Black Dance Uncovered: Summer School

Black Dance Uncovered: Summer School is a unique dance training programme that brings together leading professional dance practitioners from the African and African Caribbean Diaspora. Participants will have the opportunity to engage in both theoretical and technical training, with a sharing of their work to take place on the final day. The programme is aimed at providing vital skills in professional performance practice centred on a holistic model of focused dance technique, socio-cultural and historical knowledge and unapologetic creative expression. The course will be a valuable continued professional development opportunity and forms part of the programme for Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage’s MA Black Dance Performance and Gaze.

The course is led by Thomas Talawa Prestø, renowned as the foremost specialist in polycentric dance technique. Prestø has significantly enriched the field through his innovative scholarship and practice, as the founder of the internationally celebrated Tabanka Dance Ensemble and the innovator of Talawa Technique™, a fully codified dance method which integrates ancestral movements with contemporary sensibilities, whilst being grounded in an Africognosomatic approach, combining cognitive and somatic experiences within an African context.

The Black Dance Uncovered: Summer School is supported with guest masterclasses led by pioneering dance practitioners and educators, including Sharon Watson MBE DL, Principal of Northern School of Contemporary Dance and former Artistic Director of Phoenix Dance Theatre.

Image Credit: Holly Francis, Lauryn Pinard and Edy Samuels. Black Dance Uncovered: Summer School 2024