Over the past 5 months I have been taking part in the Afro Play project, a collaboration between five dancers (Akeim Toussaint Buck, Charlene Kaliyati, Lauren Tucker, Talisha Thomas-Lindsay and I) lead by my Movema colleague and independant dance artist Ithalia Forel and mentored by Alessandra Seutin (Vocab Dance).

The project asked us to consider the influence of African Culture on our lives. Over the five months we had many conversations, wrote, sang, made noise, stopped talking, started again, danced, watched, witnessed, stood back and put ourselves forwards. Each with their own story and approach to creating, we came from diverse backgrounds to try to find a unified message. In May we performed at the Trailblazers Platform at The Place in London (click below to see the video).

For me the process was as important a journey as the journey we conveyed on stage, the dynamics between us as artist and as human beings approaching this timely and political subject from our own cultural bubbles required as much openness, sensitivity, flexibility and resilience as the most challenging choreography.

For me, as a Capoeirista (practitioner of Capoeira, a Brazilian martial art/dance) the key thoughts coming out of the project were how much I have benefitted from this artform, which has it’s roots firmly in African soil and souls and how I can repay this debt of gratitude in my daily life.

As a philosophy and a tool for personal development and positive social interaction, practicing Capoeira around the world for the last 16 years has taught me so much about myself and others around me, as well as giving me many, many amazing experiences; transcendence in Angola rodas, being welcomed as a family member in maaany different countries from India to USA, teaching Capoeira to practically a whole village in rural Kenya, language, dances, singing, life-long friends, falling down and getting back up and more…

For all of us in the western world we benefit every day from the influence of Africa not only in musical influences from the diaspora but in the wealth of our nations, food, clothing, art, dance, stories and much more. Let us remember this as we continue to see people of African origin denied their rights, and persecuted, let us remember that we are one and we cannot sit by and take the parts of this culture we like and ignore the parts of this culture that continue to be oppressed and disrespected. Let’s find ways to be part of the struggle, to truly understand and educate, to speak out, to name and to walk forward together.

“I and I pray for the I freedom

I and I pray for unity spread all over the world

I and I observe and see the destruction on this land

I and I pray for the awakening of many souls

Let us love in order to relinquish hate from our land.”

Akeim Toussaint Buck