30 | THE VOICE MARCH 2023
Midlands News
By Veron Graham
Dance to the rhythm FAMILY AFFAIR: EAC directors and mother and daughter Janice Davis and Romanah Buchannan; inset below, the production desk, and interior of their premises
Mother-daughter partnership providing help and support on so many levels through their popular Eloquent Arts Centre
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THRIVING PARTNERSHIP between an inspirational mother and daughter team is pushing a fledgling performing arts venue to unexpected heights. Less than three years have passed since Romanah Buchannan and mother Janice Davis opened the Eloquent Arts Centre (EAC) during the height of the COVID pandemic. Yet, while the entertainment sector reels from the aftermath of the pandemic and the costof-living crisis, the duo have grown the centre’s patronage to outgrow its current facilities in Aston, Birmingham, which now requires larger premises. Romanah, 26, told The Voice: “It was part of the plan to develop and grow, but we didn’t realise how many groups, and such a diverse number, would come to the Centre… and so quickly! We planned to be here for five years! “It’s exciting we are already having to look for a bigger building. We don’t want to move too far out from where we are, which many see as home.” Over 170 young people use the Centre each week, receiving performing arts tuition, mentoring and empowerment services as part of the Eloquent Dance Group. Added to this is a mixed gender bhangra group which performs across the region; also Heals and Feels, a community of dancers which started in London and has now set up
in the Second City working to empower women. There are also studio-based music technology sessions offered on a drop-in basis, and a professional troupe, the Fusion Dance Company, made up mainly of adult graduates from the Eloquent Dance Group. While working on the Centre launch, Romanah also put pen to paper during lockdown to chart her life story in what eventually became her debut book, Leap of Faith. It tells the story of a young Black dancer finding herself alone in white spaces where they felt they did not belong, which resulted in low confidence and thoughts of giving up.
ENCOURAGING
Romanah added: “It had been written for a while, and I didn’t think about releasing it but thought it could prove to be encouraging. “It follows my journey of having a supportive mum that threw me into dance classes, kept me encouraged and allowed me to do something with my gift to dance. “Lots of young Black boys and girls told me at the launch they could relate to the story.” Janice is a business and management graduate who mixes lecturing in dentistry with dental management compliance, mentoring and parental coaching alongside a directorial pocontinsition at Eloquent. She contin
ued: “As a child, Romanah was always dancing, so I knew this was something to encourage her to do. I had to make sacrifices to make sure I could allow her to develop that gift God has given her.
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“When she got a bit older and wanted to have a dance school, I wasn’t going to allow that if it was a secular place and didn’t reflect our faith in God. “Even still, her vision was for a smaller school that just did speweddings and spe nothcial events, noth ing on this scale. “I take my hat beoff to her be cause she’s gone into management mode, and just soared. Initially, she just wanted to choreograph and teach dance, but amazshe’s done amaz ingly well!” Romanah shares an interesting
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symmetry with Janice’s own literary exploits and offerings at Eloquent. “I have always been open about the challenges I faced before I became a parent, and we now offer workshops at the Centre to provide help with parenting, based on my book.”
That book – Confessions of an Unprepared Parent – was launched last Spring and similarly tells Janice’s own sometimes harrowing story of facing her own challenges, avoiding being hindered by emotions and how she built a better understanding of and relationships with her two children, Romanah and her younger son Jovan
Malcolm, 20, who now plays as a striker for West Bromwich Albion in the English Football League’s Championship. “We have been through a lot as a family, but it’s been comforting to see that everything we went through as a family, we’ve been able to use to encourage other parents and children to see that we went through it, and they can overcome them. “We’re not afraid to say that we had one bottle of milk and a loaf of brown bread in the fridge. We would go to my nan’s because I didn’t have money for dinner, things were hard. We’ve never forgotten that. “It’s comforting to them to see us as role models and realise that they can come through.”
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HARROWING
