Joyful dance event in Hastings and Bexhill

Supported by Hastings Borough Council and as part of the free Stade Saturdays programme, this year’s festival will feature the UK premiere of Myottian Dance.

Zaza Tsara is a troupe of forty dancers from Mayotte, a tiny archipelago in the Indian Ocean, between Madagascar and Mozambique.

The performance has been planned with the UK’s only Mayottian resident, Anyme Abdullah, who lives and works in Hastings. Anyme, who is a well-known recording artist in Mayotte, will perform alongside Zaza Tsara and said: “Mayottian dance is uplifting and joyful, whether they are dancing to traditional music or Beyonce.”

In the days before the event, the Mayottian dancers will run dance workshops with local dance group, the Phoenix Flyers, in preparation for joint performances on Saturday.

The performance will be supported by Gabbidon Band, described as ‘one of the finest reggae bands working in the UK’, and fronted by Basil Gabbidon, founder member and lead guitarist of revered reggae band Steel Pulse.

Enjoy Mayotte Dancers and Gabbidon’s free Hastings performance at 7.30pm on Saturday 23 July at the Stade Open Space (with local group Phoenix Flyers). Some seating will be available, but you may wish to bring fold–out seats.

If you can’t make the Hastings performance, the troupe will also perform at 1.30pm on Sunday July 24 on the Metropole Lawns by the De La Warr Pavilion (with live dance workshop from local belly dancing troupe, Sheikh’s Delights).

Audiences are advised to bring fold out chairs as there is limited seating.

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