Out now, the next instalment of our #DiscoverTavaziva series is My Friend Robert. 

This work draws on Bawren’s personal experiences and memories of growing up in the newly independent Zimbabwe, under leadership of adored Robert Mugabe. However, his visionary and promising beginning, including reconciliation and improvements to education and health care, rapidly declined into megalomania, an economic meltdown, corruption and violence. Bawren’s work offers a deeply personal comment on the challenges Africa faced.

‘This political programme showcased the company’s talents, utilising both African and contemporary techniques.’ LondonDance.com

SUBSCRIBE to Tavaziva Dance Official YouTube channel for more online classes, trailers, extracts of productions and behind the scenes short films!

Out Now! Our third TavTorial online class led by Artistic Director Bawren Tavaziva. Join in with an African and contemporary fusion class, improve your technique and increase your stamina.

Get moving and experience Bawren’s unique synthesises of Ballet, Contemporary and African dance. We hope the classes keep dancers focused and motivated.

TavTorials and the rest of our #DiscoverTavaziva series can be found on our YouTube Channel. Subscribe now so you don’t miss a thing.

We want to see you dancing! Take the TavChallenge to learn Bawren Tavaziva’s choreography, with a new piece in tribute of Steve Biko and his impact on Black freedom in the 1960s and 70s, set to a new track by composer Eugene Skeef. Everything you need including a video of the choreography and music can be found here and our TavTorials on our YouTube channel will give you a great foundation for embodying Bawren’s style and movement. You can send us your videos to watch via Vimeo or YouTube link to getintouch@tavaziva.com by Tuesday 30 June. We look forward to seeing your contribution, and we thank you for keeping Black history moving forwards.

Bawren Tavaziva has collaborated with composer Eugene Skeef, who was a friend of Steve Biko a South African anti-apartheid activist at the forefront of a grassroots anti-apartheid campaign known as the Black Consciousness Movement during the late 1960s and 70s. Bawren and Eugene wanted to take this opportunity to remember the people who fought for Black people’s freedom, particularly in light of the tragic death of African American man George Floyd in Minneapolis, sparking unrest across the US. Yes, we know Nelson Mandela, Robert Mugabe, Haile Selassie, Martin Luther King, but there are other people who contributed just as much to Black people’s freedom. Bawren feels that the education of 2020 needs to shift and change, so that Black History is in school’s everyday and not just during Black History Month in October and that Black Lives Matter. Bawren has asked six professional dancers to learn his choreography, set to a new track by Eugene Skeef in tribute of Steve Biko’s impact on Black freedom and the fight that still continues. We have put this short dance film online and asking dancers to learn the choreography, to keep Black History moving forward. You can send us your videos to watch via Vimeo or YouTube link to getintouch@tavaziva.com. Everything you need including a video of the choreography and music can be found here. We look forward to seeing your contribution to this challenge by Tuesday 30 June.

Our #DiscoverTavaziva series has got off to a tremendous start with lots of you tuning in for TavTorials with Bawren, extracts of work from over the years that include a unique commentary by Bawren about how he was inspired to create, plus behind the scenes footage from photographer and film maker Alfred George Bailey.

Our third TavTorial, focusing on Contemporary and African Fusion, will be going live tomorrow. And don’t forget that you can still catch our Intermediate Warm-Up and African classes! They will continue to be available on our YouTube Channel and are completely Free for you to join in with!

We have lots more coming up, so keep an eye on our social media platforms and the Tavaziva website to find weekly schedules of releases and links to all the new content we have prepared. Available on our YouTube channel so make sure you subscribe now, so you don’t miss a thing.

Come with us and #DiscoverTavaziva

 

Schedule

Tuesday 2 June – Tavtorial with Bawren Tavaziva (Contemporary and African Fusion), 40 mins

Friday 5 June – My Friend Robert, 7 mins

Friday 12 June – Chivezwa, 7 mins

Friday 19 June – Wild Dog, 5 mins

Friday 26 June – Sinful Intimacies, 5 mins

On now, the next instalment of our #DiscoverTavaziva series is Double Take. 

There are two sides to every story… Through adversity, there comes triumph. Through pain, there comes love. After a storm, comes calm. Double Take, created in 2010, is an intensely courageous work that surveys the impact of black dance and Bawren Tavaziva’s contribution to the contemporary dance landscape in Britain. An immersive celebration of culture, hardship, agony and joy.

‘Tavaziva harnesses the speed and energy of his muscular dancers with consummate skill, creating patterns of collective movement and individual architecture that is endlessly inventive… these powerhouse dancers deliver a memorable and exciting exploration of two cultures.’ The Stage

SUBSCRIBE to Tavaziva Dance Official YouTube channel for more online classes, trailers, extracts of productions and behind the scenes short films!

Out Now! Our second TavTorial online class led by Artistic Director Bawren Tavaziva. Join in with an African dance class, improve your technique and increase your stamina.

Each week  until 2 June you can take part, get moving and experience Bawren’s unique synthesises of Ballet, Contemporary and African dance. Next week tune in for a class focusing on African and Contemporary Fusion. We hope the classes keep dancers focused and motivated.

TavTorials and the rest of our #DiscoverTavaziva series can be found on our YouTube Channel. Subscribe now so you don’t miss a thing.

On now, the next instalment of our #DiscoverTavaziva series is Mandla. 

Mandla is a powerful dance piece exploring the themes of struggle for freedom and fair treatment, in honour of Nelson Mandela who dedicated his life to fighting for the views, attitudes and rights of all people of South Africa. “This is a personal tribute to Mandela. At the same time I was looking at people who fight during wars, who deserve the same respect and have never been recognised for their work.”

It is a prayer to the ancestors asking God to help us appreciate and acknowledge the people who sacrificed their lives fighting against oppression.

‘Intriguing and deeply sensuous’ The Stage

SUBSCRIBE to Tavaziva Dance Official YouTube channel for more online classes, trailers, extracts of productions and behind the scenes short films!

We’re thrilled to be part of WAF in Your Living Room 2020. Check out our #DiscoverTavaziva programme in the festival line-up, plus hundreds of other amazing cultural experiences including dance, theatre, opera, comedy and many, many workshops! Visit www.wandsworthfringe.com and search for Tavaziva in the ‘What’s On’ section. Wandsworth Arts Fringe is running until 24 May!

Out Now! Our first TavTorial online class led by Artistic Director Bawren Tavaziva. Join in with an intermediate warm up of exercises that we use day-to-day in the studio with the company!

Each week  until 2 June you can take part, get moving and experience Bawren’s unique synthesises of Ballet, Contemporary and African dance. Next week tune in for a class focusing on African dance.

TavTorials and the rest of our #DiscoverTavaziva series can be found on our YouTube Channel. Subscribe now so you don’t miss a thing.