DISSECTING PRINCIPLES – DANCE EXCHANGE

‘Dissecting Principles’ is a collaborative research project, between Judith Palmer MBE (African dance specialist, African Heritage UK), and ‘Funmi Adewole (Early Career Fellow, De Montfort University). The project explores methodologies for training teachers of neo-traditional African dance and generation choreographic devices from African dances for contemporary. Dissecting Principles was funded by The Exchange and part of One Dance UK’s Bloom National Festival 2017.

The aim was to look at documenting ways of teaching African dance. The first part culminated in an open workshop, panel discussion and Q&A session.

A workshop was held, bringing together over 30 practitioners working in dance and academia from around the UK, including Leeds, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Wales. The session also attracted visiting artists from Grenada, USA and Japan!

The session also reaffirmed that Judith and ‘Funmi’s combined methods of working is successful at delivering their intended message, in regards to gasping the essence of the movement and understanding how core African movements inform more contemporary dance forms.

We were dissecting the basic principles of ‘Agbadza’, a traditional dance from the Ewe people of Ghana.  We also had some fun by allowing participants to create their own movements – Here’s a snippet.

The second part of the event was a panel discussion, inviting three contemporary dance artists to talk about their practices and their interest and engagement with traditional African dances. These panellists were Mbulelo Ndabeni, Racheal Nanyonjo and Avatara Ayuso. You can read more about the event in this review, by Emily Labhart.

Our Dissecting Principles workshop received great feedback!