About

Mbilla Arts was set up in 2001 by Chantelle Michaux. In 2005 Gambian drummer Seneke Sillah began working with Mbilla Arts. Due to its success, Chantelle and Seneke established Mbilla Arts as a Community Interest Company in 2006. The company has gone from strength to strength and has had funding from Awards For All, Waltham Forest Arts Council, Kellogg’s Healthy Living Fund, Help A London Child and The Ernest Cook Trust to support its programmes.

Seneke is Mbilla Arts’ lead drummer and a Director of Mbilla Arts CIC. Seneke was born in The Gambia in West Africa. From an early age he demonstrated a talent for playing mbalax, the traditional music of the Wolof people of The Gambia and Senegal, which is played on sabar drums. In his teens he began playing sabar at social occasions and religious ceremonies with various groups including Samuel Mariam Njie and Sanementare cultural troupes. Later, mentored in the art of playing djembe by master drummers including the late Thomas Camara from Guinea, he joined groups including Allah Lakeh providing entertainment in the Gambian tourist industry. After his arrival in the UK, he began teaching and performing with Mbilla Arts across London and the South East in various school and community settings.


Chantelle is Mbilla Arts’ lead dance tutor and a Director of Mbilla Arts CIC. She has been a student and practitioner of West African dance since 1996. In 1998 Chantelle travelled to Guinea in West Africa with Epizo Bangoura to follow a study course in Guinean dance for 2 months. Since then she has studied dance in Ivory Coast, Senegal and Mali as well as The Gambia where she spent 6 months studying djembe and sabar dance traditions and exploring the cultural contexts of the music and dance. Chantelle started teaching African dance in schools and community settings in East London in 2000 and set up Mbilla Arts in 2001.
Chantelle is responsible for all the financial and administrative management of Mbilla Arts as well as fundraising and marketing. She has a strong background in dance and arts education project management and fundraising. She was General Manager of Badejo Arts, a contemporary African dance company, from1998-99 and has worked as a co-ordinator, project manager and fundraiser in the field of youth arts education for many years. She was Co-ordinator/Fundraiser of Ladders Young Performers and Writers Club (www.laddersypw.org.uk) (2000-2003) and Business Development Manager of innovative arts education charity Lynk Reach (www.lynkreach.co.uk) from 2003-2006. Chantelle is also currently Co-ordinator/Fundraiser of the Waltham Fores Arts in Education Network (www.wfaen.org.uk)