We hope you had a fabulous festival season and that there’s a prosperous new year ahead for you. We’re looking forward to an exciting 2018 as we continue the tour of Bawren’s most personal work to date Izindava and work with regional partners and students across the UK.
We had so much to choose from, but here’s a round-up of our five highlights from 2017…
1. Research & Development with Rambert
We started the year with an exciting 4 week project where Bawren had the opportunity to work with dancers from Rambert and collaborated with Dramaturg Peter Glanville from Polka Theatre, to develop a family piece called Mud Child.
“Bawren has developed a unique style of dancing which mixes his African heritage with contemporary dance styles. His physical language is multifaceted, challenging the dancers from different angles all at once. I love it when this vocabulary drives the dancers hard which makes it great to watch, sudden jumps are thrown into grounded phrases the torsos whip and the legs punch. Altogether extraordinary.” Mark Baldwin, Artistic Director, Rambert
photo: dillonrose.com
2. Africarman Tour
We concluded our extensive tour of Africarmen in April 2017. Set in a modern-day oil-rich, military dictatorship in Africa, it had a beautiful score composed by Fayyaz Virji of Warriors International. The show visited 25 venues around the UK and was accompanied by a successful education programme, working with around 1,300 young people.
“What a brilliant, amazing production! It was just excellent, and the dancers were fabulous! … fast, furious, sexy and emotional, totally absorbing!” Audience Member
photo: Manoj Nair
3. Izindava Tour
In the summer of 2017 Bawren started work on the creation of his latest touring work Izindava. The new work toured this autumn and has further dates planned for spring 2018. Izindava reflects on themes of post-colonial Zimbabwe as well as portraying today’s conflicts, greed and corruption around the world. Bawren speaks out for injustice whilst at the same time we witness his inner-most demons and fears. Politics, trauma, persecution and death are not easy subjects for making dance, yet he has conveyed so much that feels universal and personal.
“A dynamic dance production, rich and exciting in every deptment (incl design/music). Political, urgent yet personal and open to interpretation. Wow” Donald Hutera (The Times)
photo: Tony Hay
4. Learning and Participation
We’ve had a bumper year of educational projects working with over 1,000 participants, led by Bawren, the dancers and associate artists. ZIVA Youth continues to thrive, engaging young men aged 14-19 years, at William Ellis School in Camden, WAC Arts and a new partnership with the Arts and Media School, Islington.
In May we held TavIntensive, a two day professional programme of classes and choreography with Bawren, as part of the Wandsworth Arts Fringe. We also continued our professional class programme throughout the year – watch this space for more classes in the spring, on sale February 2018!
We continue to nurture talanted young dancers through our Post-graduate Apprentice programme with Northern School of Contemporary Dance. Nicole Victor and Asmara Cammock joined Tavaziva for the creation and tour of Izindava. We also offered two dance students from Surrey University, a professional training placement, supporting Tavaziva’s administration, giving them the opportunity to work alongside our staff to deliver the programme of activity throughout the year.
We had a number of Curtain Raiser performances connected to the tours of Africarman and Izindava, where our dancers worked with students from Dance East, William Ellis School, WAC Arts, New College Nottingham and Dance Republic 2 to create a short performance, based on themes from the shows. We also held a number of one off workshops and residencies in the majority of cities and towns we visited.
“The intensity pushed and challenged my body, as well as my understanding of contemporary dance” Participant
photo: Tavaziva
5. We Moved!
We’ve had nearly a whole year in our new home, based at bbodance in Battersea. The company has enjoyed re-locating to a shiny new office and gorgeous studios where Bawren created Izindava during the summer. Having the whole company under one roof and with bbodance and One Dance UK right next door, we are developing great new relationships. We have also met with local arts and community organisations in our area.
photo: Tavaziva
