Long journey from the ghetto to the stage

Bawren Tavaziva and his company are performing a programme of four works under the title Bophelo (Life). He chose this title because different aspects of life are what all these works are about.

Three are new pieces - two of his own and one by his mentor, Neville Campbell. Tavaziva has gained a lot of respect since he has been in this country, but it's been a long hard journey from a ghetto in Zimbabwe to running his own company in the UK, and he told me how it all started.

"Two dancers from the National Ballet of Zimbabwe came to where I lived and did some workshops, and then I started to do class, and they became interested in me. I was about 16 at the time, but I'd already been doing breakdancing and African dance, and then I got very interested in what they were doing, because I'd seen ballet on television. I was lucky that my body had all the facilities that they needed, but I didn't have the stretch, so that was hard, but the feet were fine, my structure was fine.

"Then Neville Campbell, who had started his own company, Tumbuka, in Harare, invited me to come and work with him as an apprentice. I made my first professional appearance with his company when I was 19."

In these early stages of his career there seems to have been a logical progression, but suddenly there was a move to the UK. I asked Bawren how that came about.

"I worked with Neville for four years and it was the only contemporary dance company in Africa, but I wanted to explore more about contemporary dance and Neville was always talking about Phoenix Dance Company (he was a former artistic director), and it became my aim to join them."

Tavaziva achieved this and also danced with Union Dance and Sakoba Dance Company. By co-incidence all three companies have appeared in the Oxford area in the past month. During this time he was becoming recognised as a very talented choreographer and this led to the formation of his own company.

"I was lucky. I was there at the right time and I got some funding from the Arts Council after I was short-listed for The Place Prize for contemporary choreography and my work was seen there in London."

Artistically, the company has done extremely well, and commercially too it's done well enough to keep going. But Bawren Tavaziva takes on a lot of work - not only does he dance with the company and create works for it, he also writes most of the music.

"In Zimbabwe, I did a lot of singing and worked with a band before I started dancing seriously. We used to play African music and reggae. I never thought I could make the two things work well together, but I tried and it seemed to work out."

The two new works that Bawren has created for this tour are Chivezwa (Sculptured) and Mandla (Power).

"I have a friend in Zimbabwe, who is a sculptor, and he makes some really interesting sculptures in which you can see the life, the whole story, and in Chivezwa I was interested in creating something with the same spirit, with the same quality and strength, but creating it in movement. That was the inspiration, but you don't need to have seen the sculpture to appreciate the piece. It can be whatever you think it is, but it is built around the shapes of the sculpture.

"The sculptor himself hasn't seen the work yet but I'm going to send him a video, and I think he'll see how his work has influenced it."

Mandla (Power) was originally inspired by Mandela - his character, his strength, his passion, and I made a work about that. And then I thought that there are people who are just as strong as Mandela but whose efforts are not recognised today and it's about their continued fight too.You can see there's a storyline to the work, but it's done in an abstract way."

The piece by Neville Campbell is called Proud and Unprotected. Given their shared background, I wondered how similar the two men's styles were.

"Recently, Neville asked me to send him a video of my work and he said it was totally different from what he wanted to do; but my work is, of course, influenced by the years I spent with him, so there will be similarities.

"Neville's piece is based on the many writers for a South African magazine who have been too outspoken and too critical for their own good and are now permanently on the run. They are people who are proud of what they have done, but they're unprotected. Neville touches on a lot of issues, but he's done it with great energy. It's really a protest at injustices in the country, but it's also an excellent dance work."

The fourth piece is Tavaziva's Worlds Apart, which examines the gulf between traditional modes of behaviour and Africa's new, young generation.

Tavaziva Dance Company is at the Pegasus Theatre in Oxford tonight and tomorrow night, at The Drum, Birmingham, on Thursday, and will be at The Place in London early next year.