Tavaziva Dance are thrilled to be working with inspiring choreopoet, Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa to document our new piece, REQUIEM commissioned by The National Gallery. 
Safiya is a British-born Barbadian-raised choreopoet, performer and spoken-word champion. Safiya’s debut poetry collection Cane, Corn and Gully (Out-Spoken Press, 2022) celebrates the legacy of Black Barbadian women, and is the first book to feature dance notion of the enslaved using colonial manuscripts. Cane, Corn and Gully was shortlisted for the prestigious Rathbones Folio Prize and Felix Denis Forward Prize for Best First Collection in 2023. Safiya is a member of the Obsidian Foundation, and her work has been published in notable journals including The Poetry Review, Poetry London, and Wasafiri. Safiya is also a PhD Student in Cultural Studies, her practice-led project involves developing ancestral dance techniques to unearth present-day narratives of Black Barbadian women. Her first play and exhibition of Cane, Corn and Gully, debuted at the Ilkley Poetry Festival 2022.
As part of Safiya’s PhD scholarship, funded by the White Rose College of Arts & Humanities, Safiya will be undergoing a ‘Research Employability Project’ with Tavaziva Dance. For her debut poetry collection Cane, Corn and Gully, Safiya developed Labanotation to document Afro-diasporic dance cultures by integrating social commentary. Safiya will be observing the choreographic process of Tavaziva’s new work and will then transform her documentation into a bespoke visual art piece on canvas to become part of Tavaziva Dance’s living archive.
For more info about Safiya, see her website here: https://www.safiyakamaria.com/