BLACK DANCE IN ENGLAND: THE PATHWAY HERE

by Hilary Carty

Hilary Carty was formerly Director of Dance at the Arts Council of England. From the perspectives of both artist/choreographer in the 80s and policy-maker from the mid 90s, she experienced at first hand the highs and lows of black dance in England. We asked her to capture those insights for future generations…

Looking across Europe, Britain is fortunate in having one of the most diverse portfolios of artists consistently funded. The diversity of dance forms spans from the traditional to the contemporary with every nuance at the margins of both. Even with the decline in the number of companies witnessed in the last couple of decades, the range is notable. That diversity is undoubtedly to be celebrated - it also presents us with a challenge - that of definition.

Today’s artists defy strict categorisations and, as we look at the many hybrid upon hybrid forms created in the diverse cultural environment that Britain has become, it is worth starting this discussion by exploring the rather unwieldy and unspecific term ‘black dance’ itself.

Black Dance or African Dance?

‘Black’ is essentially a political term used in the United States during the civil rights movement to positively affirm the history and culture of African Americans. In the British context, however, the phrase ‘black’ whilst being used to identify African descendents, was extended to identify and affirm a positive affiliation with people who have a history of colonisation and oppression by the British - hence it being used to include Asian communities and even the Irish in some instances. With such a loose coalition of meanings, it becomes difficult to comfortably use the word ‘black’ in artistic terms - it is subjective and very much open to interpretation.

Within the arts sector, there has been serious debate on titles for over 30 years - many conferences and articles have tried to dissect every nuance without comprehensive success. I will not spend a lot of time on that here, but suffice to say that language is a living entity which develops as communities develop - there is little ‘right or wrong’ in a living language; terms that appear apt within one decade become tainted and discarded in the next.

This discussion of black dance will focus around dance that has its root in the African cultural idioms whether it be dance that is traditional, classical, contemporary, modern, modernist, new or hybrid developments from that base culture. In the UK, when we use the term ‘African’ dance, there is often a connotation that we are talking about traditional dance - such as that performed by Adzido for instance. But it is important to remember that, just as we can talk about classical ballet, neo-classical ballet and contemporary ballet, then we can equally use that range of terms for other types of dance such as African or South Asian dance forms. No living culture is static.

It is equally important in this artistic context to ensure that we are talking about more than a geographical entity… for any dance form to have longevity it must be capable of being codified through a language or vocabulary of movement that conforms to a known aesthetic - and it is in this sense that I use the term African dance. Whilst there is, as yet, little codified technique, there is a clear genre of movements that are common across African dance forms and lead us to the basics of the African dance technique: grounded earth bound movements, a flexed or relaxed foot, bent knees and bent elbows, curved spine, rotating hips and a loose torso ready to flex both sideways and back. These are some of the key characteristics that define the African dance genre. So whether we are looking at Adzido with its classical/traditional style or Caribbean dance where Africa met Europe and the interplay of cultures created both the Dinkie Minnie and the Jamaican Quadrille. Or when we look at some of the British exponents that trace a line directly from Africa (Badejo Arts) or via the Caribbean (Irie! Dance Theatre), there is still enough aesthetic vocabulary to trace it to the kernel of African dance forms.

The Trail Blazers

Perhaps some of the most significant developments in black dance came after the war, with the creation of Les Ballet Negres in 1946. This group of dancers created works which drew upon an African/Caribbean heritage and begun with a sellout 8 week season - a feat within itself. Les Ballet Negres could not get funding though and survived only on box-office receipts. Hence, despite tremendous popularity here and across Europe - it folded in 1952.

The 50s saw the building of the British Ballet repertoire. By the end of the 60s contemporary dance had gained a firm foothold in England but it was not until the 70s that things began to move again in terms of black dance here. The Early 70s saw the arrival of some of the pioneers of African dance in the UK via the group Sankofa from Ghana. Following a very successful British tour, many of the artists stayed here and became cultural ambassadors, travelling the length and breadth of the Country and teaching the Ghanaian dance repertory. Soon there were dance troupes sprouting up all over the Country - mainly doing Ghanaian dance forms.

It is hard now to imagine the explosion of groups that were around in the 1980s - it was a truly exciting time - over 20 groups of great popularity: Ekome, Kokuma, Irie! Lanzel, Kizzie, Dagarti, Delado, Dance de l’Afrique, Phoenix, Dance Co 7, Badejo Arts… The range of work spanned the traditional to the experimental - from the fundamentals to several different fusions of the contemporary.

Ekome was perhaps the most successful, touring to sell-out concerts in venues such as the Leicester Haymarket and Derby Playhouse. Based in Bristol, Ekome’s repertoire consisted mainly of traditional Ghanaian dances taught by artists such as George Dzikunu (founder and former Artistic Director of Adzido). As a dancer trained in contemporary and ballet techniques I had never seen anything like Ekome and it fairly blew my mind! It was amazing to see dancers Barry and Angie Anderson on the stage performing with such authority and style. And the fact that they were doing traditional African dance was a really powerful signal - a positive affirmation of identity.

Other groups producing traditional African dance included Lanzel (Wolverhampton), Dance de l‘Afrique (Birmingham), Dagarti Arts (London) and Delado (Liverpool). To appreciate the scale and impact of this work it is worth noting that all these groups had work - some in mainstream theatres and arts centres whilst other groups performed in smaller scale community venues and festivals - but there was no shortage of groups from which to choose.

