An evening of two parts inspired by the spirit of Sankofa, representing the importance of learning from the past to build the future.

The first half of the evening will look to the future with a series of short films by trailblazing international dance practitioners and filmmakers inspired by the theme of Reimagining Tomorrow: New Work, Afrofuturism and Technology. Featuring the award-winning On a Sunday at Eleven by Alicia K Harris, a continua – an obituary, a manual for life lived chasing LIFE by the trailblazing nora chipaumire in collaboration with filmmaker ari marcopoulos, and Gestures in Black and Blue by Yewande YoYo Odunubi, followed by a conversation with Odunubi.

The second half of the evening will honour the past with the Leicester launch of  The Black Dance Movement in England 1940-2000 by Bob Ramdhanie. The book introduces a parallel concept to the European exploitative ‘triangular slave trade’, by showing how cultural heritage circles were being nurtured and exported to the Americas, through enslaved Black bodies.

Biographies

Yewande YoYo Odunubi
Yewande YoYo Odunubi is an artist, researcher, and cultural producer whose practice revolves around the enquiry: “what does the body need to dream?”  Viewing the body beyond the idea of a singular, fixed form, identity, or function, she is interested in how we see, read, shape, and practise ourselves.  Drawing on freestyle-improvisation as a choreographic and pedagogical methodology, Yewande explores how intuitive experiences, bodily rhythms, and embodied knowledge contribute to world-building processes.  Alongside artist, poet and friend Rohan Ayinde, Odunubi is one-half of the wayward/motile collaborative duo i.as.in.we. Odunubi’s performances, films and research have been programmed by art spaces and cultural organisations, including Art + Public Life, Barbican, G39, Glasgow International, Now Gallery, International Curators Forum (ICF), Sainsbury Centre, TBA21 and Whitechapel Gallery.

Bob Ramdhanie
Bob Ramdhanie was born in Trinidad, lives in the Caribbean.  He has lived most of his life in the UK and has been a pioneer supporting the development of ‘Black arts’ for over 40 years.  He co-founded and managed three African Caribbean dance groups – Mystics and the Israelites, Kokuma Dance Company and Danse de L’ Afrique – between 1970 and 1980.  He was the Founder and Director of the Handsworth Cultural Centre and the CAVE Arts Centre in Birmingham, supporting and promoting black cultural traditions and was a co-founder and manager, for over twenty years, of the renowned, a cappella quintet Black Voices. Bob was a founding member and first Director of the Black Dance Development Trust.

Image Credit:

Cover: ON A SUNDAY AT ELEVEN | F3M

In text: Yewande YoYo Odunubi, Gestures in Black and Blue (2022), installation view Calling the Body to attention. Image by Katarzyna Perlak