We sat down for an exclusive interview with Akeim Toussaint Buck – an interdisciplinary performer and maker making his Sadler’s Wells East debut with brand-new work FREE opening next Thursday 6th, with a Sadler’s Wells East Late on Fri 7th November.
Tickets here
Akeim, congratulations on your Sadler’s Wells East debut! How does it feel to be bringing FREE to this new space after the success of your sold-out Wild Card in 2022?
It feels truly like a moment of fulfillment personally. This idea has existed since 2013 when I was a student at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance, so 12 years to get to this point. Sadler’s Wells was the first to have a serious conversation around this work due to the success of my Wild Card, Radical Visions which I have ambitions to turn into a festival in the future.
You blend Reggae Dub Culture with contemporary dance – that’s such a rich, vibrant mix. How did those worlds come together for you creatively?
I live in those worlds and many other worlds. I am a living archive of artistic movements and practices that I have absorbed from a young age. And I continue to run my own education in order to keep my work fresh, my mind open and otherworldly. I have always practiced the blending of worlds, this exists in all my work so this is second nature to me. Furthermore it has been done before by many who have come before me so making sure to connect back was imperative, elders such as Beverley Glean MBE and Dr H Paten of IRIE! Dance Theatre was crucial to have time with conversing and learning. Being in work by Alesandra Seutin/Vocab Dance also showed me the possibilities of an artist working with our cultural imprint.
The audience isn’t sitting back and watching this piece – they’re in it, sharing the same space as the performers. What made you want to create that kind of immersive experience?
Because “one good thing about music, when it hits you feel no pain”, Robert Nesta Marley aka Bob Marley. That is only true if you are not confined to the expectations of theatre. Let your body move to the music and then the message can truly be felt. That is the kind of work Free is and the kind of experience freedom can be. When you go to a dub reggae event you watch each other and become hypnotised by the music and movements. I want people to feel this.
You’ve described your approach as “Beatmotion” – can you tell us a bit more about what that means and how it shows up in the performance?
Beatmotion is an approach of voice and movement that I use in my work and in my research, to devise and in training to open up the expressive capabilities of performers. I don’t believe dancers shouldn’t speak or sing, however I am not aiming for them to perform musical theatre songs, yet. Beatmotion is about the connection of the subconscious, making an energetic existence heard, just as dance brings energy into the physical. Scatting in a jazz sense, beatbox and gibberish are involved and welcomed forms of vocal improvisation coupled with dance is Beatmotion. This shows up in moments throughout, in the undertone beneath the music and sometimes balanced with the music, in the expression of joy for that song you never knew you needed to hear and in the confirmation of one’s existence. Beatmotion has been the way we prepare and integrate these moments in the journey.
How do you want people to feel when they step into this space with you?
I want people to feel what people have been feeling in the previous shows.
Free. Curious. Challenged. Confronted. Elation. Inspired. Enlightened. Free.