Contemporary Legacies

But doing traditional African dance was not enough - Germaine Acogny - a key exponent of contemporary African dance from Senegal summed it up as follows: ‘African dance comes from the villages of Africa - but there is now the Africa of cities, of skyscrapers. I hope the dance of the villages will always exist, but we cannot preserve dance purely as a museum culture. It must grow. If it does not develop it will die, and we will have nothing. What will our generation leave to our grandchildren?’

In Leicester the Grassroots Dance Company started in 1974, was one of the earliest groups embracing a Caribbean aesthetic. It sought to give a voice to young black dancers to express their own creativity.

MAAS Movers started in London in 1977 - by a group of trained contemporary dancers who were seeking to blend African/Caribbean dance with their contemporary dance training.

In London in 1978 Dance Company 7 (see picture right) was formed when Carl Campbell sought to use Caribbean dance as a means of expressing his creativity and reaching out to young black children growing up in London’s inner cities.

In Birmingham a group of artists were seeking to use the traditional African dance vocabulary as a base technique but to move on to include something of the contemporary British black experience - having reveled in the culture of Africa artists began to question what their generation of young people could contribute themselves? Kokuma emerged in Birmingham in 1978.

By 1981, Phoenix was formed in Leeds by three young men who used the social dances from the streets of Harehills - funk, reggae and jazz to combine with a very athletic contemporary dance, which took the country by storm.

Corinne Bougaard established Union Dance in 1983 with a deliberate aim to embrace a broad multi-cultural approach to dance, hence its title.

Adzido Pan African Dance Ensemble began in 1984, embracing a rounded production format. Whilst Ekome stunned audiences with its renditions of traditional works, Adzido sought to mold the traditional dances around a theme or poetry, creating a more epic style with a company of over 30 dancers and musicians.

Irie! Dance Theatre (see pic left) began in 1986 - arising out of the Caribbean Focus year-long celebration of the arts of the Caribbean. From the outset Artistic Director Beverley Glean sought to work with young artists and use a fusion of the dances from the Caribbean with elements of popular black culture to have relevance to London’s black youth. So works like Caribbean Suite and Reggae ina yu Jegge placed Merenge and Quadrille alongside popular reggae tunes.

The Midlands was incredibly strong in terms of black dance, with a critical mass of groups and key individuals living there - not surprising therefore that it was in the Midlands that the Black Dance Development Trust was formed, under the Directorship of Bob Ramdhanie, a key activist in the field. One of the highlights of the calendar from the mid to late 80s was its Black Dance Summer School - the first taking place in Leicester in 1985. The Summer Schools were amazing - tutors from Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria and Jamaica working in intensive classes teaching technique, choreography, history and social context. The debates were heated and went on well into the night as we were taught how to trace the origins of contemporary movement styles and Caribbean dance styles to their African roots.

As we moved into the 1990’s yet more contemporary-facing groups emerged, such as RJC in 1991 and Sheron Wray’s JazzXchange in 1992. Bunty Matthias had huge impact in London in the mid 1990s selling out the Queen Elizabeth Hall and more latterly, projects such as Nubian Steps and the Hip Festival have given a voice to young black choreographers. Artists such as Jonzi D and Kompany Malakhi are currently using hip-hop and other street dances to ignite audiences across the Country, whilst the London Dance House is seeking to establish a base for artists and companies.

Current Questions - Future Moves

If we look at the current state of ‘black dance’ we see a very mixed picture. There are artists developing new works, which are creative, exciting and accessible, but the overall picture is not one of great health. ‘Time for Change’ by Hermin McIntosh (commissioned by the Arts Council in 1999) highlighted a key issue being the lack of infrastructure - the infrastructure for black dance remains weak, and the picture is much the same across the spectrum of black arts.

It took time for the arts community to embrace the arts of other cultures from an aesthetic rather than social/community development perspective and this more inclusive approach clashed rather dynamically with a decline in resources.

The early 1990s brought about a time of recession - cuts in funding for the arts became commonplace and hard decisions had to be made about where and what to support. Quite naturally, the artistic criteria became paramount and, also naturally considering the recent history, a number of groups were found lacking. Peter Badejo OBE summed it up in his paper What is Black Dance in 1993:
"Within ten years half the companies performing African peoples’ dance forms in existence have collapsed - there was no solid foundation for them to exist on. When funding decisions were based on non-aesthetic criteria, there were numerous companies but they were denied artistic respect. When artistic considerations become the criteria - the base funding was removed and the structure collapsed."

The Arts Council acknowledged the gap in the infrastructure for black arts. In previous years it pushed to reach a target spend of 4% for black arts - a figure quickly achieved and consistently surpassed by its Dance Department. More recently the Arts Capital Programme provided no less than £29m to support culturally diverse projects across the Country. The impact of this will be seen over the coming decade. But key to the success of future development is continuing the partnership developed after ‘Time for Change’ with artists and activists to address the issues of development from multiple angles - covering aesthetics, creativity and artform development; presentation and touring; advocacy; strategic development; infrastructural development; and training and education.

It is important to use the energies of today’s creative individuals to match and stimulate the broad-based initiatives that will make a difference in the presentation, funding and structural development of black dance in the future.

Reprint Courtesy of ADAD | September 2003