I’m just an artist committed
to the Arts, brought up with old school Jamaican values, thanks to the
guidance and support of my Mother and Father. One of my dreams is to
unveil great chapters of Jamaican History.
I’ve worked professionally,
as a dancer, choreographer, filmmaker, director, archivist, writer,
radio presenter and researcher, and have an insatiable appetite, for
arts, history and culture; my life’s mission is to make this area
of Art, History and Culture more visible. My work is both intercultural
and intergenerational.
I believe in order for home grown talent to flourish in this world of
multiculturalism we must first unlock all the avenues for them, as education
is one of the first channels to freedom. I feel the need to expose people
to the Pioneers of Jamaican Art, Theatre and Dance, who have made groundbreaking
contributions to the world of the Arts, both Nationally and Internally.
I believe we cannot afford any longer to air brush out the contributions
great Jamaican artists, like Richie Riley and Berto Pasuka have made
legacy can only measured by what survives.
Leon Robinson
Introduction
Positive Steps is a performing arts
and multimedia production company founded in 1990. Under the leadership
of Leon Robinson, Positive Steps
houses the biggest and most authoritative collections of primary source
material on black artists who have contributed to the artistic culture
of England from the 19th Century onwards. As well as being a reference
point for historical richness, Positive Steps
also explores and documents the fertile ground of black cultural expression
among young, up and coming black performing artists and works with them
to develop theatre and media productions. Since its inception, Positive
Steps has operated on a project-by-project basis, and also
receives invaluable assistance of trusted supporters and a team of advisers
including Simon Callow, Colin Prescod, Peter Ashlee, Dick Matchett,
Jackie Guy, Jane Pritchard and Earle Robinson MBE.
Background
Over the past 12 years, Positive Steps
has been developing a performing arts peoples archive (both ‘high’
art and ‘popular culture’) that engages with children and
young people who themselves are driven by the pace and references within
popular culture. Positive Steps
has been drawing on exciting time signatures and references - ideas
and connections triggered by different items in its historical archive
collections - as hooks, to identify and pay homage to the past, in order
to enrich their futures.
Positive Steps has produced theatre
productions for young people at Walthamstow Assembly Hall (Tribute to
Sammy Davis Jnr, 1991), the Old Vic (rap version of Faust 1992), and
at Sadlers Wells (Swan Lake in hip hop, 1994). The company was commissioned
to produce video work for Immarsat Telecom 95 video wall (1995), Cameron
Mackintosh Staff Training\Cats Kids Club Video (2000), the Theatre Museum
Market Day Year of the artist project (2001), Walt Disney Lion King
Kids week Archive Project (2001) and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really
Useful Theatres Video Archive London Palladium Revolve (2002).
Positive Steps has also researched
and presented broadcast items for BBC Radio Four Straight from the Sole
& Les Ballets Negres, and published articles on black artistry in
Britain, its history and creative potential for the Caribbean Lifestyle
Magazine, Dance Theatre Journal and Animated Magazine.
Through its education programme, Positive Steps
has been redirecting the tools and desires of a rich legacy through
numerous talks and lectures for academic institutions and historians,
including Roehampton University and the Black and Asian Studies Association’s
annual conference of academic historians of Black British History. Positive
Steps has also curated a number of exhibitions, focussed in the main
around its Les Ballet Negres archive at the Jamaican High Commission
(1996), the Blackie Museum in Liverpool (1997), the Royal Festival Hall
(1999), the Theatre Museum (1999 & 2000). Positive
Steps has, as a result of its work, become a valuable resource
for research students at under-and post-graduate level.
Positive
Steps, 53c Hartham Road, Islington N7 9JJ
Tel:
020 7609 1031
View leaflet for
The Ballet Negres held on Tuesday
April 30th, 1946
at
Twentieth Century Theatre >>>
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