Take 5 - Bay African Diaspora Dance Panel at EDF
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| lft to rt: Festival Co-Director, C.K. Ladzekpo; Deborah Vaughan Founder, Dimensions Dance Theatre; Colette Eloi, Artistic Director, El Wah Movement; Ms. Blanche Brown, Haitian Dance Pioneer; Latanya Tigner, Director Dimensions Extensions/Dancer-Dimensions Dance Theatre |photo cr: Jan McDermott |
TAKE5:
SF-EDF2013
YBCA - LAM Theater
"...when I think of the African Diaspora, I think of it in terms of movement."
Dance Pioneer Ms. Blanche Brown, reflects upon seeing her Aunt dancing the
jitterbug in the 40's as she further comments that African Diaspora people have,
"...
an Ancestral memory in our body that makes us move in a certain way."
june 29, 2013_San Francisco, CA -- Ms.
Blanche's formal training of African Diaspora Dance was under the aegis of
Dance Educator, Cultural Ambassador Ms.
Nontsizi Cayou, whose formidable spirit principled the campaign, which led
to the formation of San Francisco State University's Department of Dance in
1986. This groundbreaking feat represents pioneering efforts in creating some
of the country's first degree programs, offering concentrations in both
Performance/Choreography and Dance Ethnology. Professor Cayou was
also the founder of the Wajumbe
Cultural Institute, located in the heart of San Francisco’s Western
Addition neighborhood at the African and
African-American Center for Art and Culture.1
Serving
as the preclude to the evening festivities, the panel was moderated by Ethnic
Dance Festival Co-Director C.K. Ladzekpo,
40-year Bay Area Cultural Architect. Topics covered interpretations of the term
“Diaspora”, questions about African Dance technique and shared histories of African
Diaspora Dance in the Bay Area, through the perspectives of its esteemed
panelists. Award winning choreographer and Cultural visionary Deborah
Vaughan placed Diaspora dance
beginnings in the Bay Area as far back as the 30's, citing the Dance trek of luminary
Ms. Ruth Beckford, an Oakland native who
was discovered by Dance Pioneer Katherine
Dunham and toured professionally, thus ushering her upon the path of
African Diaspora Dance. Ms. Beckford also was the founder of the first
recreational modern dance department in the United States at the Oakland Parks
and Recreation Department and the founder of the first African-Haitian dance
schools in Oakland and San Francisco.2
Ms.
Vaughan also cited Ms. Dunham's acclaimed artistic works in Dance performance
often translating her field works from abroad into staged works upon Theatre, on
Television, scholarly Institutes and protests--the World was truly her stage
and garnered generations of captivated audiences, while leaving a legacy of
Dance training through “Dunham technique” for which all the panelists were
aptly trained.
Dimensions
40-year legacy boasts the works of Latanya
Tigner, whose first Dance experience was with Ms. Deborah Vaughan at Contra
Costa College. She furthered these works into a shared role as an Arts Administrator
and Dancer with Dimensions Dance Theatre. Today she is the Director of its 20
year Dimensions Extensions Performance Ensemble, birthed through their Rites of
Passage program, providing educational outreach serving primarily African
American youth through the Performing Arts.
"...
the sway...the birds and their pattern of flight in the sky, large, bright,
beautiful-colored nation of astral bright lights."
is the way College Dance Teacher and Dance Choreographer Colette Eloi envisions her native Haiti. She is a Dance faculty member
of the legendary Laney College of
Oakland, CA and a veteran to Bay Area stages. Impassioned with a deep focus
upon differentiating technique and style in her teaching methodology, Colette
shared that although she is inspired by contemporary pieces, it's more so those
that preserve the traditional meaning. In her Artistic works of Haiti she aims
to deconstruct ongoing stigmas that diminish the prosperous notion of what the
country, culture and history offers. And through her artistic works she highlights
elements that does, like this song in her presentation:
"Rele Tout Bon Moun Yo" [Call All the Good People]
Colette
further informs that utilizing a machete may overtly be seen as an act of
violence, yet it is an idea of justice and sometimes it's time to
draw-the-line!
Although a powerful creative force whose works
and Dance speaks, often met in person of quiet demeanor, Ms. Vaughan excitingly
espoused jewels of information giving us a glimpse into her creative process
about fluidity, exploring how Diaspora agents have survived through music and
movement. Ms. Blanche observed how Haitian movement and Dance is getting faster
and styles becoming more dynamic, exclaiming, "...but that's how
Dance moves." While Latanya points out that African American contributions
to the Diaspora aesthetic are often "missed" her study remains
consistent focusing upon Second line and Jazz funeral traditions of New
Orleans, and comments that although it is a free-style of movement associated,
her Festival choreographic presentation is an extension of these traditions and
raises awareness. Upon the closing question posed,
“How has your Dance changed in the 20 years.” Ms. Blanche espouses
how important it is in keeping the Soul and music together and teaches that you
must Dance from the inside out – inspirations drawn from her teacher, Nontsizi
Cayou.
Determined to address the urgent comment
delivered at the top of discussion by Ms. Vaughan “…the Bay Area has a rich
history that needs to be archived.”--As I saluted the Eldership and Colleagues
onstage and in the audience, I shared that as this is my inheritance, I too
shared a concern in archiving these traditions and Artistic works and raised
the question as to what current efforts were underway. I referenced Amara Tabor Smith’s “revival of Ed Mock” which invoked some audience yelps, and went on to inform the assembly about the
closing of the Performing Arts Library Museum [P.A.L.M.] and how these files
[Ed Mock] are not accessible and currently in storage with other vital files
from this community [I actually did perform several searches] and the access
remains denied upon a pending re-opening date. Also, I shared my love for
libraries, and how I’ve combed through Dance collections across the country
inspiring the current #Dancestory2013 project.
But ALAS! - time shut down any
exchange for response. However, two people approached me with a background in library
science and a Community Arts advocate willing to collaborate- the crème de la crème?! - A
donation towards #Dancestory2013.
{Thank you Ms. Vaughan, you are the GIVE of THE GIVE.}
Overall,
the experience certainly was a catalyst of excitement for the evening show to
follow – A menagerie of vividly colored culture and music, with special artistic
elements contributed by Antoine Hunter
and his “American Sign Dance”. The dessert of the evening for me, was the youth
group “Mona Khan Company Emerging
Performers”, they were a bloom of excitement, against a boom of performance
prowess by emerging youth Dancers of El Wah Company - Ebonie Nefertari
Barnett and Ngalifourou Matingou.
Congratulations
Artists, Directors, Technicians, Volunteers and SF Ethnic Dance Festival. #RiteOn
~R. Califa Calloway | nzo.califa Dance Works
about #Dancestory2013 - [click link]
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