Lorraine Hansberry Theater. He was head choreographer for D-Pan: Deaf Professional Arts Network ASL music video: ‘Call Me Maybe’ by Carly Rae Jepsen.

LDIF+ Showcase

Saturday 6 May 3.15pm – 4.00pm

Curve RR2

By Invitation

Bringing together their learning from throughout the LDIF+ masterclasses, LDIF+ participants will present an exciting showcase performance. The LDIF+ Showcase Performance is a unique opportunity to dance that fuses African traditions, Caribbean movement, urban dance and contemporary practice.

DANCE DIALOGUES

Monuments of Fem: Hottentot Venus to C**t –Alexandria Davis

Thursday 4 May 2.00pm – 4.00pm Dialogue Box, Serendipity £10 | Free for Serendipity Connect Members

This roundtable discussion will explore the history and evolution of movement and performance as a sketch of gender, identity, and orientation. It will evolve into an interactive forum that explores the effort and shape of the body to communicate one's embodied "divine feminine energy." It will approach the C-word through the LGBTQ+ ballroom perspective more universally known for its positive and negative connotations, much like the Hottentot Venus reference in place of Sara Baartman/Saartje.

Dancer, Actress, Teaching Artist, Choreographer, and Screendance maker Alexandria Davis holds an MFA in dance choreography from the University of Michigan. A Black American Southern Belle gone rogue, raptured in protest and reappropriation, Alexandria Davis creates dangerous dances, often using choreography as a device to instigate and advocate.

Black British Dance Platform in Conversation

Thursday 4 May 4.30pm – 5.30pm Dialogue Box, Serendipity Free

Aimed at promoters, programmers and producers, this in-conversation is an opportunity to hear more from the artists participating in the Black British Dance Platform. In collaboration with Fabric.

Practices of Rooting and Performative Becoming: Exploring British Caribbean Diasporic identity through the Embodied Spatialities of Dance – Tia-Monique Uzor

Friday 5 May 4.30pm – 5.30pm Dialogue Box, Serendipity £10 | Free for Serendipity Connect Members

Tia-Monique Uzor is a dance scholar and practitioner who writes and publishes around issues of identity, cultural traffic, popular culture and women within African and African Diasporic Dance. Uzor trained in dance and drama at De Montfort University and supplemented her dance training through international programmes at Ecoles des Sables, Senegal. Since then she has taught at De Montfort University, Laban and Goethe University. Within her research and practice she is committed to interdisciplinary work to highlight the many ways in which African and African Diasporic dances can be used as a tool through which to consider themes around identity, society and culture and a vehicle for pleasure and self-discovery.

Cocktails and Conversation with Gladys M Francis

Saturday 6 May 5:00pm – 6:30pm Manhattan 34 By Invitation | Serendipity Connect Members

Gladys M Francis serves as Associate Dean for Academic Student Affairs and the Humanities in the College of Arts and Sciences at Howard University. In this role she establishes infrastructures to support experiential learning to ensure that all the students in the College of Arts and Sciences benefit fully from Howard’s location in the nation’s capital, as well as globally. Associate Dean Francis is a native of Guadeloupe. As Professor of Africana, French, and Francophone Studies, Francis explores issues of identify formation, race, gender, trauma, and cohesive intercultural immersion through the arts. Her transdisciplinary research involves: Theory and Cultural Studies; Africana Studies; Postcolonial Studies; Visual and Media Studies; Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

Image Credit: Tia-Monique Uzor from Let's Dance in the City. Photographer Panoptical.

PERFORMANCE SIGNATURES AND THE BLACK BRITISH DANCE PLATFORM

Wednesday 3 May

6.45pm Orton Square 7.45pm Curve Studio £20| £10

Two platforms, two spaces, one evening.

Signatures

A duet layering dance and projected film, this work explores the moments in life that change us, considering our attitudes, thoughts, experiences from childhood to adulthood and examining how we can find comfort, support and care in our shared experience.

Neg(ate)

Niquelle LaTouche

“If you had to describe yourself as what you are not, who are you?”

Neg(ate) is an autobiographical solo which explores the burden language brings when constructing identity. Through negation, the journey of unlearning starts and we grant ourselves permission to write ourselves into existence.

