thedancingwoodpecker

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Thank you for all the beauty joy and depth you have given to say many of us around the globe. May you rest in peace. The one and only Aretha Franklin. Countless times your music has lifted an otherwise ordinary moment and made great moments magic!

#aretha franklin #queen of soul #genius #love #rest in peace #art

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Inspiration for the week! Antonia Singla Contreras ‘La Singla’. The very definition of power, strength and presence. It seems that this incredible artist was hard of hearing! I was so refreshed by her what seems to be cantiñas or alegrias (please correct me if I’m wrong), which so often has the same structure and energy and yet here she dances in her very own way, in trousers and with her hair down! Love it! Also interesting to see that whilst she is seldom spoken of as a reference I feel the movement quality she so effortlessly possesses is what so many flamenco dancers aspire to today. I will say nothing of her feet! Just too much! The incredible Olga Llorente who one can see in the best tablaos in Spain now (still in her early 20s) feels like the next in line of these master artist/ dancers from Barcelona starting with Carmen Amaya and La Singla! 

#lasingla #flamenco #powerful #women #barcelona #freedom #expression

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This!!! From the soul!

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Brilliant anecdote about stereotyping and the lack of diversity in how black women are represented! She says so much in so little! (click on title to see video)

#stereotypes stereotypes comedian sarahjones themoth integrity itsnotallaboutthemoney

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I posted this last year, and to celebrate International Women’s day today and speak to the need for a deep shift and rebalance of the white supremacist patriarchy that this planet has sat in over the past centuries, I invite us to hear the truthful words of Angela Davis for some inspiration, speaking here at last year’s WOW festival in London. 

Some of the most refreshing words I’ve heard in a long time! Angela Davis speaking at the Women of the World Festival 2017. The complete talk was full of insights on the interconnectedness of patriarchy, racism, the incarceration system, domestic, sexual, gender violence… and the need for intersectional feminism where ALL women are represented and representing. Yes yes yes!!!

#International women's day #feminism #angeladavis #intersectional feminism #intersectional social justice #equality #voices #wowfestival

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‘SPEAKING YOUR TRUTH IS THE MOST POWERFUL TOOL WE ALL HAVE’ Oprah Winfrey, Golden Globes 2018.

Let this inspiring speech propel us all into 2018 with the energy we need to help give our unique contribution to making a more equal world!

So refreshing and humbling to hear such honesty and fearlessness dressed in such compassion and hope! Yes yes yes! Buzzing right here right now!

#recy taylor #oprah winfrey #golden globes 2018 #empoweringwomen #thetimeisnow #empoweringblackwomen #inspiration

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photographs of judith jameson performing in alvin ailey’s cry, 1970s

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Thank you Inua for sharing these truths and speaking so honestly. Yes yes yes. For anyone who hasn’t seen this play you must, it is brilliant!!

#inua ellams #theatre #culture #national theatre #inspiration truths immigration excellence

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Solange Speaks About Her "Rise and Fall" While Accepting Her WOTY Award on Glamour Video

Yes yes yes Solange!! Thank you!!

#solange #being a black woman #being a woman #honesty #inspiration #zapateando por la vida

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FEEL

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Feeling blessed! Tonight and tomorrow I will get to enjoy being on stage with these two wonderful artists Asha Thomas and Guilhem Tarroux! CLAY will be part of an evening of dance and live music as part of #Outofthesystem for Dance Umbrella. A HUGE thank you to superman Freddie Opoku-Addaie for giving us this opportunity to be a part of this awesome festival within a festival! It has also been an honour working with the brilliant 'Funmi Adewole as our dramaturge when reworking the piece, thank you! And Rachael Bradbear thank you for all your help and generosity! 

Excited and grateful! Mucha Mierda to everyone on over the next few days Alesandra Seutin, #SelloPesa, #LaMacana #YaabaFunk #KwekuAacht and #Kioko, a disfrutaaaar...!!!

Part of SystemsLAB image by: Sheli Ali 

Freddie Opoku-Addaie is supported by Studio Wayne McGregor through the FreeSpace programme.

#Dance Umbrella #out of the system #freddie opoku addaie #asha thomas #guillermo guillén #funmi adewole #swm #sheli ali #clay

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Simone Rocha by Julia Pelzer

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AUTUMNAL FRUITS

When seeds start showing their fruit! It is an absolute honour to be a part of these projects over the next few months. Four projects at different stages of their evolution and the result of encounters, talks, explorations and lots of work with some pretty awesome people!

- Gurumbé: I have the pleasure of performing alongside the screening of Miguel Angel Rosales’ film Gurumbé. Canciones de tu memoria Negra, chronicling the African presence in Andalucía between the 15th- 19th Centuries.

