Black diasporas in the arts
Summary
Black Diasporas in the Arts has been based on research significantly shaped by the AHRB Research Centre in Cross-cultural Music and Dance Performance. It investigates dance migration, new forms of written and theatrical identity formation as well as the specific histories of black arts communities.
Details
2002-2007
AHRB Cross-Cultural Research Centre in Music and Dance Performance
Surrey was a key partner with SOAS, Roehampton in the first AHRB-funded performing arts research centre. Funded, ARHB, £147,394.
At Surrey, researchers in the Cross-Cultural Research Centre at Surrey have progressed interdisciplinary research on Indian and African music and dance. It has supported multiple research activities including visiting artists and scholars, performances, workshops, symposia, publications and original documentation www.surrey.ac.uk/Dance/AHRB/index
Through the Centre, Surrey staff have been involved in international dialogue with projects from South East Asia to Africa and Surrey has been lead institution for two key projects:
Transformation in African Music and Dance Performance investigated African performing arts in the UK as well as contemporary performance in Ghana and Nigeria.
RA Peter Badajo’s (OBE) analysis of changes in Yoruba dance traditions (2005-7) was presented in Rotterdam (2006), Brazil (2006) and Ohio (2007) and has produced interactive visual scores, texts and DVDs of Bata-dance (2007).
Research Fellow Dr Rodriguez King-Dorset’s film examined the continuity of West African dance, particularly the Quadrille, in nineteenth century London (2006).
Tradition and Change within South Asian Dance was hosted by project leader Janet O’Shea and details are available on the AHRB website.
Artist Fellows
The Cross-cultural Research Centre supported Black Artist Fellows Badajo, Rodriguez-King and Wray.
Events and Performances
March 2007
Dance Migration: Bodies, Artistry, Identity
A public symposium held in collaboration with Woking Dance Festival. This event involved Department staff; artists from Tunisia, Nigeria and Senegal; leading dance figures from the UK Black Arts community (including choreographer H Patten, a tutor on staff); and keynote speakers on arts policy and diversity.
2007
Johnson-Jones was invited speaker at the first Performing Africa! Visualising Africa! Conference, University of Ohio.
December 2006
Fensham convened a workshop with modern and indigenous dancers, Mirramu, Canberra.
June 2006
African Dance!
A one-day seminar at the University of Surrey.
May 2004
Text, Context, Performance: Reconstruction and Reinvention in African, Asian and European Dances.
2004
Jackson collaborated with Noni Jenkyn-Jones in a Kathak-Ballet choreography Spin.
Related Research Projects
2007-8
Dodds is undertaking popular dance fieldwork in Jamaican Dance Halls in West London.
2001-2007
Johnson-Jones completed fieldwork with the Nama people, South Africa and her doctoral thesis on the Nama Stap.
2001-2003
Fensham was invited scholar-participant in the Japan-Australia project Journey to Con/fusion.
Publications
Wynne-Davies’s edited collection (2006) was the first interdisciplinary book to examine race and canon formation.
Fensham wrote on "violence and corporeality" in Alternatives, 2004.
Networks
The Centre for Research on Nationalism Ethnicity and Migration (CRONEM) is an active research network based at Surrey in which dance staff participate through seminars and conferences.
