Dance of Ma'at: Africans Rising

“Many dreams fulfilling; forward to Ethiopia!"

I pursued my passion with purpose and many doors persistently opened. Preparation now prosperous! Habitual - daily - ritual, dancing to reggae music as I rise in the morning. Choreography! Formulating….. “Ethiopia awaits awaits awaits…..” Give thanks the feeling gets the blessing.

 Secured my passion; Dancing,

 to carve a place in the sun. Africa bound.

 “Come to Zion, come to Zion, everything is ready!”
Seven years apart - the land at home and the land abroad.
September 2007 was a profound year.  I experienced the millennium celebration for a second time in One life time, so I know I am truly blessed. Yes, I danced my way to Zion. Forward ever, backward never! 

Never to be remembered babywrong anymore.” 

Reggae-Robics: Sound mind in a sound body experience

HOW
TO TURN TRAGEDY INTO TRIUMPH

It is a fact that we can't always choose WHAT happens to us and we may never know WHY. However, we can always ask this one question: “are we going to respond to our lives?”

The whole process of establishing Reggae-robics
fitness for life dvd series has knocked me down a couple of times (through no fault of my own) and each time, I was able to gain more confidence to get back up – keep moving & accept the unwanted but kept my dream alive.

In launching this new brand for 2015, I am thankful
I was able to keep moving and keep going.  What kept me going despite the pain caused from the loss of our development manager who passed away in the midst of the project? I was committed to listening to my inner guidance and able to wake up each morning feeding my joy!

To find out more about “The Innerzeal reggae-robics fitness for life series, go to www.gofundme.com/Reggae-robics.
Support the movement and stay fit for life.

"Innerzeal Reggae-robics Fitness for Life" TRAILER

"Are you satisfied today? Is this what you want or Something better? If you don’t know what Reggae-robics is, check out my GofundMe page and show some love. “Reggae-robics fitness” encourages you to find out what your purpose is when you make a commitment to “fitness for life”. It is a natural inclination to put ourselves down because we live in a negative world. Guard your mind against negative programming – join the team – support the movement - uplift your spirit to greater heights. Experience the wellness within..If you don’t fill your mind & body with positivity, you will Live in quiet desperation. And guess what... Fear of the unknown can paralyze you! Lift up your eyes – I believe you deserve this. “The inner zeal Reggae-robics dancercise”@gofundme.com/Reggae-robics ......."

What's next Innerzeal?

Music is the healing of the Nation and about the only thing that really unites us apart from the - all too magnificent powers of love. What happened to the love & compassion in humanity? Time to put on your dancing shoes - yes go ahead but sooner or later we are all affected by the same issues of war. War against the same human race - nothing but a crab in the barrel attitude. The rich continues to get richer while the poor suffers from #Ebola.

"Innerzeal Reggae-robics Fitness for Life"

"Innerzeal Reggae-robics Fitness for Life" Trailer.....

WORLD MAGAZINE JAM: Innerzeal Reggae-Robics

WORLD MAGAZINE JAM: Innerzeal Reggae-Robics: Innerzeal Reggae-Robics is a dancercise program, dancing to reggae music to tone and shape your muscles, improve your rhythmic coordinati...

REGGAE-ROBICS - Dancercise

Innerzeal reggae-robics is a dancercise program, dancing to reggae music to tone and shape your muscles, improve your rhythmic coordination, strength and flexibility. It is a total body workout with dance and exercise combined to suit all ages and genders. Support needed for fundraising at http://www.gofundme.com/Reggae-robics

Innerzeal:Movement combination 4

 
Fear can be a great motivator..........Put your visions to reality!!Are you a winner? Ask yourself that question because a real winner knows their only competitor can’t be found in front of them, only inside of them. I invite you to Discover something new today; Think like a winner!!

The struggle to bring in contemporary dance in Ethiopia

June 04, 2012 addisstandard                                          

Save for a courageous struggle by one group, Ethiopia is one of the countries in Africa where contemporary dance remains unpopular
Zela Gayle

East Africa is a thriving place for experiencing contemporary dance. With the many popular dance forms that exist in the 21st Century; Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda all play host to annual dance festivals, inviting worldwide artists to share in the exchange of experiences for the development of African dance cultures. Many of these countries are home to a dazzling fusion of contemporary dance performances.

