From her office doing business
1. On your website, you write: “A bird does not sing because it has an answer, It sings because it has a song” What is your song?
Whatever I do is because of the passion. I do not really look at whether I’m perfect or not, but the person has to love it. I think you have a passion, and you have to believe to in what you sing. My song – I’m a great believer in the arts from my culture. I’m from Uganda. I believe that you are where you are from and I love people who are authentic. I am just passionate about dance and I enjoy nurturing others and seeing them flourish. I find joy when I see someone I’ve known and I’m part of their journey.
2. How does Africa Diaspora dance service the UK community?
I worked as the director of Association of Dance of the African Diaspora (ADAD) , bringing dance from the margins to the mainstream. My focus was on the awareness of dance of the African diaspora. My work was part of bringing dance into the ecology of the UK. African dance is very key to the community, it provides jobs, it provides self-belief, it provides leaders for others to look up to.
We are a minority – we are five to seven percent of the population, so we are really small, but we believe that the dance forms (traditional African, contemporary, Brazilian, Caribbean) have contributed to the framework of dance in general. We are marginalized because we don’t have an infrastructure, so ADAD is one organization that creates that infrastructure. We are trying to do something to create a level playing field. It’s up to us to raise the profiles of the forms and put them in those settings where people will like them. I work in partnerships with larger organizations such as The Place and they really love the dance forms. They don’t really know what they are, but they love it.
3. Your international connection points are Canada, Uganda, and North London. Tell me about your experiences at each of those sites.
I was raised in Uganda and I did all of my education and performing art while I was there. I was in a performing arts company. We performed and traveled to festivals, the UK and other places. When I finished my education I came to the UK and I had my son really early. I have lived half my life in Uganda and more than half in the UK. I started doing arts management and I am passionate about putting together infrastructures and systems to organize ourselves. That’ s where I can really put my energies I love being behind the scenes instead of in front of the camera.
In the USA I connected with IABD (International Association of Blacks in Dance) and with Denise Saunders Thompson. I have been to their conferences four times now, and I found it really inspiring. I found it was quite ballet-centric though and I felt we had something to offer to them and they had something to offer to us. In the UK people are not as determined to train and create perfection in their artistry as they are in the USA. In terms of quality, the work form the USA it’s quite high and that what I want to aspire to in the UK. I want to create infrastructure globally. Linking the different diasporas with the continent, will give stronger voice and I see myself in that mix as a connector, as an enabler, and even as a gatekeeper if necessary.
Canada was a connection with Dance Imagine I made when I was working at ADAD, and Vivine Scarlett invited me to IADB in Toronto. We had conversations about how we don’t have infrastructure and administrators and funders and how we might work on this. They invited me as a consultant so that they could develop a more streamlined access to artists. I spent two weeks with them and we worked on an actual plan and a framework so that it would not be an ad hoc system. And then, Vivine introduced me to artists that are in Canada and we managed to do a choreographic exchange funded by the British Council and the Government of Quebec.
4. How do you see your international connections feeding your current work?
Oh… I see that as the core at the moment. I really find my strength connecting internationally. I see myself as an international player. I don’t think that my work to advance people and give them a platform and a profile would work without the international connections. In Uganda, I give free consultations over the phone. I am always in constant communication and advising people. You always have to know what else there is to do, and what to connect to, for the aspiring artists.
5. You have worked in many different art forms, performance poetry, choreography, writing for the stage and screen, and music. How does it feel to sit at the center of each of these differing art activities?
I put artists at the center of these activities because they make their work. I enable them to flourish.
6. What was Hollywood like?
I didn’t go to Hollywood actually the filming (of The Last King of Scotland) happened in Uganda, but I got to speak with Kerry Washington and Forest Whittaker. In fact, I have a new script on my shelf as well. It’s at the back of my mind. Maybe it’s my retirement package.
7. How does your family support your work?
Emotionally. I’ve got a son. We are very close knit family and I have looked after my brothers and sisters as a mother, because I lost my mother in Uganda to the war. Without my family I would be lost.
