Deborah Baddoo MBE is Artistic Director of State of Trust, a charity set up in 2014 to address social need, provide education and support community cohesion through arts activity and is also co-founder and Artistic Director of sister company State of Emergency, a well-established arts production company set up in 1986.
In October 2023 during Black History Month, Deborah visited Bath Central Library. She spoke to an audience about an exciting research and development project by State of Trust and The Beckford Tower Trust, with the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, to link renowned author, Alex Wheatle’s story of Cane Warriors and Tacky’s Rebellion with the history of Beckford Tower, Bath through dance. A performance of the outcome of the Cane Warriors project will be staged in 2024.
As well as welcoming Alex Wheatle, Deborah and colleagues from Bath Preservation Trust to Bath Central Library for an event, we hosted an exhibition reflecting Cane Warriors journey from page to performance through dance and music.
We’ve captured what Deborah spoke about on the day, to share from her perspective what the Cane Warriors project is all about.
Deborah, tell us about you and your work
I am co-founder and Artistic Director of the charity State of Trust, which is the sister company of State of Emergency, Ltd an arts production company, of which I am also co-founder and Artistic Director. We work nationally and internationally producing shows, events, projects and music.
We initially made a connection with Alex Wheatle a number of years ago with a project, working with young people animating the text of one of his earlier novels, Crongton Knights, through dance and music.
Amongst touring numerous dance and theatre shows across the UK and internationally , we also established a national archive for black dance in the UK, working with partners including the National Resource Centre for Dance, Black Cultural Archives, Leeds University Library and Birmingham Museums and Libraries. This is the first archive for Black dance in the UK.
Our most recent socially engaged work includes work with young people and their wellbeing through arts, working in Somerset with indigenous and immigrant communities exploring with the “Where is home?” project about human connection through our histories and our stories. And earlier this year, we worked in Japan on an intergenerational project in a small community, bringing people together and produced a community performance involving all age groups, from children through to local elderly people. It’s all about facing issues and bringing communities together.
Tell us about Cane Warriors
Alex Wheatle first approached us about three years ago about the project. We tried to get Arts Council Funding, as this is where most dance organisations go to get funding but were unsuccessful, despite three attempts. Part of mefeels that projects that might bring up uncomfortable and challenging issues may not be selected funding.
We initially made a connection with Bath Preservation Trust following on from a project we produced last year called Coleridge Unbound. BPT were putting a funding bid into the Heritage Lottery Fund, and they were looking for a programme of activity that would help tell the true story of Beckford’s Tower. The history of Beckford Tower had great synergy with the Cane Warriors story, as one of the plantations mentioned in the novel was owned by the Beckford family, and so the connection was made, and we were delighted that they were able to include our collaboration in their bid. As well as a series of workshops in schools and communities in Bath and Bristol and we’ve run a series of webinars.
Recently we’ve spent 9 days working on the Research and Development phase, creating the first iteration of the show.
“It has been an amazing experience- bringing the words to life, digging deep into the themes, into the characters, seeing what we envisaged through reading and analysing the book, all the threads and the characters coming to life.”
– Deborah Baddoo
Dancers have taken on board several characters from the novel, and we’ve really started to develop the characters and their backstories, bringing the ancestral voices of the characters of the past into the present, to face the audience. It’s been quite a moving and emotional experience, so far, for everyone.
What we want to do in the future is to expand what we have achieved through the research and development project into a longer, 15- 20 cast production- to tour nationally, but this is the first stage, a mini version ‘of the show with selected scenes from the novel.