Holding strongly onto the roots of traditional dances from the indigenous tribes, Ethiopia is yet to bring its part of contemporary dance in line with the rest of the world’s contemporary dance.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean Ethiopia has completely missed out on the art of the dance. In 1967, Menen, one of the pioneer magazines in Ethiopia, wrote the story of The Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre Company. “The profoundly moving talents of Choreographer Alvin Ailey displayed a full integration of dance & drama leaving a lasting impression on the audience at the Haile Selassie I Theatre”. Emperor Haile Selassie I invited The Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre Company who later became the most important black American choreographer in the history of modern dance.
Ethiopia was already exposed to the full intensity of modern dance ideas from the late 60′s and the idea has grown slowly since then.
Harnessing talents
In 1996 the Adugna Dance Theatre Company was formed under one of the programs run by The Ethiopian Gemini Trust. It became the first Contemporary Dance Company in Ethiopia. Gemini Trust which was founded in 1983 by an Anglo-American pediatrician, Dr. Carmela Green Abate, was set up as an NGO providing a comprehensive family approach to foster better livelihoods to some of Addis Ababa’s poorest people. What started out as an experimental project harnessing the creative talents of street children is now a vibrant, international success story. Adugna Company is now a group of seven young professional dancers, some of whom come from Gemini families, and received training for a period of five years before launching their career as a professional dance company performing worldwide.
Addisu Demissie, artistic director of Adugna says the group “don’t have our own purpose built dance studio but we are very thankful to Gemini Trust for giving us the use of space to practice and rehearse continuously over the past fifteen years”.
Adugna dance company members all take part in teaching contemporary dance to local Ethiopians free of charge, three times a week, to pass down the skills that they themselves had gained from the various choreographers who came from abroad mostly on voluntary base to share the knowledge of Contemporary dance techniques practiced worldwide. A major part of Adugna’s development has been the exchange of skills between dancers around the world. They have also benefitted from touring the U.K, Burkina Faso, Madagascar, Kinshasa and Kenya which hosted famous dance festivals where they performed.
Equally important is Adugna’s work in the community. Adugna works with all age groups, including the disabled and the elderly, using dance and theatre to educate and inspire a wide range of issues, including health, civil rights and discrimination. In many ways Adugna symbolizes artistically what Ethiopian young people can achieve if given the chance, and their performances reach out to other Ethiopians that are in need of hope and inspiration.
Recognized
Independent choreographer and dancer, Mintesinot Getachew was chosen by the German based choreographer Sasha Waltz, to lead a project called ‘Dance Move -Urban Space’ in February 2011. The initiative was supported by Goethe Institut. The aim was to enable the growing community of emerging dancers to work together in circus, martial arts, traditional or hip-hop dance, and receive a contemporary dance training that would culminate in a film which was eventually screened at the National Theatre. “It was a very intense process which took two months to search for talented dancers. We auditioned over 300 dancers and 25 of them were chosen for the project,’ Mintesinot told this magazine.
A bright Future
Much can be learnt from the neighboring East African countries hosting dance festivals annually in their home country. While Ethiopia’s government has not made a plan to subsidize this kind of initiative, Mr. Aweke, Public & International Relations Director at the Ministry of Culture & Tourism says “here are so many Ethiopian dancers who come to us for a letter of recommendation to go abroad to perform their work and we constantly give them this support technically.”
In July 2010 Rwanda played host to a week-long dance festival that attracted over 10 participating countries from all over the world. According to Mr John Gara, the Chief Executive of the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), the event attracted over 500 participants worldwide. “Among other things, RDB is mandated to promote tourism and this is one way of promoting tourism and attracting more cultural tourists into Rwanda. We are doing this in collaboration with the Ministry of Sports and Culture,” Mr Gara said.

Independent Ethiopian dancers are mainly subsidized by Cultural Institutes such as Alliance Ethio-Francaise and Goethe institut who recognize that the public will benefit from contemporary dance experiences. Making these small steps each year to include dance on their agenda becomes yet a significant stepping stone for professional Ethiopian dancers.

