ABSTRACT
This edited collection brings together new writing about the work of Black British dance artists. It arises out of a two year research project, British Dance and the African Diaspora, led by Christy Adair and Ramsay Burt. The historical scope of this book is the period from 1946 to the present, including the pioneering work of Les Ballets Nègres and the strong growth of dance activities between the 1970s and 1990s. Its aim is to celebrate the contributions that Black British dancers have made to the British dance scene, and does so through enlarging and clarifying existing historical information while focusing on cultural and aesthetic issues and concerns that are particularly relevant to British experiences.1 The following anecdote illustrates the gap in knowledge about Black British dancers and their work which this book seeks to ll. In her introduction to the 2007 book Voicing Black Dance: the British Experience, ‘Funmi Adewole recalls an incident when she had been invited to give a visiting lecture at a London Dance Conservatoire. She began her talk by asking the students what they knew about Black dance artists and they named a number of African American choreographers and companies. When she gave them the names of British dance companies, they had not heard of any of them, even ones that were touring at the time. British-based dancers who are Black have made rich and signicant contributions to the British dance world since the middle of the twentieth century, but as Adewole’s anecdote illustrates they remain largely unknown. The ideas behind performances by Black British dancers and companies were often misunderstood by dance critics at the time and their work has been largely ignored by those writing British dance history.
