Robert-Goldwater-Library

30 Years of DanceAfrica

text and image via Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM):

BAM celebrates 30 Years of DanceAfrica with a kaleidoscope of dance, music, film, and art. New this year: a showcase of spoken word, dance and music inspired by the spirit of Africa and an archival retrospective. Join us Memorial Day weekend to honor America’s largest festival of African and African-American culture and another joyous milestone: the 70th birthday of Artistic Director Baba Chuck Davis.

Dance
Featuring Ndere Troupe of Uganda, Forces of Nature Dance Theatre Company, Kulu Mele African American Dance Ensemble, Bambara Drum and Dance Ensemble, Sabar Ak Ru Afriq Dance Theatre, and BAM/Restoration DanceAfrica Ensemble.

Bazaar
The one-and-only open-air bazaar features African crafts, food, and fashion—and an exciting premiere: a live showcase of poets, dancers, and music inspired by the spirit of Africa.

Art
Exhibitions include The Colors of 30 Years of DanceAfrica by artist D. Lammie-Hanson, the African Ancestral Altar, the African Sculpture Garden, and an archival retrospective by BAMart and MoCADA in the 80 Hanson Place lobby.

Music
Gokh-Bi (Go-Bee) System merges political rhymes with the sounds of Senegal for hip-hop you haven’t heard before.

Education
Dance workshops for all and a community partnership with Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation.

Film
The best of the African Film Festival includes the acclaimed drama Bamako and the sequel to the animated classic Kirikou! [see earlier post]

Gradhiva, no. 4 (2006)

Gradhiva, no. 4 (2006) features an interesting collection of interlocking essays on Amazon dance performance, under the rubric Dossier: le commerce des cultures:

Des villages indigènes aux musées d'anthropologie: de la propriété de la vente des objects rituels amzaoniens :: Aristóteles Barcelos Neto

Le commerce de la culture, la médecine rituelle et le Coca-Cola :: Marceo Fiorini, Christopher Ball

La danse des grands masques amazoniens: chronique d'un événement :: Franck Beuvier

Click here for a summary of the issue's entire contents

Coaxing the Spirits to Dance: Art of the Papuan Gulf : images + video clips

click image above to play video.
 

via The Metropolitan Museum of Art:

Coaxing the Spirits to Dance: Art of the Papuan Gulf

main page

MORE ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

IMAGES

VIDEO

Each of these two video clips shows a digitized sequence from the original silent film by Frank Hurley entitled Pearls and Savages. Both masked performances were reenacted at Hurley's request. Hurley also made still photographs of the masks, two of which are included in this exhibition.

Museum to host Festival de Arte Prehispánico

On August 5, 2006, El Primer Contacto con el Arte and the Muticultural Audience Development Intiative of the Metropolitan Museum will present El Festival de Arte Prehispánico. This program of family activities, inspired by the exhibition Treasures of the Maya Sacred Kings, includes lectures and gallery chats, music, film and theater on Maya culture. Bring the whole family!

To learn more, Download MayaPoster_lores.pdf [yes, a pdf file]


El 5 de agosto 2006 El Primer Contacto con el Arte y Desarrollo Iniciativo para Audencia Multicultural del Metropolitan Museum of Art presentarán El Festival de Arte Prehispánico. Esta programa de actividades para la familia, inspirada para la exposición Treasures of the Maya Sacred Kings, se incluye lecturas y charlas, música, película y una representación teatral sobre la cultura Maya. ¡Asista con su familia!

Para más información, Descargar MayaPoster_lores.pdf [sí, un archivo informático 'pdf']

Advance Warning : Dance Africa 2006

from the Brooklyn Academy of Music's website :

Legacy: African Dance in Our World
Artistic director: Chuck Davis

For 29 years BAM’s DanceAfrica festival has been a Memorial Day Weekend tradition in Brooklyn. A lively and diverse blend of African and African-American dance, music, film, and art devoted to preserving traditions and educating new generations, DanceAfrica’s spirit is personified by Founding Elder and Artistic Director Baba Chuck Davis.

This year’s mainstage program offers several exceptional companies from across the African Diaspora. Song-and-dance ensemble Perú Negro combines sensual dancing with the music of black Peru, a soulful mixture of melodic guitar, passionate singing, and percussive instruments that evolved from wooden crates Peruvian slaves once used to preserve their outlawed rhythms. Creative Outlet Dance Theatre of Brooklyn infuses dance with theater, voice, poetry, film, and music, telling exhilarating stories of heritage and resilience. The New Jersey-based Universal African Dance & Drum Ensemble combines traditional songs with an electrifying acrobatic/martial arts show featuring stilt walking and ancestral dances. An annual favorite as well as a symbol of youth involvement in the preservation of African heritage, the BAM/Restoration DanceAfrica Ensemble returns for its tenth year!

In addition, the DanceAfrica spirit flows throughout BAM with live music in BAMcafé, an African Diaspora film series at BAM Rose Cinemas, master classes for dancers of all ages, a sculpture garden, education programs with the Restoration Youth Arts Academy in Bed-Stuy, and the one-and-only DanceAfrica outdoor bazaar featuring African crafts, food, and fashion. Ago! Amée!!

See a Dance Africa video preview (click on the link in the right hand column)

May 26 & 27 at 7:30pm
May 27 at 2pm
May 28 at 3pm
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
Tickets: $20, 30, 40, 45
Call
BAM Ticket Services
718.636.4100
Mon—Fri, 10am—6pm
Sat, 12 noon—6pm
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Maori-Modern Fusion

via NYTimes:
A Maori-Modern Fusion Takes a New York Stage
By JENNIFER DUNNING
Published: September 15, 2005

Black Grace made a largely unheralded United States debut in August 2004. Based in Auckland, New Zealand, the company was unknown to most Americans. But by the end of a weeklong engagement at the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in the Berkshires, Black Grace was playing to vociferously enthusiastic, soldout houses. Now it is about to take on New York City, with a season that opens tomorrow at the New Victory Theater.

New Yorkers will see six men of Pacific Islander and Maori descent who do not fit the American stereotype of a dancer. They are short, stocky and robust, bounding into the air like spaldeens and coursing across the stage like rushing brooks. The pieces they perform, all by the company's founder, Neil Ieremia, fuse modern and traditional Pacific Island and Maori dance forms smoothly into pieces imbued with feelings of nature and spirituality as well as gutsy humor and athletic propulsion.

The tinge of spirituality that informs Mr. Ieremia's aesthetic is perhaps not unusual given the spiritual nature of Maori and Pacific Islander dance and its ancestral themes. And Black Grace is not the only dance troupe in New Zealand to draw on the indigenous arts that are an integral part of the country's culture, performed and taught in schools throughout the nation. Before each important match, New Zealand's world-famous national rugby team, the All Blacks, performs an adaptation of the cherished Maori Haka, a traditional war dance that serves as a challenge to the other team. Black Grace has merged it with a Samoan version that communicates respect for the rival. [read on...]