Introspection

Marlon Simms (UK Premiere)

Marlon Simms, the Artistic Director of the National Dance Theatre of Jamaica, explores the thoughts and blood memories of a Black Caribbean man and through him the ancestral retentions that have survived generations of suffering and severance. As the world changes and “woke” culture resonates, much of his consciousness is an "inward stretch" toward defining and affirming self for an “outward reach”. The work asks the question, "Who am I?" as a determining factor in affirming the Black Caribbean male identity and his role within the wider society.

Arquivo Negro

(Black Archive)

Pé no Mundo Dance Company (UK Premiere)

Pé no Mundo Dance Company presents a dialogue between Brazilian Afro-indigenous manifestations and contemporary dance. Arquivo Negro is inspired by the real stories of Black personalities, who, even living in situations of extreme adversity, stood out and influenced Brazilian history, such as João Cândido, Maria Firmina dos Reis, Luiz Gama, Carolina Maria de Jesus, Abdias do Nascimento, Aleijadinho, among others. The show rescues and re-presents historical archives about an Afro-Brazilian culture, which are not truly told. We are not descendants of slaves; we are descendants of African human beings. Children of the Diaspora, brought into the world with the right to be authors and protagonists of our own history. Thus, we proceed with strides in narrow paths.

Black British Dance Platform

The Black British Dance Platform is a collaboration between Serendipity and Fabric, with the aspiration to support and nurture dance artists from the African and African Caribbean Diaspora who are based in England, with an ambition to present work internationally, and supports the aims of cultivating a sector that is representative of contemporary Britain. Now entering its third year, the platform shares the work of dance artists:

Closer to My Dreams

Chad Taylor

The journey of two young Black brothers, Chad Taylor and Ziggy Taylor from inner-city Hulme, describing their trials and tribulations to pursue their artistic dreams. Will they succeed with the odds stacked against them? With hip hop choreography, poetry and rap Closer to My Dreams is a playful, heartfelt and unique take on family and friendship. It explores universal questions of how we respond to the trials and tribulations that life throws at us, what path to take, when to hustle and when to let go.

NOIR

Rose Aida Sall Sao

Identity is the strongest force in human personality. But why do we have the need to stay consistent with how we define ourselves? There is an alchemical moment when the shadow becomes illuminated. The “golden shadow” appears. When we face our shadow-sides, we rekindle with our strength. NOIR speaks of integrating all of the parts of ourselves, to then allow ourselves to change from one thing to another. We are ever shapeshifting.

Melanin Migration Brothers in Arms: The Journey Blake Arts

In the wake of economic disruption, Black Lives Matter and the lingering impact of COVID-19, six Black male professional dancers forge together in a journey of self, identity, gender and brotherhood. Born out of conversations around the immigrant experience, sustainability and their future as artists, Melanin Migration Brothers in Arms was created.

BLACK DIGITAL DANCE REVOLUTION THE SILENT

BEAT:

A HAPTIC CONVERSATION

SOLD OUT

The Silent Beat: A Haptic Conversation celebrates technology as it embraces dance exploring how haptics can be used as a creative tool to empower and deliver cutting-edge work at the vanguard of cultural practice.

Pawlet Brookes, creative producer, brings together Antoine Hunter and Soweto Kinch in collaboration with Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage and James Cull, Ruichao Wang and Tracy Harwood of the Institute of Creative Technologies at De Montfort University to present an experimental work investigating the ways in which haptic technology can be used to relay music in new ways and the practical applications this might have for Deaf dancers and choreographers.

An immersive video installation that integrates dance and film, a new work in collaboration between choreographer Cameron McKinney and filmmaker Cayla Mae Simpson uses McKinney's idiosyncratic movements and Simpson's dynamic visuals to reveal the vibrancy of self-discovery.

Black Digital Dance Revolution is a nationally significant project working with regional partners: Serendipity (Leicester), Northern School of Contemporary Dance (Leeds), Dance City (Newcastle), Gateway (Gateshead), Dance Umbrella (London) and beyond. The project aims to explore how digital and physical interfaces can be integrated to push the boundaries of how artistic work is created, documented, shared and taught.

Image Credit: Antoine Hunter. Photographer Georgina Payne, Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage.