- Nay Triple Bill: Mbulelo N’dabeni will be presenting a number of his works, one being our current Work in Progress. An exploration of language and gender  asking what Black freedom looks like feels like and sounds like in a world where we haven’t seen it before. Watch this space! 

- No Frills, dotdotdot dance: alongside Magdalena Mannion and Noemí Luz we will be taking the latest version of our first production back on tour! We’ll also be running a number of workshops along the way and end with a Tablao night! 

- CLAY: a collaboration between myself, Asha Thomas and Guillermo Guillén will be a part of ‘Out of the System’ at Rich Mix curated by Freddie Opoku Addaie for Dance Umbrella. We will be sharing the floor on both nights with Alesandra Seutin and a number of dance artists and musicians. The main festival is an absolute treat, and the highlight for me is Rocio Molina’s ‘Caida del Cielo’, really not to be missed!! ;)

Click on posters for details on how to get tickets!

Forever grateful to all and everyone that makes this all possible! 

#Gurumbé. Canciones de tu Memoria Negra #Mbulelo N'dabeni #N'da dance Company #No Frills Tour 2017 #dotdotdot dance #Magdalena mannion #noemi luz #CLAY #Asha Thomas #guillermo guillén #Out of the System #Dance Umbrella #Freddie Opoku Addaie #ADIFF #Oslo Flamenco Festival

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Dwelling: in this space we breathe by Khadija Saye

Khadija Saye: artist on cusp of recognition when she died in Grenfell

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Image Kirsty Wigglesworth

My heart goes out to all the children, women and men whose lives have been taken, to those who have to face life after having lost everything in this criminal tragedy, to the people who had to watch their neighbours jump out of windows or throw their loved ones out in the hope of saving them, to people who have lost family and friends and are waiting for answers as they grieve. There are no words.

This is political.

#grenfell tower #austerity #gentrification #sorry for not listening

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Inspiration of the month

Last week I had the honour and privilege of participating in LDIF2017 Festival run by Serendipity. Asha, Guille and I performed CLAY at the Attenborough Arts Centre. One of the few times I’ve come off stage saying that felt quite right! Probably a first for me! Amazing how long it takes for things to start settling! I feel like only now is the piece really making sense to me! We got a great audience response and the brilliant questions after the piece seemed to indicate that it really resonated with audience members. [I will be writing properly about CLAY soon!]. The day after the performance the festival screened Gurumbé: Canciones de tu memoria Negra, by Miguel Angel Rosales. The two are connected in so many ways, it’s great that the programers reflected that, I also want to write about Gurumbé properly! So many amazing things have been happening and as someone who processes things slowly, I’ve got a huge backlog of stuff I want to say!!!

What I wanted to write about today was day 3 of the festival (for me, the festival launches annually on International day of dance, 29th of April). Day 3 for me was the conference. This year’s edition centred around Identity and Choreographic Practice, I took part in the Colonial past, New Aesthetics panel. I didn’t end up saying any of what I prepared in my paper, but just the preparation for the talk, got me all excited and reminded me of my uni days (I secretly love ideas and thought and libraries!), it allowed me to analyse and think about my journey so far in a way that I never do. It also helped me realise how much I’ve come to know, over the years, about the unspoken politics of identity and heritage in flamenco!!! Yet again another topic for another day!! So let me get to the point!

I need to shout out loud about the buzz I’m still feeling from the conference! The whole day was a sharing of experiences and ideas from practitioners of African decent from the continent to across the diaspora although mainly the UK and US! Not only did I learn loads about key players in “Black”dance (if there is such a thing but for us to be clear) in the UK and US past and present but I got to meet all these trailblazers and inspiring dancers! Pinch me please! I would like to list everyone that spoke because it was such a pleasure hearing these different perspectives and experiences and then I’d like to focus on a few that have just blown me away! Delia Barker and Sandie Bourne spoke about the continued struggle for visibility for Black dancers in ballet. Sheron Wray, Terry Ofosu, Francis Angol and Kendrik Sandy spoke about recognising the critical place of improvisation as performance in re-inscribing Africa’s multi-dimensional aesthetic, this panel really resonated with me. I had the privilege of sharing the panel with H Patten, Nora Chipaumire and David Hamilton! 

Starting off the day was the incredible Joan Myers Brown. As soon as she started talking the inspiration began! I cannot begin to say how before even finding out about her incredible legacy as Founder and Artistic Director or Philadanco, amongst many other amazing accomplishments, her whit, elegance and poise were quite overwhelming, it felt like being in the presence of real royalty!! Then added to her determination, business mindedness and vision as someone who saw a need to create a nurturing space of excellence for black dancers, and so did, I was awe struck! I also have to add that Joan seemingly effortlessly continues to travel and tour with her company at the age of 84 and doesn’t look a day over 60. Impressed no lo siguiente!!

