IN SITU: RESPONDING TO SPACE, PLACE, PEOPLE AND TIME 3 MAY 2022 CURVE
CONFERENCE PACK
From Moving Lines: Fifty Reasons to Dance by Patiricia Vester
Welcome I am delighted to welcome you to Let’s Dance International Frontiers 2022 and the conference this year exploring the theme In Situ: Responding to Space, Place, People and Time. Sharing physical space is creates something in the moment that cannot be replicated, dancers respond to the stage they are performing on, the audience they are performing to, the city they are performing in. There is something to treasure when you are sharing that space and time together. We are grateful to return to this predominantly live, in person festival after two years of adapting and evolving within digital spaces. The theme for LDIF22, In Situ: Responding to Space, Place, People and Time, was really inspired by considering how dance inhabits different spaces. Over the last two years, restrictions have shifted the landscape of performance online, however, dancers themselves have taken to the streets to dance, they have taken classes in their kitchens. I think that dancers have always created site specific works, this has certainly been true for LDIF over the years. I think that restrictions have forced us to consider the performance space in a different way and we have seen this for ourselves as we have collaborated with artists to produce work throughout the pandemic. As in previous years, the annual conference is an opportunity to hold space and be presence. As we respect and honour those who have come before us, those who are paving the way forward and those waiting in the wings as future leaders. All voices are valued and heard. We hope you enjoy this event and events throughout the festival and take time for gratitude at this opportunity to both reunite with old friends of the festival and meet new faces. Let’s Dance!
Pawlet Brookes MBE CEO and Artistic Director
Tuesday 3 May 2022
In Situ: Responding to Space, Place People and Time
10:00am – 10:30am
Registration and Coffee
10:30am - 10:40am
Welcome by Pawlet Brookes MBE
10:40am - 10:45am
Jemima Tawose Performance: Suspended Dips
10:45am - 11:30am
John Hunte Opening Keynote
11:30am - 11:45am
Coffee Break
11:45am - 12:25pm
Thomas Talawa Prestø
12:25pm - 12:55pm
Monique Jonas
12:55pm - 1:00pm
Film: Let’s Dance in the City
1:00pm - 2:00pm
Lunch Break
2:00pm - 2:10pm
Yinka Esi Graves Film: The Bridge
2:10pm - 2:40pm
Henri Tauliaut and Annabel Guérédrat
1:40pm - 3:10pm
Makeda Thomas
3:10pm - 3:20pm
Coffee Break
3:20pm - 4:05pm
Eduardo Vilaro
4:05pm - 4:45pm
Group Discussion and Concluding Points
4:45pm – 5:00pm
Pawlet Brookes Closing Remarks
5:30pm
Networking: BlackIron Social
Pawlet Brookes MBE Pawlet Brookes MBE is the founder, CEO and artistic director of Serendipity – Institute for Black Arts and Heritage. An experienced and highly respected senior leader and producer, Brookes has been at the forefront of the development of Black arts in the UK since she was appointed Marketing Manager at the Nia Centre (Manchester) in the 90s, then Artistic Director of Peepul Centre (Leicester) and ultimately Chief Executive of Rich Mix (London). Brookes has been the Arts Council assessor for a number of Black arts capital projects, such as Bernie Grant Arts Centre (London) and National Centre for Carnival Arts (Luton). She has over 30 years’ experience as a cultural leader with expertise in partnership building, international programming and cultural diversity. She is the trailblazer behind several initiatives with arts and cultural organisations both in the UK and internationally. Brookes has pioneered the establishment of annual dance festival in Leicester since 2011, Let’s Dance International Frontiers, and coordinates the high profile annual Black History Month Leicester. With Serendipity she has produced two heritage initiatives Lost Legends: 30 Years of Black History Month in Leicester (2016-2017) and Archiving the Past: Reflecting the Future (2018-2020). Under Brookes’ leadership, Serendipity was recently awarded £760k to support the development of a new project Unearthed: Forgotten Histories. Brookes has produced several large-scale projects including two for the 2012 Cultural Olympiad, Ballare: To Dance with classical composer Phillip Herbert, and Follow the Light, a carnival parade as part of the Olympic torch relay in the East Midlands. In her extensive career, she has worked alongside a wide range of international artists, directors and companies from Soweto Kinch to Nina Simone, Steven Berkoff, Scottish Ballet, Geraldine O’Connor, Ballet Black, Mahogany Arts, Daksha Sheth, Phillip Herbert, Mica Paris, Akala, Gil Scott Heron, Aswad, Kyle Abraham, Germaine Acogny and Philadanco. Brookes has edited over 18 publications focusing on Black arts, heritage including Creating Socially Engaged Art: Can Dance Change the World? (2021) and BlackInk: Arts, Heritage and Cultural Politics, a magazine published annually for Black History Month. Brookes is currently a member of Arts Council England’s Area Council, Chair of Autograph ABP and an associate lecturer at Falmouth University. Brookes was a finalist for the 2009 National Regeneration and Renewals Award for Cultural Leadership, recipient of BME Leader at the Women’s Awards 2018 and One Dance UK’s Outstanding Programme Award 2018. Brookes was awarded an MBE for services to the arts and cultural diversity in the 2022 New Year Honours.
