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Commonwealth Dance Relay
Unite Through Music & Dance
A Commonwealth Dance Relay
Join us in a celebration of rhythm and movement as dancers from around the world share their dance to the sounds of original compositions by renowned Commonwealth composers.
Get dancing and upload - Start now, share and take part!
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What is it?
A global celebration of youth, culture, and creativity, The Commonwealth Dance Relay will bring together young dancers from across the UK and around the Commonwealth in a powerful, inclusive dance relay — each contributing their own interpretation of a collaboratively composed soundtrack. Watch the demonstration video; this is the first video in the relay! We cannot wait to see how YOU will continue it.
How did it start?
Five outstanding young composers from the 5 regions of the Commonwealth: Africa, Asia, Europe, Caribbean & Americas and The Pacific, were each invited to send us a short extract of music, based on a theme and reflecting their country’s cultural characteristics. Another brilliant young composer, Cole Lam, put the 6.5 min dance track together.
View
Watch the original videos and be inspired to dance.
Dance
Create your own dance and record it to share with us
Upload
Upload your video using the form here.
View the videos
Watch the full Commonwealth Dance Relay film, which brings all five sections together into one continuous journey of music and movement. Then scroll on to explore the regional videos underneath. Each section highlights a different area of the Commonwealth, offering its own flavour, energy, and musical character. Watch, enjoy, and let them spark ideas for your own dance.
Africa
Asia
Caribbean and Americas
Europe
Pacific
What happens next?
Celebrated dancer Shevelle Dynott has choreographed the dance with students from the Royal Ballet School, to make demonstration videos of the Commonwealth Dance Relay.
You are now invited to create and film your own dances to the dance track.
The dance is split into various regions representing individual areas of the Commonwealth. You are free to choose ANY area you wish!
Why take part?
Dance is powerful. It helps us express who we are, build confidence, and find joy, even on the days when words do not quite work. It is also bigger than the individual: dance brings communities together, strengthens belonging, and creates shared moments of celebration that can cross borders, languages, and backgrounds.
Get ready to light up the global stage! Submit your electrifying dance video by Sunday, May 31st for a chance to be shortlisted by a panel of top judges and unlock incredible opportunities, international publicity, and exclusive rewards.
Many submissions will be featured by The Commonwealth Resounds on social media, and you’ll be part of an Interactive World Map celebrating dances from every corner of the Commonwealth and may feature in the final video which may be shown around the world!
Get the files
Full audio file
You can listen to, and download the full audio file here:
Africa
Asia
Caribbean and Americas
Europe
Pacific
Create Your Dance
Create your own Commonwealth Dance Relay
We’d love you to use the motifs you’ve seen in the demonstration videos as a starting point and create a dance that’s truly yours.
You can dance solo, as a duo, or as a whole group. Bring together friends, schoolmates, family members, teammates, a class or a club. Anyone can take part. What matters most is your interpretation, your energy, and your creativity.
Choose your music
The dance track is made from five musical voices from across the Commonwealth, with each section representing one of five regions. You can:
- Use the full track exactly as it is, from start to finish, or
- Choose just one section to work with. The regional sections have been separated for you (Europe, Asia, the Caribbean, Africa, and the Pacific), so you can pick the one you connect with most.
Make the dance your own
Your choreography can be completely different from the Royal Ballet School demonstration. That’s encouraged. Your dance can be in any style, and it can be as simple or as ambitious as you like: joyful, bold, expressive, funny, elegant, powerful, or all of the above.
If you’d like, you can add live instruments to play along with the track, but please do not change the tempo, basic structure or harmony of the music. The original soundtrack must be clearly audible and unchanged.
We are excited to see what you create using the original soundtrack.
Film it anywhere
You can film wherever feels right: at home, in the playground, on the street, in a studio, on a stage, on a pitch, or in the park. Anything goes.
What happens next
Over the coming months, we hope to share exciting new versions of the soundtrack for you to use, including a full orchestral version and several different style versions. For now, we cannot wait to see what groups can do with the original music.
Note: If you send in an excellent video early on, we may ask whether we can feature it as an example to inspire other groups to join in.
Top tips for filming
You must use the original audio
Play any of the original Dance Relay music while you film so it’s clearly captured in the recording. Please don’t swap in different music, change the speed or add new audio afterwards.
Film in landscape
Hold your phone or camera sideways so the video is wide, not tall.
Use steady, simple framing
Prop your phone on a chair, shelf, or tripod if you have one. Try not to hold it by hand – unless you are going for that as a style!
Make sure we can see your whole body
Step back enough to keep your feet and hands in shot, even when you move.
Choose good light and a clear background
Face a window or light source if possible, and pick a space where you stand out.
View Shevelle’s top tips for your dance!
