Absolutely thrilled to have received funding for my research towards developing my programming & curatorial practice.
It took a few rejections but we got there at the end.
On ne lâche rien!
For the past few years I’ve conducted self-funded research trips to different African cities (Kigali, Dakar, Abidjan) with the aim to develop my knowledge of the African cultural landscape, connect with artists and cultural leaders across borders, and deepen my understanding of this incredibly rich sector from an Afrocentric perspective.
May the journey continue with some extra 💰support!
Slide 1: “Message to the Youth”
Young people of Africa
And of the diaspora
If one day your steps take you
To the foot of this monument
Think of all those who sacrificed
Their freedom or their lives
For the rebirth of Africa.
- Abdoulaye Wade -
(President of Senegal 2000-2012)
Slide 2: working on it since 2015 😂
The Black Carpet 🖤 Still buzzing.
Did I not call for an award in my last post? Life always works its magic in mysterious ways. Congratulations my bro @ivanmichaelblackstock 🫶🏾 TRAPLORD won Best Dance Production at the @olivierawards . Mad. Insane. Deserved. Blessed for being part of the production team of this incredible work. It’s coming back in 2024 and ya don’t want to miss it! TRAPLORD is more than a dance production, it is a multi-sensory-immersive experience fusing dance, rap, spoken word, and visual art. I’m 100% bias but trust me when I say no one has done what Ivan did in Hip Hop Dance Theatre. It took 8 years to get there and a whole lot of people’s hard work. Big up to the TRAPLORD fam.
In 10 years time I will look back at this as a milestone. I truly didn’t see that one coming and I’d like to thank Lyndsey Winship @guardian for including me in this article and considering me as the “seven of dance’s hottest hidden talents”. Damn! This is epic! This article is epic because it brings some light on the people in the shadow. We don’t often get the spotlight and we’re not looking for it but when we get a bit of it, our heart shines. Today I feel seen, I feel proud, I feel my hard work is being recognised by the industry and I wish nothing more but for more light to be shined upon producers! I want to thank the many whisperers (@fopokuaddaie & @peopleoftheatre ), my mentors (@beki_bateson & @nadine.patel ), everyone single one of you who said this was deserved, and last but not least the artists and organisations I’ve been working with for all these years. Like I said, there are no producers without artists and there are no artists’ shows out there without producers. This relationship is real!
@fubunation_ , @ivanmichaelblackstock , @beckynamgauds , @danceumbrella , @sadlers_wells (not mentioned in the article) THANK YOU ♥️
Also a big up to @vincenzo_lamagna and @tyroneisaacstuart for being part of the hot 7 gang!
Next one up, the Award 😂😂😂
NB: little correction on the article. In the photo credit it says I’ve produced TRAPLORD but the lead producer on this epic show is Emily Lunnon; an incredible woman I had the chance to work with! Let it be known!
One year since The Heat by @beckynamgauds premiered at @southeastdance Undisciplined Festival.
A cinematic and physical theatre work where the surreal collides with the everyday. The Heat reveals the quiet brutalities society imposes on the female body, while unapologetically reclaiming agency through women’s refusal to suppress desire, instinct, and needs.
Becky Namgauds is undoubtedly one to watch: part of the next generation of UK choreographers, and one of the still-too-rare female choreographers making work at scale with such clarity.
Behind the scene? It was intense, demanding, and at times absolute chaos. I did manage to burn a dance floor during the process… which feels very on-brand for a show called The Heat!
Very proud to have been part of this as Associate Producer, and grateful to have worked with such a brilliant team: @zoe__ritchie whose lighting design is just exceptional; stage designer @yimeidesigns who transformed the stage into an entire domestic world; and @dariahlipinska a total powerhouse and the most resourceful Production Manager I’ve ever worked with.
Happy anniversary to the whole team, and wishing The Heat a long and exciting life ahead 🤲🏾✨🫶🏾
Production Credit (in full):
Choreography by @beckynamgauds in collaboration with and performed by @carolinereece8@hello_masumisaito@yenchinglin624@bea_cz@bonnibogya
Music by @d.angarano
Set Design by @yimeidesigns
Lighting by @zoe__ritchie
Creative Producer @ciaramlynch
Associate Producer @steph___be
Assistant Producer @uunvloyea
Outside eye & rehearsal director @stephlmcm
Text & Dramaturgical support @pepaduartes
Pastoral Care @katyecoe
2024 presenting venues @southeastdance@the_lowry@sadlers_wells
Deep in fundraising mode, aka the most undercover, least glamorous side of producing where you spend hours (days? years?) sitting in a chair, not writing anything new, just trying to emotionally negotiate your word count from 6,789 down to 2,997 without diluting a single “visionary,” “urgent,” or “transformative” idea you spent non measurable time contextualising.
It’s like creative Jenga: you remove one sentence and the whole artistic universe collapses.
🫠🫠🫠
So much of this job is beautifully non-public-facing. And thank f*** for that, because nobody needs to witness the 10-day unwashed hair era, eyebrows in active rebellion, wearing the same jumper like it’s part of the funding strategy, surviving on coffee and vibes alone.
Anyone with me?
Instead, here is a well-polished, freshly-washed version of myself outside Théâtre des Abbesses for the premiere of A Body of Rumours by @liamfrancisdance back in September 2025. A picture that reminds me it’s all for that moment: the release, the collective joy and the smelly roses 🌹
Last chance to catch Alchemy is on Wednesday 4 March at Brighton Dome x
I finally took time off to open Françoise Vergès’ “Un féminisme décolonial”, a book that’s been staring at me from my shelf for way too long. And… yeah. Must-read. A classic in the making. And a loud, unapologetic middle finger to what Vergès calls “civilising feminism”: the kind that claims it’s universal while quietly policing, ranking, silencing, and excluding other women.
