African Diaspora Dance Association Curriculum debuts at The Hammond

We are pleased to announce The Hammond is the first educational institution in the UK to pilot the ADDA’s West African Dances syllabus…

ADDA are a non-profit organisation specialising in teaching and accrediting dances of the African Diaspora. They connect the dots between the history of West African dance, through the ages, to the modern day.

Using West African, African-American, and Black British history as a source of movement, the learning community will have the opportunity to understand the cultural lineage responsible for the social dances and cultures that we enjoy and practice today.

“I’m really excited about piloting ADDA’s first syllabus at The Hammond. We developed our West African Dance syllabus with Catherine Foster, an incredibly talented award-winning dancer, choreographer and teacher, and we really believe this addition could really be the catalyst for a more culturally diverse dance sector in the UK, following in the foot steps of fantastic institutes such as Juilliard and Alvin Ailey.

Not only doing the students learn movement vocabulary, but they also have contextual studies where they will learn and discover the culture and the origins of the dance rhythms. This really is a milestone in history for the UK Dance Sector and the possibilities are endless.”

Nahum Mclean

Founder, African Diaspora Dance Association

“There is a richness to the landscape of African Dance in the way it connects the to the rest of body through simple and complex rhythms. ADDA offers dancers and choreographers of today new tools to connect thoughts and ideas about how vital, growing and important the language of dance itself has become.

Forever developing, changing and embracing new expressive movement ideas. Allowing students to develop their own richness of ideas. Complex, engaging and enthralling, to be both connected and creative. ADDA has an essential role to play in the development the dance and music languages of tomorrow.”

Mark Baldwin OBE (for his service to the arts)

Chairperson

We cannot wait to see the long-term impact this organisation has on the performing arts industry and are proud to be a part of it.