Daakye is part of Flying Solo, where three international dance artists with roots in the UK, Ghana and the Caribbean explore their artistry in relation to ‘Home’, their roots and the core of who they are. They come together to test that core, in challenging  environments close to and far from home, through solo and triple bill performances in Ghana and the UK.
How do we know ourselves, be ourselves, remain ourselves? How do we grow by meeting different places, different people, and stay true? Maybe first we must get lost; honestly, openly, fiercely, and be brave enough to go both far afield and right back ‘Home’.
Daayke will be performed 5 times during 2019 Flying Solo, beginning at Nii-Tete’s roots, his father Professor Francis Nii Yartey’s artistic love child Noyam African Dance Institute, Dodowa. In triple bills alongside the two other Flying Solo dance artists at The People’s Forest, as part of the Waltham Forest Borough of Culture Program, London UK and as part of Day of Dance, Brighton Speigeltent at Brighton Fringe Festival, UK and at Noyam African Dance Institute in October, alongside a three-day intensive lead by all three artists, open to any international independent artist. Returning alone to the Noyam African Dance Institute to mark the anniversary of Professor Nii Yartey’s death on November 23.
Nii-Tete Yartey on Daakye:  “We spend our time searching everywhere for keys to doors that were never locked to us. We step out scavenging for scraps forgetting that we are the lions that went on the hunt, we play jester to a throne whose crown belongs on our head. Daakye interrogates the place of the Contemporary African Artist in a modern world and how his past can be both his distraction and salvation.”
Dodowa and The People’s Forest performances will both include a three day intensive lead by the Flying Solo artists and creative practitioner Martin Gent, open to any independent artist.
The Flying Solo project will be concluded by a closing exhibition by photographer and film maker Al Simmons, who is documenting the project, in December in London, UK.
Flying Solo is a project by ENSEMBLE, an international collection of artists from dance, visuals and sound, founded by dancer Hayley Matthews https://www.ensembledance.org/flying-solo
For the full Flying Solo schedule and links to booking see Ensemble’s tour schedule:: https://www.ensembledance.org/tour-schedule