A glitzy awards ceremony held on 29 May 2007 at one of Canary Wharf's most prestigious venues, East Winter Gardens, was attended by luminaries including the Mayor of Tower Hamlets, Councillor Ann Jackson. The Dhamaka Achievement Ceremony followed the Bollywood-style Annual Britz Dhamaka 2007 at the Royal Albert Hall in April, which showcased music, dance, acting and modelling from young Bangladeshi, Indian and Pakistani dancers, models and actors and their contemporaries from London's East End. The sell-out Dhamaka 2007 event was attended by over 4,000 people
The Dhamaka project is supported by the Last Mile Development Partnership, a £20m European Social Fund initiative to encourage BME involvement in the cultural and creative industries; to help ensure that local communities are not excluded in major regeneration projects that have creative components; and to make best use of internet technology to showcase, market and sell creative talent.
Tribal is the lead partner in the Last Mile Development Partnership, providing technology and project management support. The other development partners are from across the UK.* We work with Flex FX Productions on the Dhamaka project. Headed up by artistic director Naz Choudhury, Flex FX is a unique dance, theatre and music company that combines young urban inspiration with contemporary music and choreography.
Barry Brooks, Tribal's director for education and skills strategy, said, "The Annual Britz Dhamaka event was one of the most exciting points of my life. It was a fantastic achievement for the group to perform at the Albert Hall and Naz and his team created an exhilarating evening full of life, music and colour. The Dhamaka project helps young people to enrich their life experiences and improve their education, as well as giving individuals the confidence and opportunity to pursue their dreams. Tribal is delighted to be working in partnership with Flex FX on this project."
The Achievement Awards identified Dhamaka's best performers from 'best volunteer' to 'best male dancer' and 'Dhamaka icon'. Amongst the guests was Abdal Ullah, strategic co-ordinator for Muslim employment and enterprise at Tribal and an elected councillor and cabinet member in Tower Hamlets. Tribal was given the accolade of 'special achievement award', collected by Joyce Cade and Martin Good, directors of our education division.
Naz Choudhury said, "This project couldn't have happened without the people at Tribal who've supported our vision, provided the backbone and had the knowledge to take this work forward. It has made the project a reality and is helping young people into mainstream employment. We are grateful to Tribal, the European Social Fund and Equal for supporting such a unique project. I would like to say a special thank you to Chris Webb from Tribal for supporting and believing in me from the planning stages of the Dhamaka Project, a lot of the success of this project is credit to him."
Barry Brooks added, "At Tribal, we aim to transform lives through learning which is exactly what the Dhamaka project is about. We're bringing young British people together through education, training, skills and culture. Education can help to overcome issues such as poor school performance and poor health. Tribal specialises in making learning work and partnering for change and social inclusion."
The Annual Britz Dhamaka and the Achievements Ceremony are the start rather than the finish of the project. The next phase is to organise 'Dhamaka on Tour', taking the musicians, dancers and actors around the UK.
Naz Choudhury added, "Now that we have successfully completed the people development project, we would like to take a step forward into an artist development project. We will provide participants with opportunities on the project and tour a musical production across the UK. We're also planning to create a national network and gain credibility and recognition for the beneficiaries on the artist development project. This will involve workshops throughout the summer when the beneficiaries have a lot of spare time from their academic studies. The tour will take place on weekends to suit their lifestyles after the summer period is over.
"Alongside this project, we have proposed an exhibition and an international tour but we would like to go from strength to strength and develop the beneficiaries in stages before we progress. Tribal has been very supportive towards the projects and contributed ideas about how to develop the project further. The team is now looking at how Tribal can be involved in the next stages of development. At Flex FX Productions, we would like to maintain our relationship with Tribal by proposing new and unique ideas and continuously showing the benefits through each project to develop the beneficiaries and overall make a Flex FX industry in the UK focused on developing British talent."
For further information, please email media@tribalgroup.co.uk.
The Dhamaka Project has brought together many young talented artists in the United Kingdom, primarily focused on people from London's East End. The project was launched at The Zee Carnival in Kensington, Olympia in February 2007, which also featured Bollywood stars such as Shilpa Shetty and Priyanka Chopra. It has developed people by providing them with artistic training, social cohesion and work experience with mainstream opportunities such as performing at the Royal Albert Hall and Kensington Olympia. They can use this as an enrichment course and completing the Dhamaka Project adds extra credibility to their curriculum vitae. It has given each individual a life experience and the confidence to follow their dreams and ambitions in life. The project has provided a foundation for the beneficiaries to network into the arts and entertainment industry. At the Dhamaka Achievement Awards, beneficiaries and volunteers involved were presented with awards for completing the project and given special awards for contribution and leadership skills. The Dhamaka Project is a programme we intend to create annually to provide opportunities for new talent.