Black Light Dance: demolecture

Cinedans hooks up with Black Light and presents dance films from the African continent and the diaspora. With a demo lecture about the roots of urban dance by Funmi Adewole and Nita Liem and a selection of some of the best recent dance shorts, co-curated by Azu Nwagbogu (founder and director of African Artists’ Foundation (AAF) and LagosPhoto Festival), and The Nest Collective from Nairobi.

We focus on the richness of African dance styles, but also on stories about heritage, survival tactics and emancipation, in a post-colonial era. Contemporary makers tackle through creativity and imagination, issues of gender, personal expression and authoritarian structures, presenting a picture of a world full of multi-directional tensions.

Nita Liem (NL) and dance researcher and storyteller Funmi Adewole (UK / NG) dive into the roots of popular urban dance styles. Together with two urban dancers, they use live performance and film fragments to demonstrate the interconnections of the various African-American and African dance styles.

From her knowledge of social and ritual dance forms, and inspired by her own perspective on migration, Nita Liem knows how to connect different worlds. Together with Bart Deuss, she has been the artistic director of dance theatre Don't Hit Mama since 2000. They base their dance-theatre work on hip hop, African-American dance traditions, migrant themes and social dance forms which form the basis for many urban dance styles.

Funmi Adewole has a background in media, education and performance. She started as a media artist in Nigeria and left for England in 1994. Adewole obtained a PhD in Dance Studies at De Montfort University Leicester and recently received a Lifetime Achievement Award in Dance of the African Diaspora.