9 May 2009

Music and Dance for Carnival – Masterclasses

A programme of masterclasses to create a new group of musicians and dancers for the carnival performance.

Purpose of the Masterclass

This is part of a joint project with Mandinga Arts, London. Mandinga have recently completed a Carnival commission for the UK Carnival Arts Centre opening in Luton. They will bring their carnival costume to Belfast for the City Carnival, 27th June 2009. Beat’s group of musicians are working with Barak to provide the live music for this section, which will include 30 – 40 costumed performers. This is a first step in developing a new group of musicians and dancers to contribute to Carnival and other of Beat’s projects. 

Barak Schmool

Founder of the F-IRE Collective, Barak has been a long-time member of Django Bates’ big band Delightful Precipice as well as playing with Bosco De Oliveira, Nana Tsiboe, Robert Mitchell and Hilaire Penda (sax/perc). His own bands; Timeline (Afro-rhythmic jazz), Meta Meta (Cuban Bata fusion) and Synergy (14-piece Big Band) present music often integrated with dance. He is also responsible for drumming group, Rhythms of the City (samba bateria) which arose from years of education work at City University, Trinity Laban, Goldsmiths College, Royal Academy of Music and numerous community projects. Barak has been responsible for developing the education projects of F-IRE, the record label, the programming of festivals and the international connections to the continent.

Mariana Whitehouse

Mariana is an experienced dance teacher, with a wide range of styles, and a performing physical theatre actress. She was a Carnival Queen for London School of Samba when she was 17 and has performed with many of the leading samba schools in the UK and Europe.