Annabel Guérédrat Annabel Guérédrat is a choreographer, dancer and performer from Martinique where she lives and works. She is certified in literature and history from the renowned University of Sorbonne, Paris and an educator in the art of Somatic movement through the Body Mind Centering® method. Guérédrat is also certified in contemporary dance, she was trained in Afro-Brazilian dance, Butoh dance, yoga and pilates. The somatic techniques she acquired through all this training allowed Guérédrat to include in her performances very personal and sensitive gestures. In 2003, Guérédrat founded her own dance company, Artincidence. From 2006, she continued to lead the company alongside her creations, danced actions and workshops for sex workers, prisons, and educational, medical, social and humanitarian environments. Then she opened herself up to new exchanges and created new artistic collaborations with Caribbean, South American and African choreographers. In 2008, Guérédrat was recognised for her authentic solo Resilience at the first Caribbean Biennale of Dance in Havana, Cuba. Between June and September 2010, she made three decisive encounters. She met with Meredith Monk, Keith Hennessy and Anna Halprin. Hence followed her performance A Freak Show for S. presenting her whole body as an opened entity and paying tribute to the Black Venus, Sarah Baartman. In 2012, Guérédrat opened a new cycle of performances around Black feminism, concerning the social and politic body of Black and mixed coloured women in the Caribbean area. Finally, in 2015, more preoccupied by the question of post-identity, she created the duo, Valeska and You with the performer drummer Franck Martin, around the figure of the witch, inspired by Valeska Gert. Between 2015 and 2017, she realised a new series of performances about Caribbean myths: A Smell of Success, Success is Success and Sun of Success with the visual artist Henri Tauliaut, from Guadeloupe. As previously mentioned, she founded FIAP (Festival International d’Art Performance) with Henri Tauliaut in April 2017 in Martinique. The second edition of FIAP took place in Martinique in November 2019. In 2018, Guérédrat created two new performances about modern witches: Hysteria and I’m a Bruja.
Monique Jonas Jonas began dancing with the Chance to Dance programme before training at the Arts Educational Schools London in Musical Theatre and Jazz dance. She completed her training at the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance and received her Master’s Degree from The London Contemporary Dance School, passing with distinction in 2017. Jonas joined the Richard Alston Dance Company as an apprentice in 2016 and has toured extensively, both nationally and internationally with RADC until their final performance in 2020. She has recently been a part of both the creation, and the 2019 UK tour with Mathew Bourne’s New Adventures, in their latest production of Romeo and Juliet. Her commercial work includes working for Paloma Faith, Jamie Cullum, Amaarae and Arcade Fire. Externally, Jonas has newly founded her own dance company, Jona Dance. She has been choreographing, movement directing, teaching and producing work both online and in person, with the aim of amplifying silenced voices through contemporary dance in the UK. Over the years, Jonas has also worked with Rambert Dance Company - A Linha Curva and Garsington Opera, Sally Marie, Hubert Essakow, Kim Brandstrup, Arcade Fire, Theo Adams Company, The Ramona Flowers and Chris Thomas Dance to name a few. She is currently on tour with Mathew Bourne’s Nutcracker!
