The original performances ended in Preston on 27 April 2001 after touring with great success during the Autumn of 2000 and Spring of 2001, including a virtually sold-out week at the Linbury Studio Theatre in London.

Night Songs is currently schduled to be performed in: Birmingham, Musselburgh, Whitehaven and other UK venues tbc through Oct-Dec 2001, and will be presented again in late November 2001 at London's newest theatre - Stratford Circus, which opens in E15 in a few weeks time. These will be the last chances in the foreseeable future to catch Sakoba's performances (as the company is planning a year's sabbatical in 2002) and the Tippett work in particular.

SAKOBA dance theatre ARTISTIC DIRECTOR BODE LAWAL presents NIGHT SONGS

Sakoba - hailed as one of the finest exponents of African dance working in Britain today - presents the premiere of "Night Songs", a passionate, energising and irresistible production celebrating song to express life's joys and sorrows.

Led by the charismatic Bode Lawal, Sakoba's company of five dancers and three musicians bring their talents to bear in several newly created dances and songs, from the ritualistic and spiritual to the joyous and uplifting.

Live music and the entire company singing is complemented by Tippett's fine arrangement of negro spirituals and the millennium sounds of Peter Gabriel's latest album.

This is African dance for today... a glorious celebration of living.

The Night Songs programme includes:

ISHOKAN: the entire company in stunning rhythms and superb harmony.

STEAL AWAY: a passionate and reflective solo piece created for Bode Lawal by Namron, a former dancer with London Contemporary Dance Theatre, and one of dance's most respected figures.

and three new dances created for the company by Body Lawal:

LAMENTATION: a passionate, almost ritualistic expression of grief for the departed.

BOUND: expressing the triumph of the human spirit over the oppression of slavery.

KABARE: in which the entire company lets their hair down in a jazzy finale.

The son of a Yoruba chief, Bode Lawal studied at the University of lle-lfe (with Wole Soyinka as his drama tutor) before joining the Nigerian Dance Company, with whom he toured internationally, winning the Ministry of Culture's Dancer of the Year Award (1985). In 1986, Chief Abiola funded his move to Britain, where he formed Sakoba to celebrate the rich traditions of African dance and music. He has toured more than six full-length productions, including 1996's ground-breaking New Moves in African Dance and 1997's acclaimed Mystical Songs. Following a 1995 study period in Paris, where he enountered butoh, t'ai chi, flamenco and contempoary dance styles, he is today pushing back the boundaries of African dance in Britain.

Among many awards for excellence, Bode has received:

Digital/Dance UK Award for New Work (1991) Time Out/Dance Umbrella Award for Choreography (1992) and he was shortlisted for the Paul Hamlyn Award for Choreography (1995) nominated Best Performance in Dance in the Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards (1997).

He stands head and shoulders above all other British African-Caribbean dance companies and artists.

NIGHT SONGS: Autumn Tour 2001 - (venues & dates to follow shortly)

Photo: Eric Richmond