Funmi Adewole Elliot: Choreography and Africana philosophy

HUMA African Epistemologies Advanced Seminar Series

Speaker: Funmi Adewole Elliot (De Montfort University, United Kingdom)

Introduction: This presentation will provide ab overview of the development of the art of choreography in Africa, mainly drawing on examples from Ghana. Using examples of dance and theatre companies launched to during the independence era, in the African universities, various professional and social experiments and under the banner of contemporary dance, I would look at how choreographers engage with ideas of Pan-Africanism, Negritude, various genealogies of modernist of thought related to multiculturalism, humanism, diaspora and globalisation. On the basis of the social imaginaries and discourses generated by their work, I will argue the value of investigating this practice through the lens of Africana philosophy. 

About the speaker: Funmi Adewole Elliott is a senior lecturer in Dance at De Montfort University, Leicester. She is also a performer and a dance dramaturge. Funmi started out as a media practitioner in Nigeria but went into performance when moving to England in 1994. She toured with physical theatre and African dance drama companies for several years and then went on to study for an MA in Postcolonial Studies and a PhD in Dance Studies. Her research interests include theorising of dance of the African Diaspora in professional contexts, Africanist aesthetics in choreographic practice, the notion of contemporary dance and storytelling and performance.