John Hunte John Hunte is an arts practitioner, activist, and teacher. He is armed with a Diploma in Dance Theatre and Production from the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in Jamaica, a BS Dance from State University of New York - College at Brockport, an MFA in Performing Arts Management from Brooklyn College, New York City in 2003 anda PhD degree in cultural studies from the Faculty of Humanities and Education at the Cave Hill, Barbados Campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) in 2014. His PhD thesis, Beyond the Silence: Men, Dance and Masculinity in the Caribbean, interrogates where dance and masculinity intersect as perceived through the lens and perception of men who dance onstage. Hunte teaches cultural studies and gender studies modules at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus on occasion. As practitioner, John still works with academies, colleges and programmes across the region. He is also Executive Director with Barbados Dance Project, an ongoing programme for budding dancers to educate, collaborate and engage the Barbadian Community since 2014. Hunte was Cultural Officer – Dance at the National Cultural Foundation (NCF), Barbados and was Artistic Director, CARIFESTA XIII in Barbados from February to September 2017. Hunte is the current executive director of Barbados Dance Project Inc. a not-for-profit organisation dedicated the collaboration, educating and engaging through dance. He current serves at artistic director and principal for Barbados Dance Theatre Inc. He sits and supports the Barbados Landship Association Advisory Committee. Hunte is an ordained minister in the Caribbean regional Spiritual Baptist Community and currently serves as Chair of the Council of Spiritual Baptist Churches of Barbados (CSBCB).
Thomas Talawa Prestø Thomas Talawa Prestø has codified a system of body movement, which is rooted in the traditional African and Caribbean movement aesthetic, yet relevant in the contemporary. Thomas has been adopted into Yoruba and Ewe people by elders and has received names respectively. Some examples of these are the Yoruba name Ajamu (he who fights for what he believes in) and the Ewe name Adamdoba (whose power is of better quality). By his elders in the Caribbean his style was described as Talawa (strong, resilient, rooted). Talawa has stuck with Thomas as a nickname, and is also what he chose to call his dance technique, respecting the roots and that the technique is systemised by him, but created by a people! Since 1998, Prestø has spent his time actively carving a place for the Black dancing body in Scandinavia. He has performed Caribbean and African dance for more than a quarter of Norway’s population and reached the semi-finals of Norway’s Got Talent, being the first time a full Black company advanced on a Norwegian TV Show and performed traditional dance live. His technique is taught on five continents and is continuing to strive to show the relevance of ancient power with a modern use.
Henri Tauliaut For two decades now Henri Tauliaut, artist and researcher, has been investigating in his work relationships between art and science, focusing on two principal topics: digital art and performance. Since December 2019, Henri has been working on a doctoral thesis: Biological and digital arts in relationship with the living among contemporary Caribbean and American artists. Tauliaut exhibited his art and performed in the Caribbean region, South and North America, France, Senegal and China. Since 2013 Tauliant has presented:
2013 - E.I.M.O. (Environement Interactif Minimaliste et Organique) at the International Biennale of Contemporary Art in Martinique. 2015 - representing Guadeloupe/France at the twelfth Havana Biennale with the project Jungle Sphere 3.0. 2016 - Tauliaut presented his work Flying Shape Courtship at the National Gallery of Jamaica, during the international exhibition (digital). July 2018 – Tauliaut’s artist residence at the prestigious Red Gate Residency in Beijing, China. October 2018 - Empowerment exhibition at Fonds d’Art Contemporain in Guadeloupe. April 2019 – performance of Bubbles at Wolfsonian-FIU Museum of Miami, as part of the Festival du tout-Monde organised by the French Institute of Miami. Given that “confinement” is working to promote Afro-Caribbean spirituality including Voudou, Santeria and Candomblé religions by using the playful approach of video art game and installation art. Since 2015, he produced a series of performances with choreographer-performer Annabel Guérédrat. Together, they developed various artistic universes such as Aqua, Iguana, AfroNative-Punk and Techno-Shaman. They are also co-directors of Cyber Afro-Punk Laboratory focused on performative and Land Art practice at Savane des Petrifications in Martinique. In 2016, Henri Tauliaut and Annabel Guérédrat were invited to the artist residency NAVE in Santiago de Chili and in April 2017 they organised the first edition of FIAP (Festival International d’Art Performance) in Martinique. Henri Tauliaut also created monumental murals such as Matynina at Malecon in Fort-de-France in 2017 and Rizome in June 2018 at the University Library of the University of Antilles.
