Bakani is one of just 40 recent graduates from around the country picked to receive a Weston Jerwood Creative Bursary and he will spend 12 months working on a paid placement.
Paul Russ, Artistic Director and Chief Executive at Dance4 said:
“We’re really excited to have Bakani working with us and to be part of the Weston Jerwood Creative Bursaries programme. Making sure we have access to the widest pool of talent and new perspectives is absolutely vital to the success of individual organisations like ours and to the arts as a whole.”
Bakani recently completed his MA and BA Honours degrees in Choreography at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance and Falmouth University respectively. He has worked with choreographers Russell Maliphant, Theo Clinkard, Jorge Crecis and Freddie Opoku-Addaie; and most recently he has been chosen to participate in 2016’s Turner Prize winner Anthea Hamilton’s Tate Britain commission.
Bakani and Paul Russ
His practice focuses on improvisation techniques for composing choreography as performance. Exploring his experiences growing up in Zimbabwe he aims to create performance art that serves as an entwining of the two cultures. He is also part of Late Collective, a group that works with themes of gender identity, queer culture and perspectives on race.
The Weston Jerwood Creative Bursaries programme was set up to give graduates from low income backgrounds an alternative to the unpaid internships which act as a gateway into the sector for up 88% of young people working in the arts today. Now in its third edition, the programme has proved hugely successful, with 60% of employers in the programme’s second edition extending contracts once the bursary ended and 98% of hosts considering ways in which they can target future job opportunities towards graduates who may not have the means to work for free to get into the arts.
Interlude In The Future
Graduates who have already completed their placements have gone on to a range of senior jobs within the arts, including Artistic Director of Birmingham’s Fierce Festival and Executive Director of Chisenhale Dance Space in Tower Hamlets, London, while others are developing successful freelance careers in the arts.
Bakani said:
“I’m really proud to be selected and to get an opportunity like this, since Dance4 is a great place to start my career. I believe this organisation is the best place to challenge and encourage experiments and the team is great in supporting emerging choreographers.”
For more information about Dance4’s work please visit our website on www.dance4.co.uk
For more information please contact Bec Lister, Head of Communications at Dance4 on 0115 924 2016 or bec@dance4.co.uk
