Center for African Studies

Carter Lectures 21.1 with Funmi Adewole, De Montfort University.

Contemporary Dance as African Cultural Production.

‘Funmi Adewole is lecturer in dance, School of Humanities and Performing Arts, De Montfort University in Leicester. Scholar, storyteller, and dramaturge, Dr. Adewole started out as a media practitioner in Nigeria and moved into performance on relocating to England in 1994. For several years she toured with Physical/Visual theatre and African dance drama companies. Her credits include performances with Ritual Arts, Horse and Bamboo Mask and Puppetry Company, Artistes-in-Exile, Adzido Pan-African Dance Ensemble, Mushango African dance and Music Company and the Chomondeleys contemporary dance company. She chaired the Association of Dance of the African Diaspora in Britain (ADAD) from 2005 to 2007. In this role she initiated and directed the ADAD Heritage project, which contributed to the documentation of black-led dance companies and choreographers in England between the 1930s and 1990s. She completed a PhD in Dance Studies at De Montfort University Leicester in 2017. Her dissertation is entitled ‘British dance and the African Diaspora: The Discourses of Theatrical dance and the art of choreography – 1985 to 2005’. For twenty-five years of tireless work to change perceptions of dance of the African Diaspora, Dr. Adewole was honored with the Dance of the African Diaspora Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019.

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Carter Lectures 2021

BACK TO THE FUTURE: Choreographers Mobilizing Africa-sourced Futures in the (post) COVID Era

in cooperation with: Afropolis | The Institute of Dance, Drama and Performance Studies – De Montfort University (UK) | QDance Center (Nigeria) | Association Kaay Fecc (Senegal) | Agence 27 (Senegal) | Engagement Feminin (Burkina Faso)