Makeda Thomas New York/Trinidad based Makeda Thomas is a dancer, choreographer, artistic director, writer and curator. Her work lives at the intersection of dance, Black feminisms, African diasporic theory, and Caribbean performance aesthetics, in a discourse inextricably linked to spirit. Marked by radical interdisciplinarity, her recent work was presented at NYC’s El Barrio Artspace, Winnipeg’s Gas Station Arts Center, the Delaware Museum of Art, Turchin Center for the Arts, the Centre for Creative and Festival Arts, and in the context of Carnival. She has presented intermedia performances in relation to her scholarship internationally, including at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York Live Arts, HARLEM Stage/Aaron Davis Hall, Teatro Africa, the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, CCA7, and Mexico’s Teatro de la Ciudad, with awards from Creative Capital, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, and 651 ARTS, among others. Thomas founded the Trinidad-based Dance and Performance Institute in 2010. Thomas’ inquiry into the performance knowledges, technologies, disciplinary and conceptual frames of Carnival has evolved through performance, writing and publication, in theatres and the streets. Works of mas for Trinidad Carnival include “Carnival Baby” (2019) in collaboration with Berlin-based visual artist, Shannon Lewis and “Spirit Dolls” (2020), in collaboration with Trinidad-based visual artist, Brianna McCarthy. “Whitewash” and “Blue Blue”, a collaboration with Tracey Sankar-Charleau, were presented for Brooklyn’s West Indian American Day Carnival in 2017 and 2018, respectively. “When Dolls Dance: Belmont Baby Dolls” was published in “My Voice, My Practice: Black Dance” (2020) and “Dance Like Douen” is to be published in the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Black Dance Studies. Her writing is also published in “CURATING LIVE ARTS: Critical Perspectives, Essays, and Conversations on Theory and Practice” and SmallAxe, a platform for criticism primarily concerned with thinking in and through the regional/diasporic Caribbean. Her scholarship has been presented for the Collegium for African Diasporic Dance, Congress for Research on Dance, Society of Dance History Scholars, Dancing the African Diaspora, New Perspectives in African Performing and Visual Arts, The Center for Ideas and Society, and the University of the West Indies. As a dancer, Makeda Thomas performed internationally in the companies of Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE, URBAN BUSH WOMEN, and Rennie Harris/ Puremovement. She began her study in Brooklyn, New York with Michael Goring and Eleo Pomare, continuing on scholarship at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance, The Paul Taylor School, and Hofstra University where she earned a B.A. in Dance and English. She holds an MFA in Dance from Hollins University. Thomas continues to create and perform internationally while living in New York City and Port of Spain.
Eduardo Vilaro Eduardo Vilaro is the artistic director and CEO of Ballet Hispánico (BH). He was named BH's Artistic Director in 2009, becoming only the second person to head the company since its founding in 1970, and in 2015 was also named Chief Executive Officer. Vilaro has infused Ballet Hispánico’s legacy with a bold brand of contemporary dance that reflects America’s changing cultural landscape. Vilaro’s philosophy of dance stems from a basic belief in the power of the arts to change lives, reflect and impact culture, and strengthen community. He considers dance to be a liberating, non-verbal language through which students, dancers, and audiences of all walks of life and diverse backgrounds, can initiate ongoing conversations about the arts, expression, identity, and the meaning of community. Born in Cuba and raised in New York from the age of six, Vilaro’s own choreography is devoted to capturing the Latin American experience in its totality and diversity, and through its intersectionality with other diasporas. His works are catalysts for new dialogues about what it means to be an American. He has created more than 40 ballets with commissions that include the Ravinia Festival, the Chicago Sinfonietta, the Grant Park Festival, the Lexington Ballet and the Chicago Symphony. A Ballet Hispánico dancer and educator from 1988 to 1996, he left New York, earned a master’s in interdisciplinary arts at Columbia College Chicago and then embarked on his own act of advocacy with a ten-year record of achievement as Founder and Artistic Director of Luna Negra Dance Theater in Chicago. The recipient of numerous awards and accolades, Vilaro received the Ruth Page Award for choreography in 2001; was inducted into the Bronx Walk of Fame in 2016; and was awarded HOMBRE Magazine’s 2017 Arts and Culture Trailblazer of the Year. In 2019, he received the West Side Spirit’s WESTY Award, was honored by WNET for his contributions to the arts, and was the recipient of the James W. Dodge Foreign Language Advocate Award. In August 2020, City and State Magazine included Vilaro in the inaugural Power of Diversity: Latin 100 list. In January 2021, Vilaro was recognised with a Compassionate Leaders Award, given to leaders who are courageous, contemplative, collaborative, and care about the world they will leave behind. He is a well-respected speaker on such topics as diversity, equity, and inclusion in the arts, as well as on the merits of the intersectionality of cultures and the importance of nurturing and building Latinx leaders.
