As part of the LDIF21 Preview this October, Serendipity are launching the Black British Dance Platform, a new initiative in partnership with Dance4 to support and nurture UK based dance artists from the African and African Caribbean Diaspora.
In a slight change of programming, due to the revised restrictions, this event will now take place online, with two pre-recorded dance films.
Solo For Two
Jean Abreu
Choreographer Jean Abreu presents an extract of his internationally acclaimed full length work Solo for Two which explores themes of identity, migration, duality, brokenness and rebirth in a form of a physical lament. Jean Abreu worked closely with Belgian dance dramaturg Guy Cools to develop a dance language that reflects how a migratory identity is created by cycles of loss, letting go and new beginnings. Solo for Two looks at the notion of ‘origin’ not as a fixed point in time or space but as impure and contaminated points of departures, shared with others only to be left and lost.
“Before prehistory there was the prehistory of prehistory, there was the never and there was the yes. It was ever so…”
From The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector
Sombre
Ana Paz
Spoken word artist Ana Paz collaborates with choreographer Stephanie Freeman and dancer Helder Delgado on a new dance film. Sombre is a response to the ongoing unlawful killing of Black men and women, exploring the idea of darkness, comparing the level of melanin in the skin to the matter that surrounds us; both can be judged and misinterpreted, often instilling fear. It will highlight the alienation and ongoing mental trauma that people of colour experience as they occupy white spaces; using Capoeira to identify how we manoeuvre them and how we reflect on the constant attack on our self-worth and identity, especially for young, working class, Black men and women. Originally created as part of BlackInk magazine.