The annual Let’s Dance International Frontiers festival is underway in Leicester for 2024, promoting exciting new work from dynamic and diverse creators from 29 April – 4 May.
Taking place at Curve on 1 May, join Signatures and Black British Dance Platform for an extraordinary evening of dance:
Signatures and Black British Dance Platform presented in collaboration with FABRIC/Birmingham and Nottingham 1 May , Curve Leicester, Studio Theatre at 7.30pm
The showcase combines two platforms in one electric evening of local, national, and international emerging dancers and choreographers.
Pawlet Brookes MBE, Artistic Director of Serendipity and Let’s Dance International Frontiers, said: “We are very proud of our Signatures and Black British Dance Platform double-headed programme at this year’s LDIF. In showcasing the best in international emerging dance practice, Signatures has developed over 78 artists since we began in 2010. This year selected artists demonstrate innovative practice connecting across the African Diaspora and Europe.
“Black British Dance Platform is a collaboration between Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage and FABRIC, the dance organisation based in Nottingham and Birmingham. Black British Dance Platform aims to support UK-based dance artists from the African and African Caribbean Diaspora with an ambition to present work internationally. The platform supports the aims of cultivating a sector that is representative of contemporary Britain.”
SIGNATURES programme:
‘Death of The Bachelors’ by BlacBrik (UK)
‘Death of The Bachelors’ follows two older men who form an unlikely friendship as they reminisce about their younger days as bachelors. Through their conversations, they reflect on the choices they’ve made and the paths their lives have taken, both good and bad. As they come to terms with their past and the inevitability of aging, they celebrate the power of friendship and the beauty of life’s journey.
BLACK BRITISH DANCE PLATFORM programme:
‘Let Freedom Ring’ by Djoe Tomakloe (UK)
‘Let Freedom Ring’ is inspired by Dr Martin Luther King Jr’s historical “I have a dream” speech during the 1963 March on Washington which focused on employment discrimination, civil rights abuses and support for the Civil Rights Act. Djoe’s piece is an artistic fusion of ballet, contemporary dance, hip-hop and electric boogie/body popping, which reflect on the artistic generic expression of personal character.
Says Djoe: “The historic period of the civil rights past and present is a stark reminder of social indifference and stagnation of dreams for social change for the African Diaspora. Set against the backdrop of the famous “I have a dream” speech, this performance provides a poignant reflection on Martin Luther King Jr’s words and the continuing struggle for civil rights and what this means today.”
‘Negus Genesis’ by Toussaint to Move (Jamaica/UK)
The beginning… the primordial existence of the concept before it becomes formed. In a space before the coronation of the Negus, there is a space of spirit and ritual that brings forth the physical. The incantation of Negus evokes devotion, discipline, leadership and glory triumphantly.
Negus Genesis exposes this space where the chosen is decided and what no longer serves falls away to make space for new modes of being. Negus, believed by many scholars to be an ancient Ethiopian word meaning emperor or king, seems to have been shifted into becoming another N word of derogative nature. This work is a means to rewrite what has been done and bring to light the true power of the sound of Negus.