The struggle to bring in contemporary dance in Ethiopia | Addis Standard#more-604

The struggle to bring in contemporary dance in Ethiopia | Addis Standard#more-604

Addis Arts

Addis Arts

Speak Your Mind

Caribbean Dance Artist, Zela Gayle, shares her survival techniques as a teacher, choreographer and performer.

The inconsistency of finding dance work in the UK and working as an independent dance artist in London can be extremely frustrating, especially because I know my skills and knowledge are important to passing down the history of African- Caribbean dance forms in educational settings. I have a lot of passion for dance of the African Diaspora - for adults and children to experience the traditional forms coming from a rich heritage of ‘Black’ dance before experiencing the popular dance forms from these cultures.
Having taught African-Caribbean dance in the UK for six years, I realise that schools and the community at large recognise and appreciate the significance of African-Caribbean dance during the month of October for ‘Black History Month’. The frustrating thing is having too many contracts during this time and nothing offered to you for the rest of the year. I am grateful that the majority of primary schools in London acknowledge dance of the African Diaspora and can take on a specialist teacher to advocate celebrating the history of African dance forms, so that children have a better understanding of how African dance has influenced the development of Street dance, in which children have a great passion. However, why is it so difficult to maintain a relationship with the school throughout the year?
As an independent dance artist I am constantly forced to look at new ways of generating work to sustain myself. I have to think practically about my lifestyle and career. So, if there is no dance work coming in, I will opt for work in retail or an administrative post to make sure I have some cash coming in. Trying to find a balance between being a dancer, choreographer and a teacher is forever challenging because it is not always paid work, and no one wants to end up being a starving artist. So I look for opportunities to broaden my network and collaborate with like-minded artists; regionally and internationally. Alternatively, I create work outside of African dance (primarily in Cuban-Contemporary dance) to attract a different audience. This opens up a new scope to my repertoire of dances from the Inner zeal productions.

I like to travel with my dances - teaching and performing internationally. Dealing with an overseas contract is a challenge because you take the risk of doing something in a new way and this sometimes means not knowing the outcome of the contract until you arrive in the country ready to work. How far are you willing to go for people to take you seriously? I always travel with my own PR pack and draft contract. For people to take you seriously you also need a lawyer in case something happens that is out of your hands. I simply reject overseas contracts if they present certain flaws. Everything should be securely in place before you travel, to safeguard yourself. For example, I was offered a contract with a prominent cultural organisation in Jamaica. It seemed like a chance of a lifetime; to dance my solo act on a stage in Jamaica alongside well-known Jamaican singers, musicians and dance groups. It was a great compliment to receive such an invitation. But when I found out that the organisation would not pay my flight and other necessary expenses, I knew it would not suffice and worst of all, that I was not regarded as a professional artist for the event.


One of the highlights of my career to date has been being an ADAD Trailblazer (2005/06). Receiving the fellowship was an uplifting experience. It gave me the opportunity to push my dance talents further by travelling to Cuba to work with Danza Libre Company based in Guantanamo. The language of traditional Cuban dance was new to me. I participated in Afro-Cuban folklore and Contemporary dance training daily for two months. It was elevating, spiritually enhancing, exhausting and complex at times. The Cuban dance methodology was rigorous, but I enjoyed the intensity with which we trained. There is no equivalent of Danza Libre Company in the UK! I was very fortunate to have access to this training in African-Cuban dances in preparation for weekly performances. The Director, Alfredo Velasquez, made me feel welcome and the dancers of the company treated me with the same respect as long standing members of the company. Being Jamaican born, we had the Caribbean commonality, until I opened my mouth to speak. I learnt the Spanish language very quickly. My dance teachers spoke to me in Spanish and I practised at home with my neighbours to process my learning & understanding. We would also visit performances by other Cuban dance companies, and I was even invited to lead a session in Jamaican reggae dances which they were highly fond of.
I thoroughly fulfilled my time dancing and learning about Cuban culture in Guantanamo and hope to venture out to other regions next time. The trip was so inspiring that I still feel vibrant about it four years later.

