June 10 /Tuesday/, 7 pm
State Puppet Theatre Plovdiv
Family Honour
Spoken Movement
Kwame Asafo-Adjei
United Kingdom
Family Honour tells the story of a one family’s beginnings, and their struggle to stay together.
Through a unique meeting of hip hop and theatre, Family Honour asks how far one would go to uphold family expectations. Тhe performance draws the audience into a world where hip hop isn’t just rubbing shoulders with theatre, but is theatre.
The piece advocates dialogue, both between cultural concepts and between hip-hop dance and theater.
The body is their meeting ground, within the Spoken Movement company, where movement and gesture are allowed to speak for themselves.
Тhe work won France’s prestigious Danse Élargie in 2018. In 2019 the duet won Rotterdam International Duet Choreography Competition.
Artistic Direction & Choreography: Kwame Asafo-Adjei
Light design: Adam Care
Music: Jack Hobbit
Sound: Paddy
with Catrina Nisbett, Kwame Asafo-Adjei
Production Spoken Movement.
Coproduction Saddler’s Wells, London
Artistic Director of Spoken Movement UK, Kwame Asafo-Adjei has been dancing for over 10 years and running his dance company for 6 years. Using the world as a stage, Kwame plays on movement through transitions, formations, concept and narrative. Kwame has curated many pieces of work in both dance and film. Kwame, through his company, allows his artists to play with different elements of Hip-Hop, through his different pieces of work. Through mentors such as Jonzi D (Breakin Convention) and Jonathan Burrows (Royal Ballet), Kwame has developed his artistry through artist development programs such as “Back to the lab”. This opened his mind to use different creative techniques and push his work in creating Hip Hop Theatre. Kwame's aim is to create awareness through his work in order to challenge the reality.
Performer Catrina ‘CatNis’ Nisbett has been practicing urban dance from an early age. Like Kwame Asafo-Adjei, she experienced the generational conflict at home. Their respective parents would probably have preferred them to pursue careers in mathematics, a discipline both artists studied at university, each on his own, before turning to dance. It's hardly surprising, then, that in Family Honour they perform a score of impeccable geometry.
The company has presented its work both in the UK and internationally, including at The Place, Sadler's Wells and Théâtre de La Ville, Paris.