About us

ADDA are a non-profit organisation specialising in teaching and accrediting dances of the African Diaspora.
We connect the dots between the history of West African dance, through the ages, to the modern day.

Using West African, African-American, and Black British history as a source of movement, the learning community will have the opportunity to understand the cultural lineage responsible for the social dances and cultures that we enjoy and practice today.

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ADDA was created to bring more widespread representation and equal opportunities into the dance education sectors in the UK. At present, there is a strong focus on Eurocentric techniques such as Classical Ballet and Cunningham technique within many dance education organisations. Currently, teachers and students, within various dance organisations have limited access and perhaps a shallower understanding of the core techniques stemming from the African Diaspora. Through the ADDA, we hope to bridge that gap from pre-vocational level through to University curriculums.

Our focus is on the dance techniques and genres that have played a fundamental role in carving the cultural imprint of the African Diaspora globally. We aim to highlight how social, political, racial and cultural changes can be expressed through music, theatre and social dances.

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ADDA offer new qualifications, create brand new movement syllabuses, as well as advancement opportunities for practitioners and educators to teach in the learning dance communities. These curriculums will stand to legitimise and add creditability to these educators teaching credentials, while adding potential career opportunities to established teachers seeking to expand their teaching in this area of dance education.