View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by De Montfort University Open Research Archive British Dance and the African Diasporas, the Discourses of Theatrical Dance and the Art of Choreography: 1985 to 2005 PhD Thesis Oluwafunmilayo Adetinuke Adewole P: 11249670 De Montfort University Leicester, Department of Dance First Supervisor: Professor Ramsay Burt Second Supervisor: Mr Tony Graves May 2017 Abstract 0 The aim of this thesis is to devise a theoretical approach to writing histories of theatrical dance, which draws on African and Diaspora forms. Most choreographers who work with these forms in Britain are usually of African or Caribbean descent and are racially black. I call the theoretical approach the choreosteme. I use the theoretical approach to historicise some of the developments that take place in dance as an industry in Britain and I design it to address issues of discourse, representation and cultural politics. My interest is in investigating the historical debates about the definition about the work of black choreographers in Britain especially those who draw on African and Diaspora forms. The choreosteme is based on social constructionism, Michel Foucault’s notion of the episteme, Brenda Dixon Gottschild’s conception of African aesthetics and the analytic tool called the chronotope, which I have borrowed from Mikhail Bakhtin. I devise the theoretical approach in 1 chapters 2 and 3 and I write five micro-histories about dance artists using this approach in chapters 4 to 8. In chapter 4, I discuss the construction of the Black dance/African Peoples’ Dance sector in 1993 following the debates about the nature of black dance in Britain. In chapter 5, I will look at the various means by which dance artists and managers tried to generate a critical discourse for their work and explain how the dominant discourses emanating from larger organisations rendered much of their work invisible. In chapter 6, I write about dance artists who were based in London and working as dancers and teachers (amongst other things) between 1994 and 2005. I discuss how they developed their dance practices through research and formal study at a time there was little formal training for the kind of practices they were interested in. They are Hopal Romans, Paradigmz, Ukachi Akalawu, Sheba Montserrat and Diane Alison-Mitchell. Chapter 7 is about two choreographers: Sheron Wray and Robert Hylton. I also discuss and analyse the idea of choreographic fusion in this chapter. Choreographer Beverley Glean is the focus of chapter 8. The chapter 9 is the conclusion. 2 Contents Page Chapter 1 Introduction, Literature review and Chapter plan 1.1. Introduction: Autobiographical Preamble 1.2. The Aim of this thesis 1.3. Literature Review 1.4. Methodology 1.5. Chapter Plan 1.6. Conclusion Chapter 2 The Choreosteme: Theorising Africanist dance practice 2.1. Introduction 2.2. Theoretical perspective of this thesis 2.3. The reconceptualization of theatrical dance in critical dance studies 2.3a. Destabilising the Euro-American dance tradition in dance history 2.3b. Expanding the discursive context of theatrical dance 2.3c. Case studies on black choreographers 2.3d. Expanded notion of choreography 2.3e Revisionist dance histories 2.3f. Raising the level of critical discourse about black dance 2.4. Theorising Africanist dance practice 2.4a. Africanist aesthetics in dance as a counter discourse 2.4b. Africanist dance practice and Modernity 3 2.5. Conclusion. Chapter 3 The Choreosteme: Objects of Inquiry and Chronotopic Values 3.1. Introduction 3.2. Objects of inquiry 3.2a. Intentional hybridity and Praxis 3.2b. The chronotope and its role in cultural and historical research 3.3. Looking at dance in the British subsidized dance sector 3.3a. The time-space of dance production 3.4. The methodology of using the choreosteme 3.5. Conclusion Chapter 4 Ethnic Minority Arts and The construction of the Black dance/African Peoples’ Dance Sector 4.1. Introduction 4.2. The subsidized professional dance sector as a ‘zone of contestation’ 4.3. The coming of black dance into theatrical dance sector 4.4. The significance of the Black Dance Development Trust 4.5. The defining reports: Advancing Black Dancing (1993) and What is Black Dance in Britain? (1993) 4.6. The framing of black dance 4 4.7. Discussions in the wider dance sector: Towards Cultural Diversity (1989) and Stepping Forward (1989). 