Project X Scratch Night
September 2017 - Four choreographers present a small work-in-progress at Tramway, Glasgow
Images by Najma Abukar
Joy Maria Onotu
Joy Maria has been teaching Afrobeats dance classes in Glasgow for many years. She is influenced and inspired by many different Afrobeats dance styles and has developed a choreography that is truly unique.
For her scratch night performance Joy Maria is developing a choreography which tells the story of her relationship to the multiple places and countries she is from, through dance. Moving from Afrolatin into Azonto, free movement and finally traditional Congolese dancing, Joy Maria will share her story of belonging.
Claricia Kruithof
Claricia trained in classical and contemporary techniques before beginning to train in some dances of the African diaspora; including hip hop, funk styles, house dance, and
more recently, underground ballroom culture including vogue dance. As one of very few house dance teachers in Scotland, and as a member of an underground ballroom Kiki house (London-based Kiki House of Tea), Claricia is committed to learning and sharing the foundations of these cultures, and keen to develop these more under-represented dances in Scotland. As an artist Claricia is interested in how movement languages are both learned and inherited, held in the body, together with internalised experiences, physical memory and effects of trauma.
Erick Valentin Mauricia
Erick is a founding member of Ayawara West African Dance and Percussion Ensemble, based in Glasgow. Erick brought his tradition, knowledge and experience of African music and dance to Glasgow from the distant West Indies, African Guinea and France. In 1982 he gained a certificate in Performing Arts at The American Dance Centre in Paris and in 1989 and 1990 he taught Modern and Afro Jazz to dancers from The Bolshoi and Moiseiv Traditional Moscow Ballet in Russia. In 1996 he gained a Diploma in African Dance from The African Centre of Dance & Music in Paris.
Erick is exploring combining traditional and contemporary West African dance moves along with elements of yoga and capoeira; working with the calabash and moving to West African Kora music. Erick is accompnaed by Paul Shofolam and Idris Akormadu.
Kasumi Momoda
Kasumi studied classical ballet for 22 years and is now studying an MSc in Dance Science and Education at the University of Edinburgh. During her time in the studio she has been integrating her ballet skills into a contemporary context and incorporating some movement which references her Japanese heritage.
