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Moving with Equity: A panel discussion on body politics

Dance Umbrella

Three headshot of guest speakers against a bright blue background.

Join us for a panel discussion, designed to interrogate and move forward discussions around the body, its politics and movement practices, and the current discourse with colonial history.

Facilitated by author, journalist and Bernie Grant Arts Centre Artistic Director & CEO Azieb Pool, the panel will include author, actress, director and public speaker Kelechi Okafor, who is the host of the Say Your Mind podcast, as well as being a highly skilled pole and twerk fitness instructor. 

They will be joined by choreographer Mamela Nyamza whose autobiographical work, HATCHED ENSEMBLE, addresses social injustice, and plays in the Barbican Theatre for four nights from 9–12 Oct. She seeks to show the significance and particularity of each dancer’s movement that have been moulded by many diverse contexts and backgrounds through their history as classically trained dancers, permeated with embodiments of personal, public and political experiences as artists in South Africa.

Running time: 1 hour, no interval

Age guidance: 13+

Accessibility
This talk is BSL-interpreted.

Ticketing
Admission is free, but ticketed. If you have booked a ticket and can no longer attend, please contact our box office team on [email protected] to let us know. 

Part of Dance Umbrella Festival 2024. Presented in partnership with the British Council and Barbican.

Image credit: Mark Wessels

Speakers

Azieb Pool
Azieb Pool is Artistic Director & CEO of the Bernie Grant Arts Centre and founder of the Tottenham Literature Festival. Azieb was previously the Senior Programmer for Contemporary Culture at the Southbank Centre, where she curated the Africa Utopia Festival and was a lead programmer of the WOW Women of the World festival, which included taking WOW to Somaliland, Nigeria and Baltimore USA.

A Guardian journalist for over a decade, Azieb has written for many international publications and sits on the Mayor of London's Cultural Advisory group for the annual Black on the Square event in Trafalgar Square.

Kelechi Okafor
Kelechi Okafor is a storyteller. Whether it’s through her podcasts or books as well as informative video essays - Kelechi explores and challenges what it means to navigate modern society based on what we remember of our histories. 

The spiritual is political and this is why Kelechi’s Tarot, astrology Yoruba cosmology offerings are instrumental to her understanding of liberation, on an individual and collective level.

 

Mamela Nyamza 
Mamela Nyamza is a dancer, choreographer, director, and performing artist who has been trained in ballet, modern and African dance styles. She has won many accolades for her activism-focused creations. HATCHED ENSEMBLE, which runs in our theatre from 9—12 Oct, continues her work which unapologetically demystifies and deconstructs the history of dance, interrogating the accepted norms of the classics.

Find out more about Mamela Nyamza's HATCHED ENSEMBLE.

 

Frobisher Auditorium 2