‘Dance Dialogues’ offered a variety of dance styles for you to try at Bristol’s creative hub, Hamilton House, 80 Stokes Croft, Bristol, BS1 3QY.

Youth Dance MIX - workshop & performance - Local youth dance practitioners were invited from schools and youth dance groups in Bristol, Swindon and the surrounding area and given the opportunity to work with Louis Roger, one of Bristol’s up and coming performers and choreographers, in a choreographic commission of an African/contemporary fusion piece developed and performed on the same day as ‘work in progress’. The young people had the opportunity to improvise and draw inspiration from the exhibition.

PROFESSIONAL MASTER CLASSES-   20 local dancers attended 6 hours of superb teaching and dancing to live drumming by our much loved Bristol based, Bido Irie master drummer from Ivory Coast. Two of the U.K.’s Top Black dancers and choreographers Bawren Tavaziva and Francs Angol led the master classes in repertoire from their current work fusing African and contemporary dance.  Bawren Tavaziva taught participants an extract from his current repertoire  and Francis Angol delivered a Body Rhythms master class based on the Movement Angol language of contemporary African dance.  This looked at the mechanics of African Dance in relation to Movement Angol’s  individualistic mode of articulation, focusing on kinaesthetic awareness, grounding and expression through spirtuality, presence and rhythm.

Profile Bawren Tavaziva - Choreographer.  Born and raised in Zimbabwe, Bawren was selected at 18 years old as an apprentice for Tumbuka Dance Company in Harare, touring Africa and Europe for five years. In 1998 he moved to the UK where he has performed with Phoenix Dance, Union Dance Company, Jazzxchange, Carol Brown and Sakoba. Bawren’s choreography has been commissioned by Union Dance Company, ACE Dance Company, Tumbuka Dance Company, Ballet Black, Srishti and State of Emergency Ltd’s 2001 and 2003 Mission National Tours. Bawren is also a talented musician, and has commissioned music for Phoenix and Union Dance Company and for all his own works. In 2004, Bawren’s choreography was selected as one of 5 finalists in the prestigious Place Prize, sponsored by Bloomberg. As a result of his choreographic success, Bawren formed Tavaziva Dance in 2004, touring nationally and internationally, and becoming in 2005 a Regularly Funded Organisation of Arts Council England. In 2007 Bawren choreographed the Sampad/Tara Arts national touring production Motherland, other recent projects include creating new work in India and Canada (COBA and Dance Immersion). Bawren’s most recent works include an out-door site specific piece ‘Beautiful People’ commissioned by the Withoutwalls Street Arts Consortium and Heart of Darkness which toured nationally in Autumn 2009.

ADULT TASTER DAY  Hamilton House  October 10th   —-   This was a chance to shake your booty in a whole day’s exploration of African Peoples dance which included African Contemporary Fusion  with  Denise Rowe,  “Damba Ta kai” butchers dance from Ghana with Norman “Rubba” Stevenson,  “Palo” tribal/religious dance from the Congo with Alain Hernandez   and  Zimbabwean Gum Boot with Cecilia Ndhlovu.  The day included a visit to the exhibition  Black Dance in Britain 1930’s - 1990’s Moments…  (see teacher profiles below)

YOUNG PEOPLE’S DANCE DAY  Hamilton House  comprised 3 x 1-hour sessions delivered by some of Bristol’s top dance artists including Oscar of The Floor Technicians offering street jazz,  Penny Avery teaching Afro hip hop and Helen Wilson of RISE Youth dance company (see profiles below) who taught a contemporary and hip-hop fusion.  The day also included a visit to the Exhibition to  learn more about the inspiration and styles that have influenced modern hip hop and street dance.

Contact us for information on current and future classes and workshops on 0845 345 7533

Profile: Norman “Rubba” Stephenson has been at the heart of traditional African dance for over 30 years. He started dancing as a founder member of pioneering group Ekome Arts, whose work is featured in the Exhibition. The company’s workshops and performances were responsible for the surge of interest in African dance groups during and around that period in the UK. This included Adzido Pan African Ensemble, another group featured in the Exhibition. Rubba was a member and principal dancer with the company for eight years. His involvement with these two companies has given him a vast knowledge base of dances from west, east and southern Africa. Rubba set up his own dance company Afridance in 1996 and runs regular classes in Bristol. He is a prolific teacher, whose passion for sharing his knowledge is unquenchable, he is much loved and respected by his students and those that he works with. In the Taster Class ” Rubba” taught the Damba Takai dance from Ghana, a ceremonial dance, performed annually by Butchers as part of a celebration and thanksgiving to the ancestors for prosperity and good health. The dance involves whirling, spinning and the clicking of iron rods to compliment the music being played by the drummers. Rubba’s classes are geared towards developing your responses to the music, especially the drum language, as well as ensuring that your body ‘understands’ how to execute the moves using the right technique.  We are hoping that some students coming out of the taster day and from Rubba’s regular weekly classes at Hamilton House, will be able to perform at the Community and Youth Platform on Sat 28th Nov at (watch this space!)

Profile:  Helen Wilson started dancing in a Youth Dance Company in North Yorkshire where she worked with a variety of ex-Phoenix dancers. From that she was invited to train with Merville Jones (founder member of Phoenix Dance company) as an apprentice dancer. She subsequently became a freelance artist and began teaching young people. Part of RJC Dance she did a tour with ‘The Dancical’ in 2007 and has also been part of RODA07. As well as contemporary, Helen does a variety of dance styles and moved to Bristol to work with Champloo, a company specialising in Breakdance. She has recently worked with Meanfeet dance in Glastonbury on a Performance in Education project. She has also created her own contemporary piece which has been performed at venues in the southwest and Bristol Harbourside festival in 2009. She is currently working with Neshima Dance company for a project with DanceBytes in Wales. She has recently set up RISE, her own Youth Dance Company in Bristol.Profile: Oscar Anderson- of the Floor Technicians Street JazzOriginal, diverse and humorous in their style, this jazz dance crew formed over twenty years ago. They won the UK Jazz Dance Championships in 1991 and continued to become a force to be reckoned with appearing on TV across Europe and Japan. This group of previously untrained nightclub dancers have come a long way!Katy Noakes (facilitating discussion) currently works in the Arts team at the City Council, where one of her roles is developing Re-staged, a city wide urban youth dance programme.