The Exhibition Launch party  at the Exhibition site in Broadmead was a great success with 136 guests, inspiring speeches and an uplifting atmosphere.   Do get in touch on 07780 918857 if you want to follow up any ideas you might have had, people you might have met, bookings for films and performances you might want to attend.

Thanks to Yvette Staelens for her moving singing workshop (check her on  Roots Quartet ) and the African Sambistas for some great entertainment.

Speakers included
Funmi Adewole Performer Writer and Lecturer and Director of Exhibition

Jeanette Bain-Burnett Director, Association of Dance of the African Diaspora (ADAD) — see biog below

Dr. Olu Taiwo Senior lecturer, Performing Arts, University of Winchester

Marie McCluskey, Artistic Director, Swindon Dance

Rachel de Garang, Artistic Director of Dance Dialogues, Imayla and Chair of Tribe of Doris

Biography - Jeanette Bain-Burnett

Jeanette Bain-Burnett is the Director of the Association of Dance of the African Diaspora (ADAD). She has worked in a wide range of arts management and administrative roles, including Company Administrator for Springs Dance Company and coordinating work-based degree programmes for Creative Practitioners at Middlesex University. Jeanette became involved with dance as a ’serious hobby’ in her teenage years in Jamaica, where she learned an eclectic mix of modern, gospel and folk forms and toured the Bahamas, New York, Australia and South Africa. After moving to the UK to work with Oxford-based Innovista Physical Theatre, performing in Russia, Ukraine, Denmark and throughout the UK, she augmented her dance training by completing a Diploma in Performance Studies (Dance) at Birkbeck, University of London. She went on to complete an MA Choreography at Middlesex University, where she is now a visiting lecturer in Dance and Culture.

Biography Funmi Adewole:
Funmi Adewole graduated from the University of Ibadan with a degree in Modern European Languages. She worked in the Nigerian media as a freelance writer, producer. When she moved to England in 1994 she began a performance career and toured with Physical/Visual theatre and African dance drama companies. Her credits include performances and tours with Horse and Bamboo Mask and Puppetry Company, Ritual Arts, Mashango African dance and Music Company, Adzido Pan-African Dance Ensemble, Mambena African dance company, Artistes-in-Exile and the Chomondeleys. She teaches performance workshops based on her experience of physical theatre and African dance classes. She leads workshops for professional dance companies, community organisations, colleges and universities. She continues to perform as a storyteller.

Her writing and speaking on the ‘notion of African dance’ and its development as a theatrical practice began as an independent project in 2000. She has since spoken at several academic and professional conferences in Europe, Africa and America and at various universities in Britain. She was the chair of the Association of Dance of the African Diaspora (ADAD) at Dance UK from 2005 until April 2007, during which time she directed the Heritage project and dance exhibition. She received a grant from the Arts Council of England and the Lisa Ullaman Traveling Scholarship to carry out a period of professional development in African based performance between 2007 and 2009. She holds an M.A in Post-colonial Studies from Goldsmiths College and is a qualified teacher.