BLACK HOLE – TRILOGY AND TRIATHLON SHAMEL PITTS / TRIBEMULTIDISCIPLINARY VISUAL PERFORMANCES

Friday 5 May – Saturday 6 May

7.45pm Curve Studio £20 | £10

UK Premiere

Founded in 2019, TRIBE - Multidisciplinary Visual Performances is a Brooklynbased Afro-futuristic arts collective dedicated to creating, producing, and sharing original art projects. Understanding that performance art and live art are practices of human connection, TRIBE projects include movement-based work, live performance, video art, short film, video documentary, photography, exhibition, installation, commissioned dance choreography, art residencies and workshops. With artistic direction by Shamel Pitts, TRIBE acts nationally and internationally develop art exchanges in collaboration with institutions and individuals, with a focus on the African Diaspora. Ultimately, TRIBE aims to bring the audience and community into experiences that humanises Black bodies and shares the colourfulness within Blackness that allows us to be multiplicitous.

In BLACK HOLE - Trilogy and Triathlon, a trio of Black performers share the stage in a narrative of unity, vigour and unrelenting advancement. Their journey originates in the darkness of the titular Black Hole, understood not as a cosmic void but a metaphorical place of transformation and potential. Engulfed in an evocative soundscape of original music, sound samples, and spoken word, the dancers embark on an hour-long, uninterrupted journey in movement in which their tenacity and grace are emphasised by cinematic video projections and stark, monochromatic lights.

Choreographed by 2020 Guggenheim Fellow and 2021 Bessie Award winner Shamel Pitts who also performs in it, the piece features dancers Marcella Lewis and Tushrik Fredericks; video and lighting designed by Lucca Del Carlo; music composed by Sivan Jacobvitz; spoken word text by Shamel Pitts; and costumes by Naomi Maaravi and Mirelle Martins. Photography and cinematography for the piece are by Itai Zwecker. “There’s something about coming together, and dancing, and sharing art and movement and all those exchanges of energies that is cosmic and unmatched and also primordial. People have always come together to dance; people will always come together to dance.”

Shamel Pitts (The Observer)

Image Credit: Shamel Pitts / TRIBE in BLACK HOLE. Photographer Adeboye Brothers.

BEYOND THE DANCE

POET IN RESIDENCE: CUBS THE POET

CREATIVE SPACE IN A DIGITAL DOMAIN EXHIBITION

Saturday 29 April – Saturday 6 May

Various Times The Exchange

Capturing the essence of LDIF23 Christian “Cubs the Poet” Davenport will document the festival talking to artists, academics, choreographers and audience. Cubs started his career typing custom poems in the French Quarter of New Orleans in 2011. He was appointed the first poet laureate of Baton Rouge in 2019. Through his publishing company, Poetry Still Matters LLC, he creates custom books and recently collaborated with dancer and choreographer Maya Taylor and trombonist Jeremy Phipps on SHAPE | SHIFTER, a personal work examining the strain of assimilation, which premiered at Let’s Dance International Frontiers online in 2021 and in person in 2022.

Cubs the Poet responds to the people and events around him. His current projects include the SOUL STUDY which brings together his spontaneous typewriter poetry and POETRIATS (poem and art) into a physical studio space. As Poet in Residence, Cubs the Poet will document the festival through poetry, interviews, photography and painting.

Saturday 29 April – Saturday 6 May

Various Times Leicester, Leeds, Newcastle and London

Creative Space in a Digital Domain is part of the Black Digital Dance Revolution, a nationally significant project working with regional partners: Serendipity (Leicester), Northern School of Contemporary Dance (Leeds), Dance City (Newcastle), Dance Umbrella (London) and beyond. Taking over digital spaces across city centres, Creative Space in a Digital Domain will celebrate local dance heritage and connections around the world with bursts of movement.

Image Credits: Cubs the Poet and The Disappearing Act Exhibition by Yinka Esi Graves. Photographer Stuart Hollis for Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage.

LDIF23 NETWORKING EVENT

Tuesday 2 May 5.30pm Black Iron Social For conference delegates and Serendipity Connect members

An opportunity for delegates and members to join together for an exclusive networking event to meet fellow practitioners, debate and discuss development in the sector. Serendipity Connect is an international network of artists, arts administrators and academics which opens the door for innovative collaborations, talent development and ideas exchange.