Here is a little videography of Mrs Myers Brown.

Somewhere during Mrs Myers talk I turned to look through the audience and I spotted Kristina and Sadé Allenye! Another pinch me please moment! I had seen them perform in Akram Khan’s Kaash when it came to The Teatro Central in Seville last year. They are both exquisite and powerful dancers of amazing skill, versed in so many different styles including African dance, hip-hop, contemporary and kathak! It was so heart warming to see them present at this conference, before heading off to their own rehearsals of their duet A Night’s Game which I can’t wait to see!

By the first break I was already enthused and so grateful to Pawlet Brookes the Founder and Artistic director of Serendipity for creating this space for this discussion, or just for bringing all theses amazing people together!

The panel on improvisation was opened by Dr Sheron Way, this is when I almost started jumping in my seat!! She gave us a little introduction into her work around Embodiology: 'A West African-informed theory of improvisation-as-performance’. Everything Sheron went on to describe about the relationship between music and ‘dancer’ ‘audience’ and ‘spectator’, rhythm and repetition was screaming Flamenco out to me!!! WHEN THE DOTS JOIN!!! I will say this, what Gurumbé ultimately suggests is that Flamenco is directly connected to West Africa not so much in its use of specific steps or even specific rhythms, which is what the study of Flamencology so often searches for to construct the history of Flamenco, but in the very construct and expressivity of the form. Here in Dr Way’s work is the actual breakdown, an almost scientific approach to how improvisation works in specific West African cultures such as the Ewe and Yoruba. I have goosebumps! Yes I have intuitively know this, but to sit and hear someone describe it so well was ground breaking for me! Thank you Sheron for this incredible work!

Here is a video of some of Sheron’s work, amazing to see her trajectory and how it has come together in her latests research on Embodiology: 

Last and certainly not least I have to mention the incredible Nora Chipaumire, we were on the same panel, but before seeing her work, just from some of her comments and a brief talk we had over lunch, I could tell she was a badass boss! What I found most inspiring was Nora’s expansive energy and poignant reflections. One of the only practitioners on the panels who was born on the African continent, Zimbabwe to be specific, she seemed to be coming from a place of assertion and working from the idea of being present, whereas I sensed that much of our discussion for those of us from the diaspora was centred around asking to be seen, or somehow looking for validation and to a certain extent inclusion. For me meeting Nora felt like a glimpse at what we should all be looking for: unapologetic dialogue. You come to my side for a minute, why do I always have to come to yours? Yes yes yes!!!

I don’t want to put any words in anyone’s mouth though, Nora speaks beautifully about her work in this recent CNN interview. (click to see)

I am also very excited because next week I will be attending a series of workshops she will be giving as part of Africa Moment created by Aida Colmenero Diaz which opens with a screening of Gurumbé: Canciones de tu memoria negra. Not to be missed!! Details for the full festival programme can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/AidaColmeneroDiaz/ 

Serendipity it is!

Here Nora Chipaumire captured by Andrew Boyle.

I am eternally grateful to people like Pawlet Brookes in her work through Serendipity, and Aida C Gomez for creating spaces, platforms and events where the work of these wonderful artists can be seen and experienced. I left feeling like had learnt so much. I am starved of these sorts of encounters so this was real nourishment!! 

#LDIF17 #serendipity #dance #CLAY #kendrick sandy #joan myers brown #Philadanco #Allenye dance #Dr Sheron Wray #embodiology #Pawlet Brookes #Nora Chipaumire #africa moment #Aida C Diaz #Gurumbe: canciones de tu memoria negra

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When I first saw this video it was called ‘Louis Armstrong in Africa’, but as soon as I saw the people and the sumptuous Kente cloth it looked to me like they were Ghanaians, this particular version clearly states it is Ghana which during colonial times was referred to as the Gold Coast, we need not go into that today.... I am half Ghanaian (on my mother’s side) and here Louis Armstrong invites this congregation of people to dance to t(his) music if they think they can!

Ha, when the first man got up my heart literally melted! Almost brought me to tears!!! Seeing everyone join in and how everyone danced to what must have been very different music to them, suggested so much to me! My insides are tingling! Not only do I see where some of my most natural movement must come from (even though I’ve never taken part in a traditional Ghanaian party or ever seen my Grandparents bust a single dance move), but it’s like oh my goodness that is so familiar to my most instinctive way of moving (completely different to the movement quality of the African Americans, who are in Western clothes). I also see Flamenco there, particularly in the more elderly dancers. 

Thank you for sharing Phyllis! This is priceless!

#Loui Armstrong in Ghana #impromtu dancing