Dancing into Ubuntu:

This inquiry describes the lived experiences of five Bachelor of Education students learning and teaching Kpanlogo, a West African dance. Each experience was conceptually analyzed with the Sankofa bird, depicted with its beak reaching back to retrieve a golden egg on its back. This symbol embodies the Ghanaian proverb, to go back, physically or spiritually, to retrieve what was once lost or forgotten. Such a framework orients us to the philosophy of Ubuntu, which posits that humanness is found and cultivated within community. What this inquiry reveals is that while it was awkward for some, it was possible for others to dance toward Ubuntu. In sharing these experiences, an example is provided for how we might introduce culturally relevant curriculum in teacher education programs. This inquiry thus describes what it was like to connect a learning experience, in this case the Kpanlogo dance, to the community in which it is situated.

Kankouran West African Dance Company, Washington, D.C.

Amaniyea Payne, dancer/choreographer and Artistic Director of Muntu Dance Theatre, offers her reflections on Muntu’s more than four decades in Chicago, Illinois. There, in mid-west U.S.A., Muntu shines a bright and powerful light on African dance, due in major part to its artistic and educational vision, which has been influenced by Payne’s artistic research and global dance connections. Her research and artistic experiences display the seminal connections among Diaspora dance artists, highlighting their similar concerns regarding education of African, diasporic, and non-African peoples. Payne and Muntu exemplify the characteristic duality of professional African-based dance companies in the U.S.: on the one hand, she and the company develop and present fascinating, contemporary choreographies using traditional African vocabularies and on the other hand, they are enmeshed in educational projects and neighborhood and community development through dance.

Sauce!

Esailama Diouf delves deep into history and genealogy to detail the significant politico-cultural figures, dance artists, institutions, and cultural nationalist positions that allowed for a reclaimed connection between African diasporic dance forms and spirit knowing. Dismantling still lingering European and North American notions of Africa and African dance and drumming, which permeate the early history of dance in the Americas, Diouf points to restoring notions of genetic birthrights and culture transmission for African Americans through a renaissance of West African dance and music on the West Coast, specifically in California. Her findings give dancers more awareness and understanding and thereby, the chance to embody their claim to spirit through communal African dance and music

The “Gospel” of Memory

William Serrano-Franklin presents an interview with Assane Konte, the co-founder of a Washington, D.C. dance institution, Kankouran West African Dance Company (KWADC). Accompanied by a series of historical photographs, Serrano-Franklin documents Konte’s desire to reintroduce black Americans to West African culture through the medium of dance. Konte’s personal direction and the spirit of Kankouran have guided the development of dynamic community engagement practices with benefits beyond dance as an art form.

From Warm-up to Dobale in Philadelphia

From an experiential perspective, Julie B. Johnson charts the five main components of a West African dance class in West Philadelphia as a lens through which to explore the varied understandings of community that can emerge through engagement with African dance traditions. Each component – the warm up, the lesson, dancing down the floor, the circle, and the concluding ritual to honor the musicians (Dobale) – outlines a narrative through which students construct shared understandings of community through collective experiences at each phase of the class’s procedural structure. Employing poetry and vignettes, Johnson provides a participatory ethnography of African dance in Philadelphia rooted in scholarship and first-hand experience.

Maureen Pytlik

In 2017, Maureen Pytlik graduated from Ottawa’s Carleton University with degrees major in both clarinet performance and mathematics. Her curriculum also included advanced music theory studies and West African drumming and dance. She describes her West African dance experiences as transformative. “I was quite happy to open up and be awkwardly uncoordinated,” she relates, “because it was something that created a lot of group bonding in a way. Feeling part of the group was very important to me because having Asperger’s means it’s not something that I experience easily.” African dance, and drumming too, helped Maureen to navigate a dichotomy which has been difficult for her to manage in her life, and one that she identifies closely with having Asperger’s: the conflicting pulls of competing desires for control and freedom. “I am pulled in these two different directions,” she acknowledges. “My modes of being can fluctuate between the two styles of having control and experiencing freedom, but I have a hard time (as with any polar opposites) hovering in the middle between them without gravitating toward one extreme or the other at any given time.” Music and dance, especially of the West African variety, have enabled her to move closer to achieving that elusive balance.

From the Bamboula to the Baby Dolls

Baby Dolls embodied the rambunctious, ambulatory dance practices of New Orleans' African-American community, playing with ragtime dancing, a style in conversation with early twentieth century music. Baby Doll dancing referenced their contemporary situation, empowering them through ribald street jaunts full of dynamism, while also relating to other cultural practices like jazz funerals and connecting them to a historical legacy that traced back to Congo Square (and earlier). Essential to Congo Square, where the Bamboula dance featured prominently, was that West African dance aesthetics persevered but also blended with sociocultural ideas influenced by its New Orleans context. Improvisation was key. Dancing, whether in Congo Square or ragtime style, highlighted spontaneity and a spirited—even competitive—style that cultivated agency while acknowledging a communal presence. These moments (and movement) were vibrant, illuminating Baby Dolls as innovators within a rich, cultural tradition that left troubles behind as liveliness surged through their dancing processions.