Returning to the UK, as an ADAD Trailblazer I was able to build a repertoire of choreography based on my experiences of the traditional techniques. My aim was to take this into Primary schools and build a relationship with schools in order to set up a Youth Dance Company. I now find that children in Primary schools have lost interest in African dance, and so my immediate aim is to focus on young adults. I have created a resource pack for The Inner Zeal Productions to use for courses in dance at diploma level and for University students studying African-Cuban dance.

Another significant development opportunity has been my role as volunteer administrator for Feedback 33, a dancers’ mentoring forum which was set up by Sheron Wray. It has helped me greatly in networking with dance artists globally and opportunities to collaborate with members have arisen. This forum has also provided a chance to raise my profile as an artist through conducting several “my space” sessions A “my space” session is held once a month and allows artists to use the studio space and time (up to two hours) to present some work in whatever medium of artistic dance expression they choose. Feedback 33 also invites teachers from around the globe to lead sessions. Although the forum is based in London, people from other cities in the UK have attended classes to gain insight into the passions, challenges and experiences of various artists. We have a MySpace website for our members to communicate and continue to support each other in a friendly environment. For more information on how to register, email me: inspiredbyluv@yahoo.co.uk or check our site: www.myspace.com/feedback33

AFRO-CUBAN MODERN DANCE TECHNIQUE

Zela Africa Gayle leads a class in Afro-Cuban Modern Dance Technique.

Thursday 30th September 7.30-9pm.

PLEASE COME FOR REGISTRATION AT 7PM.

This class explores a technique practised widely in Cuba with a vocabulary reflecting the study of African based dances of Cuba, merged with a fusion of ballet and contemporary dance. In this class Zela focuses on the exploration of how these forms speak to each other as one. Zela will lead a class of movements deriving from Yoruba dance traditions whilst at the same time giving the participant grounding in “La Tecnica Cubana”. La Tecnica Cubana is a form of dance known as a highly evolved hybrid of dance forms put together. Class not suitable for beginners.

Cost £10 annual registration fee and £5 for class thereafter. Non members pay £8.
Students & unemployed pay £3 for class - proof of status required.
To book a place on this workshop please email
Paula Allen: paula_adad@danceuk.org or phone: 07792236583 www.myspace.com/feedback33

Venue: The London Studio Centre, 42-50 York Way, London N1 9AB

FEEDBACK33 TEACHERS' BIOGRAPHY
Zela has currently been teaching Afro-Cuban Modern dance to BA Performing Arts students at The University of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Zela’s work as a choreographer takes the richness of this form which combines West African rhythms with rigorous travelling sequences to energise and strengthen the dancing body.

Zela Gayle began dancing at the age of 5 in Jamaica, learning Afro-Caribbean dance as well as classical ballet. At the age of 7 Zela moved to London and trained as a competitive gymnast. She began her training in Contemporary and Jazz dance at WAC Performing Arts and Media College and gained a BA Honors degree in Dance Studies at Winchester University. In 2004 after working with several youth groups in the UK; Zela joined Danza Libre Company in Cuba to launch her professional dance career focusing on Afro-Cuban dance forms.

Establishing herself as an international artist, her experience includes choreography for Crystal Lights Dance Academy in St. Lucia, Edna Manley School in Jamaica, Cuban-Modern Dance at Addis Ababa University and workshops in choreography at the University of Arts and University of Winchester in the UK.

Zela’s professional development has included working with Bonnie Oddie (UK), Patsy Ricketts (J.A), Sheron Wray (USA), Jackie Guy (UK), Alfredo Velasquez (CU) and Maya Yoshida (JPN).

Zela draws from a wide range of influences such as; traditional Afro-Cuban dance, reggae modern dance and improvisational techniques. Zela teaches dance worldwide, performing and choreographing internationally.

Addis-Arts Meet up Group

There is lots happening in and around the "Hub" of Africa, otherwise known as "Addis Ababa".
Join this group if you would like to experience the arts encompassing new and thriving styles of dance, collaborate with musicians & artists of Ethiopia, those at home and abroad!

Join me here at www.meetup.com/addis-arts