Jemima Tawose Suspended Dips Jemima Tawose is a final year student at De Montfort University, studying Dance. "Suspended Dips, a work I created on a module named dance technique and performance. We were instructed to work with a set repertoire from an artist of our choice exploring ways in which we could translate their material into our own bodies creating something individual to us. I chose to learn repertoire from the artist Yin Yue in her solo Shapeshifter (March 2014). Yin Yue fuses contemporary dance techniques with traditional Chinese folk dance creating work that’s dynamic, emotional and physical. Suspended Dips represents reflection and appreciation for what I have accomplished."
Let's Dance in the City Filmmaker Ashley Karrell and dancers TiaMonique Uzor, Helder Delgado and Jessica Walker take to the streets and buildings across Leicester to respond with movement, embracing the theme for Let's Dance International Frontiers 2022; In Situ: Responding to Space, Place, People and Time. Now more than ever it is important for artists to take ownership of public spaces, whether they are structures of power, places to gather or historic landmarks. The films are available to revisit: https://youtube.com/playlist? list=PLpqkmrzbh12YeFWv44A4B0HkhmS5A1 MK_
The Bridge and afterthought a Yinka Esi Graves El Puente de San Telmo, Seville, Spain. Yinka used to cross this bridge on a daily basis. She always felt a strange downward pull as she crossed it and remembers thinking one day: I have people in this river. She later found out this was once the Puerto de Las Indias (The Port of The Indies). The port where the ships from the point of no return disembarked. What does this place have to tell us about who is viable and so therefore visible and who is not viable and so therefore invisible? Concept and Dance by Yinka Graves Filmed by Miguel Angel Rosales.
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 have established a legacy; hosting a growing living archive documenting Black arts, heritage and culture, publishing the voices of Black arts practitioners and community activists, nurturing artists to create high quality new work and mentoring young people.
Let's Dance International Frontiers Launching each year on 29 April, to celebrate International Dance Day, LDIF brings diversity to the forefront in dance with a two week festival showcasing new work from local emerging talent to internationally acclaimed companies. Showcasing high quality dance that celebrates diversity and intersectional identities, to date has supported the work of 280 artists from over 46 countries The theme for LDIF22 is In Situ: Responding to to Space, Place, People and Time.
Ashley Mayeux in Paris. By Melika Dez
Unearthed: Forgotten Histories Unearthed: Forgotten Histories, seeks to make a structural difference to the recording, documentation and sharing of Black history and heritage in the UK, and to give back hidden histories for everyone to share. Serendipity will create a digital living archive that encompasses the history of the African and African Caribbean communities across this region, amplify the historical picture and tell stories from a different perspective. Alongside this, Serendipity will lead on Young Archivists, an accredited training programme aimed at young people from diverse communities who are currently under-represented in the heritage sector, to learn from heritage experts. Educational resources, events and exhibitions are also planned with volunteers given training to develop skills and support the collection and preservation of oral histories and archival material.
Black Digital Dance Revolution Black Dance Digital Revolution is a nationally significant project working with regional partners; Serendipity (Leicester), Northern School of Contemporary Dance (Leeds), Dance City (Newcastle), Dance Umbrella (London) and beyond. Drawing on the dance heritage of these four cities to develop a touring exhibition and online interface, alongside the creation of a short dance films, accompanied by CPD opportunities, workshops and artist led residencies, commitment to access and underserved communities.
Notes
21 Bowling Green Street Leicester LE1 6AS
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
@SerendipityLeicester @serendipity.ltd @serendipityinfo Serendipity Artists Movement Ltd. is incorporated under the Companies Act. Company number 07248813 and its governing document is its Memorandum and Articles of Association. Serendipity Artists Movement Ltd. is a registered charity, number 1160035.