The Music
The dance track has been created by five young composers from around the
Commonwealth, each representing a different region – Europe (Jacob Abela), Asia (Nafias Ahmed), The Caribbean (Gerard Coutain), Africa (Flabie Enar Loape) and The Pacific (Grace Wellik)
Each of the 5 composers wrote a small fragment of music representing their own culture which were all fitted together into a 7-minute dance track by a young composer called Cole Lam.
Jacob Abela
Europe
Grace Wellik
The Pacific
Gerard Coutain
Caribbean & Americas
Nafias Ahmed
Asia
Flabie Enar Loape
Africa
Where in the world?
As the relay progresses, you’ll see where it has been on this map. Submit your entry now to take part!
Day 10 was filled to bursting with composition, composition, and… composition. Throughout the previous 9 days, several members of the ABYSO had sent their compositions to Alison, Ka Youn, and myself, to be played in Monday’s composer’s concert. As a result, the proposed concert programme gradually expanded throughout the week, inflating from a 40-minute concert to an hour, then an hour twenty, and so on. By the time Monday rolled around, we had a program of 14 pieces, highlighting the fantastic diversity of musical creativity on the island.
In addition to the individual compositions, the composer’s concert also featured the collaborative compositions developed throughout the trip by the composition team and the various instrumental sections of the ABYSO. There was the violinist’s piece, a string quintet, which I was frantically sewing together as late as Monday morning (a timeline I’m sure every composer is familiar with). The quintet featured melodies and accompaniments from ABYSO violinists Asafa, Alfranique, Asha, and Calynia, all massively varied in character. Tying all these fragments together resulted in a wonderfully diverse musical collage, continually moving between driving grooves and floating lullabies. While I was wrestling with this, Ka Youn was doing something similar for the lower strings, tying together their beautiful melodies into a virtuosic duet for viola and double bass. What struck us both more than anything else was the incredible creativity of the ABYSO student’s musical fragments: They would often embrace quirkiness, would never shy away from subverting harmonic and melodic expectations, making each note on the page very much their own.
What followed was one of the best concerts of my life. Education officer Caryl Edwards-Lewis compered, cultivating a wonderfully Antiguan atmosphere of audience participation and engagement, sprinkling the perfect combination of humour, encouragement, and storytelling across the evening. Sitting front row was His Excellency Sir Rodney Williams and Her Excellency Karen-Mae Hill, two people who have provided invaluable help in facilitating the development of orchestral music on Antigua and Barbuda. Many of the members of the ABYSO presented their own pieces, preparing speeches that detailed the hard work and creativity of the previous week’s workshops, with each speech being met by a mandatory stretch of thundering applause and deafening whoops from parents and peers. Witnessing students, teachers, and parents lift each other up and recognise each other’s deep dedication to music-making was a truly special experience. The student’s pieces were awe-inspiring, testaments to their musical curiosity and willingness to collaborate creatively with one another. We heard film music, string music, wind music, quartets, quintets, duets, large ensembles, jazz ensembles and more, a musical kaleidoscope that represented the individual compositional talent of every single member of the ABYSO. Really special stuff.
Today was an exciting day for the 21 musicians travelling to Antigua with The Commonwealth Resounds, an organisation dedicated to the promotion of music and musicians across the Commonwealth, as we set off on a cultural exchange to the captivating island of Antigua.
On touching down in Antigua, we were greeted by Claudine and Karen Mae, The High Commissioner of Antigua. Their warmth and hospitality radiated through the welcome, we’re very grateful for their warm welcome and look forward to sharing our musical cultures.
The pace immediately picked up as our wind quintet was ushered to Pointe 99.1fm, where we had the opportunity to join the Prime Minister, Gaston Browne, on his well-known evening programme, Browne and Browne. Alison and Reuben spoke at length on the station about our plans and excitement whilst we are here. Discussing all things music with Colin O’Neil the conversation was positive and he really emphasised the power that music can bring to all our lives, be that academic, social or just for our own pleasure. It was amazing to hear about all the musical opportunities that the island offers and shares with the world. This platform offered us more than just an introduction to Antiguan society; it was a precious opportunity to share our musical passion with the nation.
The Dionysus Ensemble ran a “Go Compose Solomon Islands” day, which for the first time, introduced composition and trained the students not only how to create their own music, but to write it down. The day was focussed on music theory and notation practices as well as the importance of music being documented for posterity so that their music can be shared, performed by others and last into the future. Our students returned over the following few days with pages of newly created music, which they’d worked on at home after class, to ask advice, seek out new ideas and direction and to check their work with us. We performed and recorded all of their pieces for them so that each student now has a professionally performed record of their first piece.
The concert was attended by Their Excellencies the Governor-General of Antigua and Barbuda and the High Commissioner, plus everyone in the ABYSO. Each young composer introduced their own piece before it was played.
