Are you interested in the connection between Architecture, Space and Performance?
Join us for Instagram live conversations hosted by choreographer and artist-scholar Dr Adesola Akinleye with BFA Members.
The BFA Dance Dialogues is an event series which was developed in collaboration with choreographer Dr. Adesola Akinleye.
To celebrate the book Dance, Architecture and Engineering (Dance in Dialogue), live conversations between Adesola and a series of BFA members will explore the main themes of the book in correlation to BFA member's work. BFA members include Ayanna Blair-Ford, Sarah Akigbogun, Seyi Adelekun & Umi Lovecraft BP.
First up is a conversation between Adesola and Ayanna on Tuesday 15 June at 7pm.
They’ll discuss making black spaces such as the black stage, black joy, the geography of black women and black-ness, the invisible man, black-out vs light-out and Blackness as safe space.
Ayanna Blair-Ford
Artist, Architectural Designer, Filmmaker & Budding Production Designer
Ayanna Blair-Ford is a (British Caribbean - Jamaican and Guyanese) Artist, Part II Architectural Designer, Filmmaker and budding production designer, with a passion for narrative-led design. Her work centers around themes of identity, diaspora and the representation of Black narratives through space, stage and film. Graduating from the Royal College of Art this academic year, her thesis project Black On Stage presents a new performance methodology cartographic of the Caribbean diaspora. Displaying an innovative and forward-thinking approach to the role of the architect, Ayanna was awarded the RIBA Wren Insurance Association Scholarship this academic year.
Ayanna holds a BA (Hons) in Architecture from Oxford Brookes University, where she is currently tutoring as an Associate Lecturer. From graduating from Oxford Brookes, Ayanna worked at Hawkins\Brown as an Architectural Assistant and then went on to join 59 Productions as an Architectural Assistant and Junior spatial designer. In 2019 Ayanna was part of the winning design team for the ‘Mile18 Marker’ competition for the London Marathon, in association with the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust ( now named Blueprint for all) and Virgin Money. Over the last year, Ayanna has also been working as an Assistant Art Director in Film, TV and music videos, assisting production designers such as Christopher Melgram and Lucie Red.
@adannay.music
Adesola Akinleye
Choreographer, Artist-scholar
Dr. Adesola Akinleye is an interdisciplinary artist-scholar and choreographer.
She began her career as a dancer at the Dance Theatre of Harlem (USA) later working in UK Companies such as Green Candle, and Carol Straker Dance Co.. Over the past twenty years she has created dance works ranging from live performance that is often site-specific and involves a cross-section of the community to dance films, installations and texts. Her work is characterized by an interest in voicing people’s lived-experiences in Places through creative moving portraiture. A key aspect of her process is the artistry of opening creative practices to everyone from ballerinas to women in low wage employment to performance for young audiences. Adesola is a Research Fellow with Theatrum Mundi, visiting lecturer at Central Saint Martins, and Research Affiliate and visiting artist at MIT.
www.adesolaakinleye.com
www.dancingstrong.com
Not to worry if you can’t make it to the live event. The video will be available on our instagram. #BFADanceDialogues