Signatures and Black British Dance Platform 2022

The Black British Dance Platform is a collaboration between Serendipity and Dance4, with the ambition to support and nurture dance artists from the African and African Caribbean Diaspora, who are based in England, with a desire to present work internationally and supports the aims of cultivating a sector that is representative of contemporary Britain.

Led by Serendipity, Signatures is a platform that provides opportunities to nurture and support undiscovered talent. Working with emerging dancers and choreographers based locally, nationally and internationally, Signatures will showcase excerpts of work in development; thought-provoking, explorative and always innovative, this is a unique opportunity to see rising stars of dance.

SIGNATURES

A Moment – Wakati – Nantea Dance Company

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.

High Science – Jamie Philbert

High Science arrives across the borders of the ‘interiority of sound’ (Ong) which allows the practitioners of Kalinda accessing of their monster (the ability to reveal), the demon (a guardian angel of refuge), the jumbie (shadow as a higher self). The piece highlights the ever present matricentrality of the sacred grounds of Kalinda as martial tradition or way of life throughout the Black Atlantic.

Breakin’ Boundaries – Shreya Vadnerkar

Through Bharatanatyam and breakdance, Breakin’ Boundaries is a showcase of British Indian experience. The feeling of belonging to many and to none, fitting stereotypes and trying to find one’s self.

BLACK BRITISH DANCE PLATFORM

…when I was… – Seren Marimba

Wading through fractured pasts and lost futures.

She, woman, her past/present/future. Drifting or drowning, in a stream of actions and words, most of which are hers, or at least they were.  She finds reflections of her Self in the River Goddess, the image of her mother and the words of her father.  Not quite a dream, not quite a memory. A haunting from the future.  But soaked to the soul in sweet-water she attempts to re-enchant the earth. A drop at a time.

…when I was… is an improvisational wave of movement, myth, sound and film.

With an original soundtrack from Aether Awe/ MC Buzz B

TREAD – Walker Movement Theatre Company

A treadmill; wasted shapes; Black bodies in perpetual motion; TREAD is a direct response to the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement wherein the Black experience was brought to the forefront of topical discourse. Through contemporary movement, pedestrianism, minimalism and repetition this dance work demonstrates internalised frustrations within the Black experience and actively challenges audience perceptions of the Black performing body.

BFG – Instigate Unknown

BFG  – Black Female Greats. A contemporary dance homage to the huge imprints that Black female jazz musicians have made which gave rise to the celebration of all Black art. The sounds of trailblazers such as, Dinah Washington, Nina Simone, Sarah Vaughan, and Roberta Flack pour onto a moonlit stage as dancers embody the musical structures of each score