Unit 2, Lesson 1
My first incident with dance was as early as 3 year old, back in the early 1980s. My dad turned on James Brown’s hit “The payback” and started to dance across the floor. I mimicked all his movements and I’ve been dancing badly ever since.
I don’t know how many of you have heard of The Chuck Davis Dance Company, but he has run one of the best African dance troops in the country. Please check out this video on Youtube, where it tells why dance is used in Africa.
The official website of the dance troop is here: http://www.africanamericandanceensemble.org/about.htm
Dissanayake explains in her book “What is Art For,” that “making special” is an agreement between both, in this case the musician and the dancer, that an un-verbal connection has been made and it has the ability to be spread universally. In the lesson 2, part 2, the point is made that that Dissanayake states that “art is as universal as language and tool making” (p92).
African dance has always been a spiritual experience for me. When the drummer starts, the rhythm starts at the tip of my toes and moves up to my legs, waist, arms, neck, and head. By the time the other drums have joined in, my entire body is not its own and is consumed by the rhythm and I could not stop dancing if I wanted to. I feel that there is something naturally implanted in me that makes me feel this connection with my ancestors and its conforming to me. African dance has crossed cultural lines and no matter where I’ve traveled, it has been met with appreciation by all.
2 comments:
African music is seen as being dynamic and very functional, unlike western music that is designed to merely dance or listen to.
That's an excellent video, thank you!
With all of the discussion of the functionality of dance as part of life, I'm actually starting to debate whether it really is "making special" or whether many African cultures already make their days and lives and relations with the world special in so many ways that dance is only a single facet of all that is "special" in their lives.
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