Ashanti Charity Gala with New Works & Dancers from RB and ENB – 30 September 2012

NOTE: Bill Updated
see Comments section at bottom of page.

A Dream of Africa 2012 Gala, Sunday September 30th 2012 @ 7.30 at the Britten Theatre, Royal College of Music, Prince Consort Rd, London SW7 2BS

The 5th annual Ashanti Charity Gala presents an evening of ballet and music, with dancers from The Royal Ballet and English National Ballet, and including three completely new ballets specially created by Daniel Jones and Nancy Osbaldeston (ENB) and Erico Montes (RB). Tamara Rojo’s Pas de Deux Into the Woods will be danced by Camille Bracher and José Martin, with further recent choreography by Nathalie Harrison and Thomas Whitehead of RB. Elena Glurdjidze, Principal Dancer of ENB, will dance The Dying Swan, and other dancers include Emma Maguire, Romany Pajdak, Sian Murphy, Ryoichi Hirano and Sander Blommaert (RB) and Crystal Costa, Ksenia Ovsyanick, Laurretta Summerscales, Nicola Henshall and Shevelle Dynott (ENB). The music, played by Robert Gibbs, Adrian Bradbury, Oliver Davies and Henry Roche, includes Coleridge-Taylor’s Five Negro Melodies for piano trio and Delius’ Idyll for violin and piano, in celebration of the anniversaries of both composers.

All proceeds raised during the evening will go to Ashanti Development, a charity set up by a group of London Ghanaians and their friends. Many villages in the Ashanti region of Ghana have few or no basic facilities, and the farmers can barely earn enough to feed their families. There is much hunger and malnourishment, and the infant mortality rate is much too high. The women spend up to six hours a day fetching water, and spinal and other medical problems are widespread. The Ashanti Development Trustee Martha Boadu has said: “We aim to bring clean water to over 15,000 villagers over the next two years. As soon as a village gets clean water, hygiene training and sanitation, the mortality rate improves out of recognition, with the babies benefitting the most.”

^{There may be changes to the bill – see in comments below if so.}