BRAVE Festival celebrates Black History Month

Bradford Quadrille Group rehearse for their performance at BRAVE Festival

Organisers of a festival celebrating black culture through arts and dance hope a "real range of people" will come and take part.

BRAVE Festival is taking place this weekend at Bradford Arts Centre as part of City of Culture celebrations, and also coincides with Black History Month.

BRAVE - which stands for Black Roots and Voices Expressed - was founded by local artist and dancer Tricia Arthur-Stubbs, who has been preparing performers to showcase traditional dance styles.

She said: "I have seen a spectrum of abilities, people from different backgrounds... It feels like it really is a community event."

Tricia said she created BRAVE as an inclusive space where people of all backgrounds and abilities could enjoy performing and learning about black culture.

She was inspired when she learned the black roots of tap-dancing and the foxtrot.

She said: "I didn't know that those styles had come out of black culture.

"And I thought I should have known that as a dancer."

Tricia Arthur-Stubbs said she wanted to bring together "a real range of people" to explore Black history and arts

The realisation stayed with her.

"If I don't know it, I wonder how many other people have never realised that as well," she said.

"The more I researched, the more I realised there were so many different arts that came out of black culture.

"It'd be great to have a celebration where people could come and try those things."

BRAVE Festival first launched in 2023, and this year, Tricia said, "it's officially part of the Bradford 2025 programme, which is very exciting".

The festival will feature performances by community groups who have attended African dance workshops, as well as professionals from Bradford and across the UK.

Members of Bradford Phab Club learn African dance

Workshops have been running across Bradford in the lead-up to BRAVE - with some run by Bradford Phab Club, a charity supporting young people with learning and physical disabilities.

Phab Club member Jamie Lowbridge, who was registered blind at birth, said BRAVE was "one of the most inclusive places I've been".

Jamie, who has septo-optic dysplasia, a condition that sees underdevelopment of the optic nerves, said she "never thought I would be able to participate in dance".

She admitted her first session was challenging.

"I was really stressed out because I didn't know what I was doing. I wasn't able to keep up with the class."

Due to her condition, Jamie said she "can't really see everybody else in the room" and often felt "conscious all the time about bumping into people, because obviously I don't know where they are, which makes it a lot harder".

But she said she had found confidence and connection through BRAVE.

"Just being able to be a part of something and actually join in with everybody is just fantastic," she said.

Patty Scott wants future generations to carry on the tradition of Quadrille dance

Jamie and the Phab Club members will perform alongside professional dancers such as the Bradford Quadrille Group.

Its founder Patty Scott spent more than four decades living in London but admitted she was "missing home. I was missing Bradford".

She returned eight years ago and said: "I'm 87 now, and I've never regretted coming back.

"Coming back here, especially as an old woman, I started to settle down, and I felt the love. I felt the respect and most of all, I feel very valued."

She said BRAVE was a powerful moment for the city and its artists.

"It's a promotion. Not only for us, but for the other artists that are taking part. And it's a boost for Bradford - it's Bradford 2025 after all."

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