Past
Productions

Tavaziva Ten

Tavaziva Ten, created in 2014, is a stunning collection of 10 short dance pieces that highlight Tavaziva’s outstanding work of the past decade, and depicts the extraordinary story of one man’s imagination and personal journey.

Artistic Director Bawren Tavaziva’s distinctive African style is powerful, memorable and entirely contemporary. His music composition and unique inventions have been described by The Stage as nothing short of explosive.

Amazing, sublime, bold, daring, sensual, powerful and transcendental cannot even fully describe what an experience this show is.

***** Afridiziak Theatre News

Click here to download the Tavaziva Ten programme.

 

Cast

Anna Watkins

Anna trained at the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance. She has worked as a dancer with European Ballet, Neville Campbell, Pair Dance, Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company, Maxwell Dance Project, and ‘Dance in Focus’- for their world Premiere UK tour of ‘Broken’ in 2015 . Anna formed her own dance company Watkins Dance Company, in 2011. She was awarded funding from Arts Council England for her production ‘Angled Eye’. In 2014–2015 Anna was commissioned to choreograph for Third Row Dance Company, New College Youth Dance Company, Suffolk Youth Company, English National Ballet Youth Company and LSC Expressive Arts. She was appointed a role on the CAT teaching faculty at Dance City, Newcastle. Anna was Rehearsal Assistant for Tavaziva 2009 – 2010, and is Project Manager for Tavaziva Male. Anna joined Tavaziva in 2007.

Ellen Yilma

Ellen graduated from London Contemporary Dance School in July 2011, having previously trained at Tring Park, School for the Performing Arts. Ellen joined Tavaziva as an apprentice dancer, part of the Postgraduate Apprenticeship Scheme at LCDS. She has toured with Watkins Dance since June 2012, and in spring 2013 took part in the Barbican Exhibition ‘dancing around Duchamp season’, performing Merce Cunningham repertoire. Ellen has also worked with IJAD Dance Company on ‘Infinite-Space’, and with Second Hand Dance in developing ‘Getting Dressed’. In November 2014 she completed her MA in Contemporary Dance with Distinction and has become a contemporary dance teacher for Tring Park Associates. She is a workshop leader for Tavaziva’s extensive education programme. Ellen joined Tavaziva as a company member in September 2012.

Bafana Solomon Matea

Katie Cambridge

Katie grew up in Brighton and trained at London Contemporary Dance School (LCDS) where she worked with Marc Brew, Colin Poole and toured works by Siobhan Davies and Merce Cunningham to Italy and London, as part of LC3. Katie joined Tavaziva Dance in August 2009 as part of LCDS’s Post Graduate Apprenticeship Scheme. During her time as an apprentice, Katie was also involved in Tavaziva’s Education Programme, creating works for Cornwall Youth Dance and the Wycombe Swan’s United in Dance project. Katie is also an Administrative Assistant for the Centre for Advanced Training (CAT) scheme at The Place. More recently she has performed with Cscape in “The Venus Flower” as part of the Global Garden Project. Following her apprenticeship, Katie joined Tavaziva Dance as a full time dancer in September 2010.

Petros Treklis

Born in Melbourne, Australia, Petros moved to London in 2007, and graduated from Laban with a BA (Hons) in Dance Theatre in July 2010. During his training at Laban, Petros worked with Rosemary Butcher, Gary Lambert, Dam Van Huynh, Rosemary Brandt, Charles Linehan, and Kerry Nicholls. In early 2010 Petros toured Kerry Nicholls work, ‘Hearth’ in Malta, performing for the Maltese Arts Council. He then went on to tour ‘Sainte Marie-Joseph De La Rose’ by upcoming choreographer Tamara Gvozdenovic in Neuchatel, Switzerland. Petros joined Tavaziva Dance in September 2010.

Daniella Selwood

Daniella began her dance journey in her home town of Leeds at the age of 11.  By age 13 she was training and performing around the UK with RJC Dance, a community dance company in Leeds.  She spent 7 years with RJC performing styles such a Street, Soca, Reggae and Contemporary dance. At age 14 Daniella was also selected to study with the Yorkshire Young Dancers at the Centre for Advanced Training (CAT scheme) at Northern School of Contemporary Dance (NSCD). After completing 4 years she gained a place on the Foundation Course for Contemporary Dance at NSCD.  She progressed onto the degree course and in 2013 received a 1st Class Honours degree in Contemporary Dance.  Daniella has had the honours of working with many different choreographers at NSCD such as Douglas Thorpe (Mad Dogs Dance Theatre), Sharon Watson (Phoenix Dance) Rita Marcalo , Dam Van Huynh, Jose Agudo and many more. Daniella has gained valuable experience teaching, mentoring and choreographing. She has worked in an integrated environment with adults whilst being a teaching assistant at NSCD. she has also been apart of events with children and teenagers; hosted by organisations such as the Leeds Lord Mayor’s Trust and The Teenage Cancer Trust.

