Momentum - Developing Dance in West London

Tomorr Kokona was a young man with passion and a big idea when he left his home in Albania in 1991 to seek a better life in the West.

After spending 3 years in Spain working for Spanish National Theatre and Classical ballet of Madrid, Tomorr came to study contemporary dance at Laban Centre in London.

Tomorr brought with him to England an entrepreneurial spirit and – having trained as a dancer in the Albanian National Ballet - a great talent for dance. He immediately began to use his skills to help young people in London – including refugees and asylum seekers, and those at risk of offending, often working with the Home Office to help them fit into their new home.

Soon, he saw how dance could be used as a way of helping all children not just to lose weight, get fit and enjoy artistic movement, but also to encourage the kind of personal expression which made them enthusiastic and positive about life, and reduced delinquency.

Working with schools in the London area, Tomorr was already planning bigger things. Gathering a group of professional dancers and visual artists around him, he formed a company and started to build his dream: an extravaganza for children from schools all over the country who would choreograph, train and present their routines to a panel of professionals on the stage of Wembley Arena.

On July 18, for the third successive year, Tomorr’s Dance Challenge descended upon Wembley Arena. Each show has been bigger than the last, and at this year’s event over 800 children from 60 London schools and community groups had the opportunity to present their own performances on the boards normally trodden by pop megastars.

Hiring a venue as big as Wembley was an expensive risk, but Tomorr is relaxed: the first year was do-or-die, but he has been impressed with the enthusiasm of the children, and so pleased with the success and growth of Dance Challenge that he believes the only way is up:

“I have been lucky because Dance Challenge has coincided with a national interest in fame and talent shows, things like Strictly Come Dancing on television. But this is a way for every child to become involved in showing their talent, and getting fit in a way that is not boring for them. And they get to dance on the big stage where usually their pop heroes perform. The schools are fantastic in getting the teams together and rehearsing the dancers, and then this is a big, big day out for them.”

It doesn’t end there, however. Graduates of Dance Challenge have were invited to attend open auditions and 8 of them joined a company of professional dancers who work with them intensively and preformed as guest artists at the Dance Challenge. This has now become the bases for a semi-professional company called ‘Dance Prodigies’ which will perform for different schools and community groups across London.

“The thing is, it is competitive, but it’s healthy competition. The kids all enjoy the dancing, but those who take it most seriously and want to go further can also have that opportunity now. It’s not that anybody loses, but instead each child can go as far along as he or she wants.”

Working with young people with funding from English Heritage

Dance Challenge is open to all children, but given Tomorr’s background as an arrival from Eastern Europe, and as somebody who grew up under the worst communism there was, his interest is in helping children get on the right track and make the most of themselves. Many immigrants are arriving in the UK now, both from new EEC countries and further afield. Tomorr’s work, thanks to a National Lottery grant made through English Heritage, now also involves using elements of dance and visual art to help integrate new young arrivals to British shores, helping them to understand and adapt to British ways – but also helping the local children to see what the immigrants and refugees have been through, and to see them as less strange, more human, and as friends for the future.

“My idea is to have the children talk with refugees from another age – in this case evacuees from the Second World War – to see that their experience is not unique, and that other people, older people, have things to say that can help them to cope with what they are going through. We encourage them, with the help of our dancers and artists, to make sense of their experiences. It works. You end up with happier, healthier children who feel positive about their new home, and get on well with the other kids already here. It saves a lot of trouble later down the line.”

So Tomorr is a busy man, but also a happy one. His partner Mariela, a concert pianist also from Albania, will give birth to their second child in a few months’ time. Until then, he is the entrepreneur, rushing around, chasing contacts and suppliers, then popping into various schools to check on the progress of the dance teams.

“I don’t have much time to spare. I guess you could call it my own dance challenge. But it is for the kids. It is good.”

By Andy Marino

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