Saturday 6 May 10.00pm – 1.00am Manhattan 34 By Invitation

Think secret passwords, fancy cocktails and great music. A chance to gather and celebrate Let’s Dance International Frontiers 2023, Serendipity’s Speakeasy is an exclusive after show party for festival royalty. With a guest DJ set from Cameron McKinney and a few more surprises in store, get on the guest list to find out more.

HOW TO BOOK

Book online at www.serendipity-uk.com

Call Serendipity on 0116 482 1394

Visit Serendipity at 21 Bowling Green Street, LE1 6AS

ACCOMMODATION

The Gresham Aparthotel

36 Market Street Leicester LE1 6DP

reservations@thegreshamaparthotel.com +44 (0) 116 243 7666

The Gresham Aparthotel provides luxury accommodation in the heart of Leicester. Its iconic building has been sympathetically renovated to incorporate stylish interiors and a home from home environment. During your stay, benefit from all of the facilities and services one would expect from a boutique hotel, whilst also enjoying the flexibility and comfort of apartment living.

Get 15% off when staying during LDIF23 with the discount code: Serendipity

SERENDIPITY

Institute for Black Arts and Heritage

Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage, Leicester. Serendipity’s mission is to centre perspectives from the African and African Caribbean Diaspora, embedded as part of cultural experiences for all. Serendipity’s programmes include the flagship dance festival, Let’s Dance International Frontiers, Black History Month Leicester and the Annual Windrush Day Lecture. Serendipity has established a legacy through hosting a growing a living archive documenting Black Arts and Culture, publishing the voices of Black arts practitioners, nurturing artists to create high quality new work, and mentoring young people.

© Elly Welford

Leading excellence in community and participatory dance. Supporting dancers, teaching artists, community practitioners & organisations to drive forward inclusion.

We are inspired by a belief that everyone has the right to experience and participate in dance in all its diversity. Discover our artist-led professional development, training & events, membership & insurance and connect with a network of 4,500 dance professionals across the UK and internationally

Black Iron Social 36 Market Street

Leicester

LE1 6DP

T: +44(0)116 243 7660

Curve Rutland Street Leicester LE1 3UL

T. +44(0)116 242 3595 W. www.curveonline.co.uk E. tickets@curvetheatre.co.uk

Dialogue Box

Serendipity 21 Bowling Green Street Leicester LE1 6AS

T: +44(0)116 482 1394 W: www.serendipity-uk.com E: info@serendipity-uk.com

Dupont Dance Stage School

Memory Lane

Leicester LE1 3UL

The Exchange

50 Rutland Street Leicester LE1 5TE

T: +44(0)116 262 1811 W: theexchangebar.co.uk

Manhattan 34 34 Rutland Street Leicester LE1 1RD

T: +44(0)116 262 8855 W: manhattan34.com

Mercure Leicester The Grand Hotel Granby Street Leicester LE1 6ES

T: +44(0)116 214 9257 E: info@mercureleicester.co.uk

Access Information

Serendipity is committed to ensuring that all are welcome to attend events at Let’s Dance International Frontiers. For further information, including venue layouts, details of events with British Sign Language and Audio Description or for marketing materials in accessible formats, please visit www.serendipityuk.com, email info@serendipity-uk.com or call +44(0)116 482 1394.

Programme Changes

All details were correct at the time of print. Whilst every effort will be made to keep to the announced programme, it may be necessary to make changes without notice and in accordance with current government guidelines. Refunds or exchanges will be made at the venue or organiser’s discretion, please see terms and conditions for further details.

Concessions

Where stated, concessions are available to full-time students (with student ID), state pensioners, people with disabilities, unemployed and children under 16. Please be prepared to provide proof of concessionary status.

Transaction Fees

Fees may apply to card payments made online, via telephone or in person. Every effort is made to ensure costs are clear where applicable.

LET’S DANCE INTERNATIONAL FRONTIERS IS PRODUCED BY SERENDIPITY

Serendipity 21 Bowling Green Street Leicester LE1 6AS

Room CL00.14, Clephan Building, De Montfort University, The Gateway Leicester, LE1 9BH

+44(0)116 482 1394  info@serendipity-uk.com  www.serendipity-uk.com www.ldif.com

SerendipityInstituteUK @SerendipityInstituteUK

Serendipity Artists Movement Ltd

Company Number in England and Wales 07248813 Charity Number in England and Wales 1160035