Dancin’ Oxford features the acclaimed Tavaziva dance company this year. Their director Bawren Tavaziva spoke to David Bellan

This is Tavaziva’s tenth anniversary year, and they’re presenting a special programme that has been so successful that the tour will continue again in the autumn. Bawren Tavaziva has come a long way from his childhood life in Zimbabwe, and he told me how he was drawn into dance.

“In a sense I was always a dancer, but it really started when dancers from the National Ballet of Zimbabwe came to do some dance workshops at a community centre that I went to. I went there to play chess and table tennis, but I went to see what was going on and got hooked. So I started doing classes, joined a company and then I ended up in England.”

That makes leaving your home and your country sound pretty simple, but that can’t have been the case ?

“You’re right, it was difficult. First raising the money, then coming to England where I hardly knew anyone. It was a big risk, but I auditioned for Phoenix Dance Company, Rambert, and for Union Dance who took me on as a dancer. I was with them for four years. Later on I spent a year and a half with Phoenix.”

By this time Bawren was also making dances, and I asked him how he had started making choreography.

“I had started choreography back home in Zimbabwe, and my mentor was Neville Campbell, a former artistic director of Phoenix. He’s the one who helped with my choreography back in Zimbabwe. Then I made pieces when I was with Union Dance and with Phoenix, and was shortlisted for The Place Prize; an important choreo-graphic competition. Encouraged by that, I applied for funds, and started my own company. At first I had five dancers, but now I have eight.”

Several elements contribute to Bawren’s unique style of work. “My choreography is a fusion of African movement and African topics with contemporary dance. “But it’s not just a fusion of styles; the ideas that come out of it are very much based on my own experiences of life in Africa. I also write the music for my pieces, and that is very much African based.”

Has his style changed much over the ten years? “It has — it’s got better !” he laughs. “I am growing in making the fusion of African and contem-porary, and developing a vocabulary that has its own signature.”

The work does have Bawren’s signature. I’ve seen a lot of it, and it’s wonderful; powerful, exciting, sometimes moving, and African in a unique, unmistakeable way.

The show at the Pegasus is an opportunity to sample a cross section of it. It’s called Tavaziva Ten, and, in celebration of the anniversary, it consists of ten excerpts from his oeuvre, fused into a choreographic whole. This is a chancy thing to do, but it can work. For instance on her visit a couple of years ago Jasmin Vardimon did it very successfully in her retrospective Yesterday.

“In Tavaziva Ten I revisit ten years of my favourite pieces of work. Some of the earlier work was not always as strong choreographically as I would like now, so I have recreated it to some extent. I’ve kind of refreshed the work a little bit, but kept very much to the idea of the original. Putting these ten snippets together to create one piece of work was very interesting. Each piece has its own identity and its own vibes. It has brought back memories for me, and been fascinating to look at all this work and see what I have achieved over the past ten years.

“I have taken on subjects that are not discussed in Zimbabwe; there are same-sex duets, and some of the work has a political flavour. For instance my piece My Friend Robert draws on my personal experiences, to ask how an inspirational African leader, adored by his people, can descend into horror, corruption, violence, disease and economic meltdown. The piece speaks about the rise and fall of Robert Mugabe. But I’m not a politician, I’m just creating work from my personal experiences as a Zimbabwean”.

As a result of making this work Bawren Tavaziva has not been able to return to Zimbabwe for the past four years. But, take it from me, there’s also a lot of more upbeat dance, exciting, exuberant, Europe-influenced but undoubtedly African.

“I hope people come to Tavaziva Ten,” says Bawren, “to see the unique way the vocabulary has developed over the past ten years, and also to see how unique the dancers are: strong, vibrant and exciting dancers.”

Tavaziva
Pegasus Theatre, Oxford
Tomorrow (Friday) and Saturday
Tickets £12 (£8/£6 concs). Visit pegasustheatre.org.uk or call 01865 812150