West African Dance

 West African

The reading From Village to International Stage, explains that evolution dance forms West African tribal communities when they shifted to on-stage performances. The dances performed were essential to religions and communal rituals. Now they are mostly visible in tourist restaurants or YouTube videos. As an example, Ethiopia went through political changes. In the 1980s socialist states invested in dance forms around the country to be produced as stage performances. The modified performances were used as propaganda for national unity amidst border wars and internal oppression. As the dances evolved from the stage their meaning changed. The means of the dance had meaning from community to community. They were inside jokes or stories that dance performing on stage were not aware of. Although the researchers tried to be as accurate as possible. There were Western forms that were mixed when it was adopted. The dancers were granted the status of being a civil servant. Yet the women were sexualized and had a bad reputation associated with them. During the Derg Era dancers were usually employed in nightclubs. This led to the suspicion of their involvement in sex work. Even if it was not the case. Then in the 1990’s Ethiopia opened to the West and traditional dance was used to generate profit. The arts have been defunded in Ethiopia. Many dancers were not able to continue learning or teaching in Ethiopia due to that. There are very few records about the diverse dance before their adaptation to stage performances. The younger generation created their style influenced by Western aesthetics. Especially since Western countries fund companies like Destino Dance Company in Addis Ababa. It has been hard for African dance forms to be acknowledged in the professional dance world. They use the funds to write and publish books to bring more credibility to the dance forms. In the present day, the dancers are a vessel for their heritage and roots. In conclusion, as the conditions that people are in change over time so does the way that dance is presented. 

 Workshop

On Monday, February nineteen at around 4:00 pm, I started the West African dance class. I had some free time after getting home from class. I proceed to move the furniture in my living room to have space to dance. I turned on the TV and played the YouTube video. The instructor's name is Maguette Camara. Mr. Camara was energetic and passionate in the dance form. He started the class by having us stretch and warm up. It took about twelve minutes. He explained the relation between the beat, the break, and the movements. A relationship based on a call and responses. In the beginning, he started with four basic steps and repeated them four times. The movements showed polyrhythmic techniques by having the feet and hands doing different movements in the same steps. As he added movements the repetition technique continued. The steps are repeated twice on both the right and left sides. Another technique that we can see is that it is curvilinear. The choreography had one turning in a complete circle. The wide stance of the dance gave it some dimensionality. There was something deeper than what was shown. Something that stood out to me was that he joined the drummer when he let the viewers try doing it ourselves. After that, he proceeded to let the viewers freestyle the ending of the dance. The tips of my toes hurt by the end of the class. There were a lot of points where the choreography had me on the tips of my feet. It was overall a good and fun experience.