NOW BOOKING FOR TOURING JANUARY – APRIL 2011

(INCLUDING A COMPREHENSIVE PARTICIPATORY EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME)

Contact: State of Emergency Productions

Office: +44 (0)1823 334 750

postmaster@stateofemergencyltd.com

www.stateofemergencyltd.com

This inspirational cross-cultural performance is a collaboration between UK based producers, State of Emergency and South African choreographer Gregory Maqoma of Vuyani Dance Theatre. It will be performed by a company of five outstanding dancers, with original music score and integrated film.

Inspired by the similarities between England’s only natural World Heritage Site, the Jurassic Coast and the Skeleton Coast of Namibia and created in direct response to Maqoma’s recent piece Skeleton Dry, the work is an exploration and reflection on the two very different regions, which are united through the rocks on which they stand.

Once a single continent with a desert environment called Pangaea, the world was torn apart over 250 million years. The Triassic rocks of the Jurassic Coast were formed as part of this super-continent in climatic conditions similar to those found in Namibia today. Desert Crossings reunites the deserts of Africa in the present, with the record of those long gone in the UK through a journey of dance, film and music examining common themes of landscape, location and shared memory.

Desert Crossings takes us on a journey of discovery, building bridges between two continents, tracing our shared memories and the earth’s history through the sands of time. The stories that are revealed engage everyone in a global conversation about universal hopes, and dreams of a better world.

Desert Crossings was shortlisted for the prestigious Artists Taking The Lead award as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad.

ENDORSEMENT BY UNESCO

‘At UNESCO we are always excited by opportunities for linking up education, science and culture in innovative ways, and also developing relations around the world in a way that is meaningful all round. This project is a great example of a way of doing this. Linking our heritage with our present, our common humanity with South Africa and Namibia, skeletons of species which are alive today, with the fossils with those no longer with us. This is a great opportunity to get these messages embedded in the minds of audiences around the world, and in the minds of children living near to the Jurassic Coast, developing local understanding and therefore ownership of what all this means. We are really keen to see this project happen.’

Walter Erdelan, Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences, UNESCO.

Choreographer: Gregory Maqoma

A contemporary African dance maker, born and bred in Johannesburg, Gregory Maqoma is regarded as a visionary in his country of birth, South Africa. Pundits describe his work as the most ‘cutting edge contemporary work to emerge from Africa’. Maqoma is founder and artistic director of Vuyani Dance Theatre in Johannesburg, South Africa. He received his training both in South Africa and in Belgium.

As a choreographer, teacher, dancer, artistic consultant and creative director, he has taught and presented work in the Netherlands, United Kingdom (with Akram Khan), Sweden, Switzerland, Mexico, Finland, Burkina Faso, Austria, Nigeria, France, Senegal, Norway, Belgium, Germany, USA and in South Africa. He has won several awards, accolades and nominations in South Africa and also Internationally. Maqoma also serves as Associate Artistic Director for Moving Into Dance and as Artistic Director of The Afro Vibes Festival in the Netherlands.