4.8. The construction of the Black dance/African Peoples’ Dance sector 4.9. African Peoples’ Dance as a counter-discourse 4.10. The Black dance/African Peoples’ Dance sector up until 2005 4.11. Conclusion Chapter 5 Black choreographers in Britain: The challenge of generating a critical discourse - 1985 to 2005 5.1 Introduction 5.2. Post-GLC: Economic imperatives and the dominant discourse in contemporary dance 5.3. Artistic questions raised by dance platforms for black dancers: 1994 to 2005 5.4. The Anomalous Context of Adzido Pan-African Dance Ensemble 5.5. Generating critical discourse: Four interventions 5.5a. The Ancient Futures conference 5.5b. Bami Jo Summer School 5.5c. The Black Choreographic Initiative 5.5d. Dance writing of Thea Nerissa Barnes 5.6 Achieving ‘Scale’: Hip-Hop theatrical practices and Contemporary African Dance 5.6a. Hip-Hop theatre and choreography 5 5.6b. Contemporary African dance. 5.7. Critical Discourse and work of black choreographers 5.8.Conclusion Chapter 6 Five Independent Dance Artists and narratives of their practice between 1995 and 2005: Hopal Romans, Sheba Montserrat, Ukachi Akalawu, Diane Alison-Mitchell and Paradigmz 6.1.Introduction 6.2. Generating narratives of practice in the black dance/African Peoples dance sector: 1994 to 2005 6.3. Hopal Romans 6.4.Sheba Montserrat 6.5. Ukachi Akalawu 6.6. Diane Alison-Mitchell 6.7. Paradigmz 6.8. Dance history as histories of praxis 6.9. Conclusion Chapter 7 Choreographic fusion at the limits of postmodernism and The choreographic praxis of Sheron Wray and Robert Hylton 7.1. Introduction 7.2. Discourses of postmodernism and Dance criticism - 1994 to 2005 7.3. A narrative of practice: The rise and halt of Choreographic fusion - 1994 to 2005 6 7.4. Theorising Choreographic fusion 7.5. Choreographic Praxis of Sheron Wray and Robert Hylton 7.5a. Sheron Wray – Jazz Dance as Art Dance as Contemporary Dance 7.5b. Robert Hylton – Choreographies of an Afrofuturist’s Dancing Body 7.6. Conclusion Chapter 8 Ethnic Minority Arts, Hybridity and the Choreography of Beverley Glean 8.1. Introduction 8.2. Multiculturalism and the discourse of Ethnics Minority Arts in British theatrical dance. 8.3. IRIE! Dance theatre: 1985 to 1993 8.4. Contextualising the cultural hybridity of IRIE! 8.5 Viewing IRIE! through the discourses of Ethnic Minority Arts 8.6. Reggae in the choreography of Beverley Glean 8.7. Conclusion Chapter 9 The conclusion 9.1. Introduction: outcomes of this research project 9.2. The choreosteme – a theoretical approach to support the writing of dance history 9.3. Five micro dance histories 9.4. A critique on multiculturalism and dance in Britain - 1985 to 2005 7 9.5. The possibilities of the choreosteme. Bibiliography The End. 8 Acknowledgements My thanks to De Montfort University (DMU) for the grant I received to write this thesis. I wish to say thank to my supervisors Professor Ramsay Burt and Mr Tony Graves. Your contributions have been immense. My thanks to my brothers and sisters Oyinade, Bunmi, Ben, Yinka, Leke, to my friends especially Eki, Sola, Precious, Tia-Monique, T.A, Funke, Lola and Biodun. Thank you for your moral and practical support. Warmest regards to my stepson Joe. My gratitude to all members of staff at DMU and thanks to Mike Huxley, Sally Doughty, Claire Warden and Alissa Clarke for your input during annual reviews. I am very grateful for your insightful comments. To my colleagues and friends at the De Theatreschool Amsterdam and the dance company Don’t Hit Mama: Jopie and Lot, and Nita and Bart. Thank you for believing in this research project. To all the people I interviewed for this thesis, the dance artists working in Dance of the African Diaspora, those I mention here and those I do not. Here’s to you. You are an inspiration. I shall contact you personally. To the memories of three people who were here when I started this journey: My mother, the late Princess Cecila Monisola Adewole (nee Ademiluyi), my late husband Nicholas Martin Kruczkowski and a pioneer dance practitioner- researcher and wonderful role model, the late Professor Francis Nii-Yartey. I wish you were here to read this. Thank you God. I have done more than survive. I have flourished. ‘Funmi Adewole May 2017 9 Chapter 1 Introduction, Literature review and Chapter plan 1.1. Introduction: Autobiographical Preamble I begin this chapter by explaining why the topic of the work of black dancers in Britain from 1985 to 2005 became of interest to me. I became interested in the issues about definition in the field of dance on moving to Britain from Nigeria in 1994. I was a journalist in Nigeria but I had a love for dance. I was the artistic director of the university’s poetry club and I also gained experience performing and choreographing at university mainly in an extra-curricular context although I did take some theatre arts courses. Based on this experience, I began performing professionally in Britain, learning on the job and taking master classes and training courses as I went and attending events and meetings organised for dancers. The Association of Dance of the African Diaspora (ADAD) was established the year I arrived in England in 1994 and I started writing for its newsletter as a volunteer in 1995.