A member of Company Chameleon in a past performance.
Company Chameleon in a past performance ©

Company Chameleon.

A first of its kind outdoors traditional urban meetup of three Dance Companies; Company Chameleon (UK), Batalo East (UG), and DESTINO (ET), this collaboration will build shared experiences and expertise in choreography, youth engagement, and traditional contemporary dance fusions. 

Dance Out intends to showcase to a wider Ethiopian audience new forms of art such as hip-hop, traditional fusion, contemporary and Ethiopian-contemporary dance and a broad spectrum of contemporary dance styles and meanings performed by both local and international dancers by employing existing popular dances to foster new interest in an important art form. The project will include its own soundtrack fusing electronic sounds with traditional East African beats recorded during this unique production.

UK-based Company Chameleon and Ugandan Batalo East will be traveling to the home of DESTINO in Addis Ababa in May 2018 for one week of experimental creation of pieces to be performed and adapted as site-specific "pop-ups" and promenades by a total of ten dancers in various outdoor public spaces. This will first be performed in Addis Ababa, Awassa, and Bahir Dar, and 6 dancers (2 from each company) in Manchester, UK.

The British Council has awarded the Dance Out dance collaboration the new Art new Audiences grant

This project is in collaboration with DESTINO (Ethiopia), Company Chameleon (Manchester, UK), Batalo East (Uganda)

Are you a British artist/creative practitioner interested in collaborating across East Africa? 

The Network Development Fund (AIDF) was created in partnership with the British Council to support international travel for individual artists and/or creative practitioners from the UK to exhibit, develop talent and create original work.

Learn more about the Network Development Fund.