GROUNDATION Dancing from the Archives​

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A collection of West African traditional and Jamaican folk dances representing social, ritual and religious rites. These dances are the foundation of the movement language/style of IRIE! dance theatre. Each dance relays a journey or cultural shift in African and Caribbean history, thereby guarding the stories for us now and those that are yet to come.

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Education and Community Outreach​

The programme will explore a variety of African and Caribbean dances as set out in IRIE! dance theatre’s current production entitled, GROUNDATION Dancing from the Archive. Culture and heritage will be a recurring theme across all sessions. Participants will learn some basic defined dance style, which brings together movement and how it relates to the drum language/music.

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Emphasis will be on exploration, and responding to tasks, ideas, and imagery.

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Basic movement combinations will be taught, depending on abilities which will progress to more physically demanding movements and complex sequences.

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It will sometimes be necessary for the movement to be done independently, with a partner or as a group.

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In some cases, participants will be encouraged to talk about their movement and ideas based on the dances learnt and/or theme of the residency.

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Learning Outcomes:

· Explore African and Caribbean movement language featured in GROUNDATION: Dancing from the Archive.

· Understand the basic principles and background influences of the dance forms.

· Apply the necessary creative skills required to develop the dance movement.

· Demonstrate an understanding of fusing traditional and contemporary movement forms with the music.

· Develop an awareness of performance skills.

· Ability to work creatively as part of a team.

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General workshop delivery

· Introduction

· Warm-up

· Learning movement language or selected piece of the repertoire

· Creative exploration of ideas

· Practice and sharing of work