EAST LONDON arts organisation Certain Blacks returns for the latest Ensemble Festival at Royal Docks this month.
Free and outdoors, Certain Blacks founded by Clive Lyttle, delivers a packed programme including aerial circus, dance and inclusive, uplifting performance.
A highlight comes courtesy of mother and daughter duo Fatina and Blaze Cummings AKA Just More Productions who present Fussy Foodies – Battle of the Pans: An interactive performative game show themed around Caribbean recipes.
Both Fatina and Blaze have performance and circus backgrounds and they’re currently taking Fussy Foodies on the road to festivals and events all over the UK.
Former dancer, circus performer and chef, Fatina Cummings tells us more: “Fussy Foodies is a platform where we discuss all sorts of foods, creating games using food inspired songs and allowing audiences to engage.
“For example, we’ve turned pass the parcel into Pass The Dutch Pot, musical statues is like a dancing competition – a Carnival thing.
“We’ve also got Smell Your Herbs and then Shaking Up Your Seasoning, which is like a twerk game. This is all performed in a sort of cooking environment with tables, we’ve transformed half of a beetle car into a ‘kitchen’ station.
“From the age of eight until 15, I trained in contemporary dance on and off. At 17 I went and studied health and social care working in various positions but always worked around food. I learned lots of skills from my grandmother who has now passed and though I never really wanted to accept that my future would be with food, it’s more a way of life than a vocation I suppose…..”
In the meantime, daughter Blaze trained as a performer, accompanying her mother on the road while Fatina danced at some of the largest festivals in the UK, then with MTV as a podium dancer.
Soon renowned international circus company NoFit State came along: “Blaze learned to ride the unicycle when she was six while I was helping peel potatoes at the juggling convention in Cardiff,” says Fatina. “She went to circus school where she studied ariel rotating hoop and became a key member of the circus, also performing as a singer and doing rope acts.”
During this period the food connection for Fatina remained key: “I think the relationship with food is something I’ve always used to negotiate business, I hosted a lot of parties and was taught how to host by my grandmother. Food takes away or fear. Food relaxes people.
“Food opens people up and it also brings people together.”
Fussy Foodies is a neutral platform where we discuss all sorts of foods. I mean, if we look at West Indian food, Jamaica, the island itself, is a collaboration of many cultures.
“You have the Arawaks, the Chinese, the Indians and also the colonisers: The English, Spanish and the Portuguese… The Portuguese have always been famous for enabling the movement of slaves and that’s why we have the diet we have because that was used to transport us. So when you look at culture, it’s cultures within cultures and that’s a part of Fussy Foodies.
“We have taken British childhood games and used the Caribbean influence.”
And on performing at Certain Blacks present Ensemble Festival Fatina adds: “I am deeply inspired by Clive Lyttle because the aim of delivering diverse art is a process in itself and there is a skill in programming international work.
“His vision resonated with myself as a Black artist/producer, I felt he understood my challenge of bringing grass roots culture to mainstream art.”
Fussy Foodies: Battle of the Pans from Just More Productions is part of Ensemble Festival, Royal Docks July 22 and 23.
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