CORE VALUES AND AUDIENCE BUILDING
OUR DIRECTION
Tabanka seeks to deconstruct traditional, neo-traditional, classical, modern and contemporary African, Caribbean and Diaspora dances, movement vocabulary and techniques. This in order to create works, which are rooted in the PAST, is present and relevant to the NOW, and innovates and lays foundations for the FUTURE.
OUR MISSION
- TABANKA was born out of a passionate sense of artistic responsibility – a responsibility to bring a missing voice, in its many artistic dialects, to Norways cultural forefront. TA BANKA encourages artists to expand their vision of what they perceive, create and present to a national audience. TABANKA continues to play a prominent role in Norways artistic mosaic by showcasing the work of both emerging and established Black and international dancers specialized in expressions new to Norway.
OUR VISION
- To establish cultural exchanges among all ethnic groups, by celebrating and educating them of Africas and African Peoples (worldwide, also includes latino etc.) rich culture and the influence of African culture to the Americas and the world.
- Raise the awareness of dance as a tool to facilitate the health and well-being of the individual.
- To make the joy and heritage of African and Caribbean, dance, song and rhythm available to ALL, and to disestablish stereotypes concerning both European and “black” dancing bodies. Dance is from the people and must be given back to the people.
OUR AIMS
- Developing artistic and strong works, that are giving and inclusive to our audiences.
- To seamlessly use traditional and neo-traditional African and Caribbean movement vocabulary to create contemporary works developed from Africanist movement aesthetics. An aesthetics which reflects our social realities in a global and international context.
- To ensure that the discipline and multitasking skills developed through the mastery of African and Caribbean dance is firmly transferred to other arenas of peoples lives, be it academics, career or private.
OUR OBJECTIVES
- To get recognition for the artistic, aesthetic and technical richness of African and Caribbean dance, and for the dancing body trained to execute these arts, aesthetically and technically.
- To firmly establish African and Caribbean Dance technique within the Arts.
- Preserving and promoting African and Caribbean dance heritage in a modern, International & European context. This by creating and presenting professional choreographic works, built on Caribbean, Afro-European, and African traditions.
- Utilise dance as a creative tool of learning and development within our communities in order to give people the opportunity to realise their creative potential, so as to improve their social, economic, personal and artistic prospects in life.
- Educating an elite force of dancers, specialize in APD (African peoples dance), based in Northern Europe, who will use their knowledge, talent and creativity in order to educate, develop, innovate, and broaden dance as an art- form. Herein including APD as a major contributor to modern, urban, commercial and artistic dance as we know it.
- Nurture future audiences for dance and the arts in general.
Tabanka achieves these objectives by its creation and presentation of educational, cultural and recreational events. The company conducts workshops, lectures, and performs new works in concerts and festivals to reach the greater community. The founding of Tabanka was exactly what was needed to add to the rich cultural diversity of Norway. It is imperative that people learn about the rich dance heritage of African People, from Jazz to Hip Hop, Reggae, Traditional and innovative hybrids, and its contribution to the modern dance in the Americas and the world.