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The Baobab Collaborative Arts Fund is pleased to announce its inaugural project with visiting guest artist Benedictus Mattson, an African Popular Dance Specialist. Mattson will be in residence with Carleton Music’s West African Rhythm Ensemble throughout the Winter term and perform at their concert on April 5.
Mattson will also present an Azonto dance workshop and Artist Talk on February 27th at Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre open to Carleton students and the general public, in partnership with the Ottawa Rhythm Initiative. The ORI is an Ottawa-based tap dance community that creates opportunities for the growth, visibility, and promotion of tap dance and tap dance artists in the Ottawa region. Their practice is grounded in respect for tap dance as a rhythmically sophisticated art form, its roots deep in Black history and culture.
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Benedictus Mattson is a Choreographer, Performer, and Researcher with interest in Ghanaian popular dances. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in dance and a Master of Fine Arts in Theatre Arts from the University of Ghana. Benedictus served as an Assistant Lecturer at the Department of Dance Studies, University of Ghana, where he taught popular dance, Choreography, African dance performance, dance forms of Ghana/Africa to both local and international students at the undergraduate level. He is currently a Cultural Studies PhD candidate at Queen’s University where he investigates the Mediatization of Ghanaian popular dance with primary focus on the Azonto dance’s presence on Instagram and how dancers’ interaction with/on the social media platform helps to transform, configure, and reconfigure the dance.
The Baobab Collaborative Arts Fund provides support for projects that enhance and expand the experiential study of cultural disciplines from Africa and the African diaspora. The fund serves students in Carleton Music, and in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences more generally. Endowed in 2021 as a legacy project by Baobab Drum Dance Community and its supporters, this fund honours Baobab’s significant achievements in intercultural arts education, and provides new opportunities for current and future generations of students at Carleton.
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Questions?
Please contact Kathy Armstrong.