'Funmi Adewole Elliott

Experience

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  Independent

  Jan 1990 - Jan 1994

  Media practitioner

  Worked as a Radio actress, Radio programme producer, TV producer, TV presenter and freelance writer for various organisations including Prime TV, Adamawa broadcasting cooperation, Guardian Newspaper, Daily Times, Swift Studios, FRCN 1. I managed the TV department at Disc Engineering, in charge of scheduling programming.

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  Self-employed

  Nov 1995 - now

  FAE Studios is the platform for my work in training, dramaturgy and performance. I investigate intersection of narrative and dance in storytelling performances and theories of translocality and transnationalism. My background is in African dance drama and performance poetry. I am also engaged with stories post-independent Africa. I founded Enact Arts CIC in 2024 with a focus on professional and sector development particularly in African and Diasporic arts, Creative Health and Contemporary performance. Show less On moving to England in 1994, I embarked on a freelance career in the Arts. Over the years, due to a portfolio career, I have had many roles: Performer, writer, arts project manager, dramaturge, teacher in Further education and professional contexts, dance advocate and arts consultant. I have worked in a freelance capacity for numerous organisations including Irie! Dance Theatre, Entelechy Arts and Association of European Historians, SEWA education, Chisenhale dance space.From 1995 to 2005 I toured mainly with physical theatre and African dance drama companies - credits include performances with Adzido Pan-African dance ensemble, Ritual Arts, Horse and Bamboo Mask and Puppetry Company, Collective Artists, Mushango African dance and Music Company, Banner Theatre, Ariya and the Chomondeleys. I started out as a performance poet at the university of Ibadan and joined the Farrago poets for a few years when I moved to England. I published my collection, Sea-Salt in the City, in 2013. Through paid and voluntary roles I contributed significantly to the development of Dance of the African Diaspora in the UK such as the Association of Dance of the African Diaspora - ADAD (Manager 2003 -2004, Chair 2005-2007). Show less

  • Independent artist: FAE Studios and Enact Arts CIC

    Aug 2022 - now

  • Performer, Writer, Arts practitioner

    Nov 1995 - Jul 2022
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  De Montfort University

  Jan 2017 - Feb 2025

  Senior Lecturer

  Senior Lecturer in Dance - 2021 - 2025 VC2020 Early Career Fellow, Dance - 2017-2020Research areas: Dance of the African Diaspora in professional contexts, African cultural production, African arts at Independence, Black British choreographers, storytelling as performance, Practice research, Artistic citizenship