Video, Sound, Sculpture, Live Performance
The movement narratives of colonialism and post-colonialism have led to the evolution of hybrid dance and movement practices which, through the transformational aspects embedded in the movement as well as the embodiment of cultural/inter-cultural identities, function as a living archive of these diasporic narratives, re-contextualised within the present, live body performing them. This work explores the presence of these movement narratives within the work of Les Ballets Negres (1946-1952), also known as the first black British dance company.
Roshini Kempadoo coined the concept of “the contiguous archive”, referring to a dynamic, expanded archive of contiguous formations that are apparent in multiple locations. The contiguous archive is an imaginative, transgressive, hybrid and dynamic archive which cannot be considered stable and retroactive but is instead a generative practice using forms which are participatory and performative. Utilising the conceptual framework of the contiguous archive as a form of creative research, this installation concurrently records, re-imagines and re-presents the dances of Les Ballets Negres within a contemporary context; allowing further translations and transformations through participation.
The work in the installation is the culmination of a research project exploring the position of the dances of the African and Caribbean Diaspora in Scotland, and includes material developed as part of an ongoing collaboration with Erick Mauricia Valentin (choreographer) and Paul Shofolahan (musician). The materials within the installation are presented contiguously, as a “proposal to make meaning and knowledge through a connected process.” (Roshini Kempadoo, 2016)
image credit: Jura McKay
image credit: Jura McKay
image credit: Jura McKay
image credit: Jen Martin
image credit: Jura McKay
image credit: Jen Martin
image credit: Ashanti Harris
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image credit: Jura McKay
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