Elvire Mavusi Matu
Elvire grew up in Barking and Dagenham, one of the poorest London Boroughs, and watched as local community centres closed and gang violence overwhelmed the area, with friends and neighbours being shot and stabbed. At 14, she didn’t feel like there were any safe spaces left for her and her peers to go, and so created Konverse Dance Crews.
Konverse, which started in 2012, is a community dance space that aims to serve the underserved. It runs dance classes for children and adults, and has welcomed over 900 members of the community through their doors. As well as providing a safe space, Elvire also seeks to provide opportunities to adults in the community. She provides paid employment, training opportunities and pays for qualifications in order to upskill people and prepare them for future opportunites.
Along with running Konverse Dance Crews, Elvire actually works full-time in a school in Barking and Dagenham, mentoring young people who are close to exclusion and working with their families and their teachers to keep them in education long term. Elvire devotes every evening and weekend to keep Konverse running and is clearly a pillar in her local community, where she has lived since she was born with her Mum and siblings.
Konverse Dance Crews has received £9,951 of Lottery Funding which Elvire describes as completely invaluable. Elvire uses this money to pay for space hire, staffing, qualifications and training for her staff as she tries to keep the costs affordable and accessible to the community.
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