london-based dance company Avant Garde will present The Black Album today as part of the British Council’s Impulse 2. The artistic director of the company, Tony Adigun, tells Divya Kaushik that he has explored themes such as death or darkness and therefore he is often described as a ‘dark choreographer’
What led to the formation of Avant GardeIJ
The formation of Avant Garde came about after spending two years travelling the world and choreographing for international pop artists. This was probably one of the best experiences for me as a 19-year-old dancer and choreographer. After two years I felt I had to unleash the creative energy within me and that led to the formation of Avant Garde dance company. I saw Avant Garde as an opportunity to explore all the things I couldn’t explore through the popular conventions of dance at that time. I wanted to experiment not only with dance and music but also the total aesthetics of production which included lighting, costume and concept.
When you talk about innovation and creating a new style with no rules or limits, what limits of dance are you referring toIJ
limits of form and limits of style... I suppose with The Black Album I play a lot with juxtaposition. I feel like people are hypnotised by the labels and ideas surrounding ‘the traditions’ or norms associated with dance styles and for me Avant Garde is about breaking those limits, discarding those labels and essentially going against the grain. I don’t like to separate dance by labels such as hip hop or contemporary, for me it’s about movement and music, with the music acting as a guide and inspiration for my movement. I understand that there are certain rules surrounding certain types of dance in regards to music, lighting costume, however, people should be allowed to explore beyond these restrictions. I like to take influence from all art forms such as art, film, literature, music and bring them altogether.
Please tell us about your journey as a dancer.
Dance has always been a part of my life. I was always passionate about being a creative, a choreographer and it’s no surprise. My mother was a dancer in Nigeria; something I didn’t know until a few years into my dance career. In primary school my hobbies were dance and football and I’d be found always doing one or the other. People ask me when did you start choreographing and truth be told I was about eight or nine, choreographing in the playground to Salt-N-Pepa, Vanilla Ice and every week I’d have a new piece to perform for my school assemblies.
What are the kind of dance styles that you work withIJ
The main two styles that I work with are contemporary and hip hop. Although Avant Garde started as a hip hop, I soon fell in love with contemporary and the emphasis placed on conceptual pieces and their interpretations. I wanted to create something that maintained the vigour of hip hop while incorporating the contemporary thought processes and vice versa. I believe dancers should be superheroes, not just moving for movement’s sake. There are elements within both styles that I’m not necessarily a fan of and so I try to take the elements that I do like and combine them, creating something fresh and innovative. I have also worked on various commissions which have involved a lot of site-specific work; Chinese Po and Attack of the Bandstand are some examples of the site-specific work created within Avant Garde.
Tell us about the subjects and themes that you explore through your dance presentations.
Sometimes I explore subject; sometimes I don’t, sometimes there is a narrative; sometimes there isn’t. There is no set way in regards to my work as I get bored very easily. I could watch a film that would then inspire or influence my creation or sometimes just the music will give me a strong vision. I have explored themes such as death or darkness and I have often been described as a ‘dark choreographer.’ I like to explore the beauty within darkness as I feel it’s something many people are scared of. For example, in one of my pieces, The lake, I primarily dealt with the theme of death and ways of representing pivotal moments within the different ways of dying through movement, lighting, composition and stillness.
Tell us about The Black Album.
The Black Album is 70 minutes of just Avant Garde dance. It’s a triple bill of works I have previously choreographed including Omega, Classical Break and Dark Matter. It’s a journey of exploration through music. Music is my love and my first passion; dance is my way of expressing that love. Every time I create a new piece it is definitely infused with and guided by the music. I am very passionate about music. I am a DJ, I collect music everywhere I go from all different genres and I encourage my dancers to do the same and I think they’re very accomplished in dealing with a wide range of genres and acoustic musical compositions, interpretating and moulding their dance styles around the music be it ballet to reggae or breaking to classical, as seen in The Black Album. The tag line for The Black Album is ‘a new way to listen to dance and watch music.’ I always speak about dancers being a visual representation of what the audience is hearing. At our last show in Mumbai the audience spoke about the movement of the dancers enabling them to hear parts of the music that they had initially never heard before. For me this is very important, opening the minds of the audience to different elements while watching the dance, regardless of how familiar they are with the songs.
How much do you know about Indian dancing stylesIJ
I am very much aware of classical Indian styles such as Bharatanatyam and Kathak. I very much appreciate the articulation of the movement, the sounds. They speak to me in terms of their strength and intensity while maintaining such delicacy of movement. Two years ago I received mentorship from Akram Khan which was a very good experience and I think it was interesting for him to see a hip hop company that drew upon so many artistic influences.
Did you take workshops and interact with students hereIJ
We have set up workshops in pretty much every city that we’ve visited and have received amazing feedback from the students. The first workshop was after our show in Kolkata with students displaying high levels of enthusiasm. It was very humbling to hear some of the students say that they had gone home to practice what they’d seen in the show to prepare for the workshop the next day. The energy levels and receptivity of the students have been incredible during the last two workshops where we’ve tried to communicate our aesthetic of combining hip hop and contemporary.
The responses via social media have been overwhelming. We feel like we’ve almost found a spiritual home as people here understand and appreciate us as a company and the vision I, as a choreographer, have been trying to put across. We’ve been invited back by various organisations and so we’ll just have to see how it all goes. If we receive a call to come back and teach, I am sure we’ll be very happy to do so.