Louis Parker-Evans

Louis, originally from Derbyshire, trained on the BPA (Hons) in Contemporary Dance at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance, graduating with a First Class Honours in 2013. Louis has also been a company dancer of Balbir Singh Dance Company since 2012 performing in both tours of the piece ‘Synchronised’ and also in various stage works, Louis went on to become both a senior dancer and rehearsal director on behlaf of BSDC in student reworkings of ‘Synchronised’. Louis also works with Adaire to Dance, and has performed extensively in various pieces as part of the company since 2012. More recently Louis worked as worked as both lead technician and performer on the children’s dance theatre piece ‘Sea Story’ with the company Tall Tales Big Moves and will be continuing to work on the project in the new year.  Louis joined Tavaziva Dance in 2013 following an apprenticeship as a post graduate student at London Contemporary Dance School. He joined the company as a full time dancer in 2014.

Theo Samsworth

Theo graduated from Trinity Laban with First Class Honours in 2013, where he worked with choreographers including Lea Anderson, Charlotte Darbyshire and Bernadette Iglich. On completing his BA(Hons) in Contemporary Dance Theo joined Tavaziva Dance, as part of his postgraduate studies at London Contemporary Dance School. He was then invited to tour with EDge, the postgraduate company at LCDS performing works by Yael Flexer and Ben Wright, as well as a new commission by Mariana Tengner Barros. Theo went on to complete his Masters degree with Distinction at London Contemporary Dance School before performing in ‘Król Roger’ at the Royal Opera House, choreographed by Cathy Marston and directed by Kasper Holten. Theo has also worked with other choreographers including Theo Clinkard, James Cousins and Adam Rutherford. Theo joined Tavaziva as a company member in 2014.

Lisa Rowley

Izindava Cast

Originally from Leicester, Lisa trained at the Dupont School. She then trained at Laban graduating in 2008. Since then she has toured internationally with Transitions Dance Company. Lisa then went on to work with Henri Oguike Dance Company. Following this Lisa joined ACE Dance and Music with choreography by Andile Sotiya and Douglas Thorpe.

Lisa was a founding member of Joss Arnott Dance Company and has toured with them since 2010. In 2014 Lisa worked on a solo ‘Not waving’ collaborating with director Paul Sadot which was awarded Arts Council funding to develop and tour in autumn 2015. Lisa went to Africa alongside Bawren to work with Dinani dance group in Ghana. More recently Lisa has been back in the studio with Joss Arnott working on a new trio called ‘A Movement in 3’. Lisa also teaches her own workshops throughout the UK and at certain vocational schools such as Italia Conti. Lisa joined Tavaziva in September 2010 and was our Rehearsal Assistant in 2018.

Carmine De Amicis

Carmine was born in Italy and trained in Ballroom and Latin American. In 2009 he received the award for best Latin American Dancer category. He trained in Ballet and Contemporary dance at the Italian National Academy of Dance in Rome. Whilst in Rome, he worked with Matteo D’Alessio, Salvator Spagnolo and Laura Di Biagio. He graduated with a BA in foreign languages with a specialisation in dance history and then moved to the UK to join the postgraduate dance company MAPDANCE (University of Chichester). In 2014 he performed internationally with pieces by Kerry Nicholls, Gary Clarke, Yael Flexer, and Liz Aggiss. He worked for Chantry Dance Company (UK), Grange Park Opera and recently started an experimental project on hybrid partnering dance forms with Harriet Waghorn. Carmine joined Tavaziva in 2014.

Creative Team

Artistic Direction and Choreography

Bawren Tavaziva

Music

Bawren Tavaziva
Ansoumana ‘Vieux’ Bakayoko (Musician)

Lighting Design & Production Manager

James Mackenzie

Costume Design

Ben Voorhaar and Sabrina Zyla of Karisma

Producer

Beth Cinamon