Africa: All Africa Dance festival and conference

1. Dates: Wed 9th Dec- Sun 13th December 2009
2. Conference Theme: “Celebrating the Role of Cultural Dance in Peace Building and Human Understanding”
3. Venue: Kenyatta International Conference Centre, Nairobi Kenya
4. Conference Organizers: Purple Images Productions and Capacity Concern Africa
5. International Partner: Art Action

Conference Brief:
Many African countries have been affected by conflicts leading to the deaths of about five million people in the last fifteen years. Armed Conflicts in Sudan, Rwanda , Burundi, Congo, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Liberia, Angola and Somalia have been the most publicized at the international level but inter-ethnic conflicts are the order of the day in most of the African countries, The result of these conflicts is bloodshed with millions of Africans been resettled from their homes. There are still unresolved conflicts in Somalia, Sudan , Uganda , Burundi , Congo and Chad . These countries have a lesson to share in the use of the arts to promote peace and healing while striving to prevent armed conflicts in the future. Kenya is just overcoming a political conflict that would have forced the country into anarchy seriously threatening social order and security of the Eastern Africa region

Why the Dance Festival and Conference?
History and current experience shows that so deep are the pains of most of the conflicts experienced in Africa that the popular individualized and rationalistic approaches to healing and transformation simply lack the language and resources to solidly address the challenge of holistic peaceful transformation. “Arts approaches” provide an accessible language, compelling processes that affirm everyone’s creativity and, above all, an inclusive space that enables healing, genuine dialogue and transformation to happen particularly where the violent conflicts and pains are experienced by masses of people. African countries that are victims of conflicts, can use dance and drama to subtly address the issues among community members. Dance promotes the sense of belonging and can promote and motivate change, unite communities for a cause and rally them to a common vision including promoting peace, conflict prevention, Human Understanding and democracy.
Inspired by the indigenous African motif of the “drum,” Peace Drum Project introduced by Purple Images Productions and Capacity Concern Africa will “drum up” a most significant call to artistes-peace builders and peoples in Africa to take greater leadership in intentionally and imaginatively transforming ideologies of violence and, above all, (re)constructing a narrative of just peace.

The festival will provide a rich, inclusive and challenging forum for reflective practitioners to celebrate their creative richness; critically and deeply engage; dream and act jointly in producing alternative cultural and dance products and in shaping new narratives of just peace. The festival will bring together over 1000 committed artistes-peace builders – including educators, dance artists, development workers, community animators and cultural activists – from Africa and the Diaspora who continue to apply various shades of dance arts approaches in their social change work. The one week intensive program of applied training, performances, exhibitions, and direct skills-building experience will take place in Nairobi, Kenya , between 9th to 13th December 2009. A select number of the participants will be awarded partial scholarships to attend the conference and festival
Various Artistic groups, producers, choreographers development workers, cultural activists and teachers from Africa and other parts of the world will participate in the festivals and workshops that will not only impart skills in dance for peace and development but will celebrate the use of dance as a tool for social change and development in Africa.

The Dance Conference
There will be a three day Dance Conference from 9th to 11th December to share effective communication skills in the use of dance to promote peace and Human understanding:
Technical Dance Workshops:
• Dance Choreography
• Movements and patterns creation
• Dance Drama/ Dance Theatre
• Dance Journalism
• Dance Production and presentation
• The role of Community Dance
• The language of dance
• Dance festival productions
• Mime Dance
• Story Development in dance

Dance for Peace workshops and plenary

• The role of Indigenous dances in peace education
• Community Based Peace Education
• Indigenous Arts and Philosophy of Peace Storytelling in dance drama,
• Integrated Arts Approaches in Healing, Dialogue and Transformation
• Advocacy and Dialogue using Dance
• Facilitating Community Based Arts and Peace programs
• Training for Dance Choreographers and producers in Peace building
• Arts Approaches to Peace building & Development
• Forgiveness & Healing using Dance
• Dance for peace and conflict prevention and management
• Democratizing Africa using Dance

The International Dance festival
December 12th and 13th will focus on the International Dance Festival where the dances created during the conference will be performed before live audiences of about 10,000 people. Outstanding presentations will be awarded with cash awards and trophies. The Best Dance Troupe to come up with the best peace and human understanding dance presentation in two days will win the top cash award of US$ 5,000 which the dance group can use as seed funds for peace building and peace education on return to their country!

Registration fees
Delegates from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan $150 per Dance group
Dance delegates from the rest of Africa $ 200 per group
Dance delegates from the rest of the world $ 500 per group
Individual delegates such as consultants/ development officials $150 per person
The payments will cater for festival registration and materials. Delegates must also meet the costs of their travel , meals and accommodation in Kenya. If you need the conference to organize accommodation and travel arrangements in Kenya for you please inform us immediately.
For information about Kenya please visit: www.magicalkenya.com Please share this information with your contacts!

All correspondence should be emailed to the attention of:
Karegwa Muchiri
Festival Director
All Africa International Dance Festival
Mbuchia House, 3rd Flr, West Wing, Westlands, Nairobi, Kenya
P.O BOX 58182 - 00200 Nairobi
Tel + 254-20-4450937/ 4452674
Cell: + 254-20-722 634947
Email: [email][email protected] or [email][email protected]
www.purpleimages.com