1. On your website, you write: “A bird does not sing because it has an answer, It sings because it has a song” What is your song?
Whatever I do is because of the passion. I do not really look at whether I’m perfect or not, but the person has to love it. I think you have a passion, and you have to believe to in what you sing. My song – I’m a great believer in the arts from my culture. I’m from Uganda. I believe that you are where you are from and I love people who are authentic. I am just passionate about dance and I enjoy nurturing others and seeing them flourish. I find joy when I see someone I’ve known and I’m part of their journey.
2. How does Africa Diaspora dance service the UK community?
I worked as the director of Association of Dance of the African Diaspora (ADAD) , bringing dance from the margins to the mainstream. My focus was on the awareness of dance of the African diaspora. My work was part of bringing dance into the ecology of the UK. African dance is very key to the community, it provides jobs, it provides self-belief, it provides leaders for others to look up to.
We are a minority – we are five to seven percent of the population, so we are really small, but we believe that the dance forms (traditional African, contemporary, Brazilian, Caribbean) have contributed to the framework of dance in general. We are marginalized because we don’t have an infrastructure, so ADAD is one organization that creates that infrastructure. We are trying to do something to create a level playing field. It’s up to us to raise the profiles of the forms and put them in those settings where people will like them. I work in partnerships with larger organizations such as The Place and they really love the dance forms. They don’t really know what they are, but they love it.
3. Your international connection points are Canada, Uganda, and North London. Tell me about your experiences at each of those sites.
I was raised in Uganda and I did all of my education and performing art while I was there. I was in a performing arts company. We performed and traveled to festivals, the UK and other places. When I finished my education I came to the UK and I had my son really early. I have lived half my life in Uganda and more than half in the UK. I started doing arts management and I am passionate about putting together infrastructures and systems to organize ourselves. That’ s where I can really put my energies I love being behind the scenes instead of in front of the camera.
In the USA I connected with IABD (International Association of Blacks in Dance) and with Denise Saunders Thompson. I have been to their conferences four times now, and I found it really inspiring. I found it was quite ballet-centric though and I felt we had something to offer to them and they had something to offer to us. In the UK people are not as determined to train and create perfection in their artistry as they are in the USA. In terms of quality, the work form the USA it’s quite high and that what I want to aspire to in the UK. I want to create infrastructure globally. Linking the different diasporas with the continent, will give stronger voice and I see myself in that mix as a connector, as an enabler, and even as a gatekeeper if necessary.
Canada was a connection with Dance Imagine I made when I was working at ADAD, and Vivine Scarlett invited me to IADB in Toronto. We had conversations about how we don’t have infrastructure and administrators and funders and how we might work on this. They invited me as a consultant so that they could develop a more streamlined access to artists. I spent two weeks with them and we worked on an actual plan and a framework so that it would not be an ad hoc system. And then, Vivine introduced me to artists that are in Canada and we managed to do a choreographic exchange funded by the British Council and the Government of Quebec.
4. How do you see your international connections feeding your current work?
Oh… I see that as the core at the moment. I really find my strength connecting internationally. I see myself as an international player. I don’t think that my work to advance people and give them a platform and a profile would work without the international connections. In Uganda, I give free consultations over the phone. I am always in constant communication and advising people. You always have to know what else there is to do, and what to connect to, for the aspiring artists.
5. You have worked in many different art forms, performance poetry, choreography, writing for the stage and screen, and music. How does it feel to sit at the center of each of these differing art activities?
I put artists at the center of these activities because they make their work. I enable them to flourish.
6. What was Hollywood like?
I didn’t go to Hollywood actually the filming (of The Last King of Scotland) happened in Uganda, but I got to speak with Kerry Washington and Forest Whittaker. In fact, I have a new script on my shelf as well. It’s at the back of my mind. Maybe it’s my retirement package.
7. How does your family support your work?
Emotionally. I’ve got a son. We are very close knit family and I have looked after my brothers and sisters as a mother, because I lost my mother in Uganda to the war. Without my family I would be lost.