Introducing ‘Can Samba’, in residence at City Arts for Carnival 2015

For City Arts, Nottingham Carnival is annual highlight; full of fun, colour and festivity. Each year we are delighted by the diverse group of people that help us prepare to put our troupe on the road. This year, Can Samba are resident at City Arts. Directed by Sarena Kay and Ceri Howells they are choreographing, producing and designing the dance, music and costumes for our ‘Flying Free’ carnival troupe.

Artist and dancer SaRena Kay and musician Ceri Howells have collaborated on carnival projects for eight years, both nationally and internationally. They are exploring innovative ways of working with costume design, dance and music for processions, to create new work for outdoor events, festivals and carnival.

For our 2015 carnival troupe, SaRena has been working with the internationally renowned carnival arts company Mandinga Arts. They developed ideas which focus on enabling older adults to take part in the celebrations, by creating costumes designed around mobility scooters. Ceri will bring together musicians from the British electronic scene and live Samba percussionists, producing sounds never before heard in UK carnival.

We developed our ‘Flying Free’ theme for Nottingham Carnival in 2014. In the long tradition of carnival it celebrates freedom, looking to birds, bees and other creatures of the sky for inspiration.

Can Samba are running an exciting programme of workshops, from dance to carnival costume making, all of which will be featured with City Arts ‘Flying Free’ Carnival Troupe at Nottingham Carnival. You are very welcome to join the summer workshops in preparation to the Carnival.