Vergès doesn’t let feminism float in the clouds. She drags it back to the ground where it belongs: economic rights, culture, politics, reproduction, and the environment. Miss one, and the whole analysis collapses. Period.
Then comes the historical gut-punch. The 1970s, and the global rise of anti-natalist policies aimed at women from the Global South, including how the French state encouraged sterilisation and abortions in its overseas territories, framed through “security” logic: too many young people might migrate to France and threaten the “stability” of the so-called free world. Let that sink in.
And the closing chapter lands like a final strike: “Who cleans the world?”
Vergès starts from a simple truth we’re trained not to see: the world is split between “clean” and “dirty,” and that line is racialised, carved into domestic and urban spaces. She backs it with data (in France racial stats are illegal): 1 in 40 jobs is in the cleaning industry. 66% of declared workers are women. 29% are foreign nationals. 76% are concentrated in the Paris region. An economy built on exhaustion, fatigue and the slow wearing down of racialised bodies so everything else can look “polished”… and those workers can stay invisible.
This is what the book does best: it makes the invisible impossible to ignore.
“Izithuthuku: The Tattered Soul of the Worker.”
A bold heartbeat of South African dance-theatre.
A fusion of tradition and innovation.
Through the lens of isiPantsula,
the rhythm of ndlamu,
and the pulse of setapa
movement becomes memory
rhythm becomes resistance.
Sewing machines,
typewriters,
they hum like ghosts of industry
echoing stories long buried.
Each body is a living archive.
Tracing the scars left by apartheid,
by migrant labor,
by state violence.
This is more than a performance.
It is struggle
resilience
and the relentless act
of reclaiming dignity.
Artistic Directors: @vusimdoyi & @phala_ok
Associate Artist: @jeremy.nedd
Production company: @vap_studios
Associate Producer: @steph___be for Sáwá Creative Studio
Partners: @lessgoodidea@stepafrika@nationalartsfestival@nacsouthafrica
Izithukuthuku is on its way to Maputo for the Kinani Bienal!
I first encountered this work in June at the National Arts Festival in Makhanda and remember thinking, this is exactly the kind of work I want to stand beside. It’s authentic to its core, innovative in its storytelling, unapologetically African and yet, themes reaching beyond geographical and cultural boundaries.
Five months later, I’m now an Associate Producer with this incredible South African company, working alongside choreographer @vusimdoyi and director @phala_ok
Feeling grateful and a little in awe of how things align when they’re meant to.
🤲🏾
From Lagos to Dakar,
Cape Town to Makhanda,
Bloemfontein to Johannesburg
I close this DYCP chapter with tremendous gratitude.
Grateful for time on the continent,
for familiar faces across borders,
for strangers who no longer are,
for moments of stillness that opened
a thousand thoughts, ideas, questions.
Since 2020, these journeys have been about one thing
to decentralise my practice,
to unlearn the single gaze,
to let multiple centres of perception
breathe and coexist equally.
I thank all the people who accompany me on this journey.
After witnessing such range
art that celebrates, art that confronts,
art that holds the weight of history and hope
I keep asking:
if these works were to cross into Europe,
how could I hold space for them
without extracting, without diluting,
without turning representation into performance?
As an Afropean, I move through the motherland with care. Observing. Asking. Listening.
Terrified of repeating colonial gestures
because being Black doesn’t absolve us from them.
Hmmm, I’ve seen enough to know:
privilege wears many skins.
The question isn’t necessarily who has it,
but whether it uplifts or oppresses.
And so, a quiet warning to the diaspora:
(myself included)
Without responsibility,
representation becomes another form of extraction, therefore
another form of oppression.
For care & repair 🤲🏾
From Maboneng to Rosebank, Jozi has a lot to offer. A special thank you to the team at @lessgoodidea for your very warm hospitality and introduction to the amazing work that you do and support 🤲🏾
Earlier in July this year, I’ve attended the Pan African Creative Exchange bi-annual festival in South Africa for its 4th edition. A week full of artistic discoveries, exchanges,
in depth conversations and uncomfortable truth, but overall some great human connections.
The festival proposes a well curated format around 3 main strands: tour-ready work, work in progress, pitching and networking sessions. Yup, another week of back to back shows and social interactions, and the face got tired!
The purpose of my trips at present are not to buy or sell any work. This automatically impacts the way I navigate a space. None of my encounters are transactional; I’m not trying to get anything from you and you’re not trying to get anything from me either. And that’s the beauty of how I managed to travel across the African Cultural sector for the past 5 years. I’ve made priceless connections with people because of a genuine interest and curiosity for the person in front of me. Who are you? What’s your history? Let’s grab a coffee, a wine and chat... the rest is past, present and future 🤲🏾
A special shout out to my girl @maduna_method , an artist, producer, university lecturer, a sister from another mother, whom I met in Makhanda and looked after me in Bloemfontein. Thank you and @reamokone for all the love, laugh, introductions, conversations about South Africa, its diverse cultures, languages and complex history all from the perspective of a younger generation.
Shout out to @munyamu and @mrisi__ for putting me behind the decks to play some Amapiano in SA. I felt validated from the people who birthed this music genre 🙌🏾
This post is dedicated to Olo ♥️
