African Dance Diaspora
A symposium on Embodied Knowledge
Friday, March 25
3:15
WELCOME
Ingrid Monson & Deborah Foster (Harvard University)
3:30 - 4:30
OPENING GAMBIT:
“Move Your Words”
Elizabeth McAlister (Wesleyan University) & Lovely Nicolas
5:00 - 6:30
MOVEMENT WORKSHOP:
How We Got to the Funk
Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Founder and Artistic Director of Urban Bush Women
Break for Dinner
8:00 - 9:30
FILM SCREENING: NORA
followed by a panel discussion with:
Alla Kovgan (NORA Co-director)
Jawole Willa Jo Zollar (Urban Bush Women)
Robb Moss (Documentary Film Maker, Harvard University)
Joan Frosch (University of Florida)
Saturday, March 26
9:30
WELCOME & INTRODUCTION
9:45 - 11:00
EMBODIED KNOWLEDGE
Moderated by: Brenda Dixon-Gottschild (Temple University, Emerita)
Yvonne Daniel (Smith College, Emerita)
“The Ritual Classroom”
Nadine George-Graves (UC-San Diego)
“Elementary School Meets Performance Theory: Blackness, Diaspora and Spidering
in the 21st Century”
John C. McCall (Univ. of Southern Illinois)
“The Signifying Leopard: Understanding Ekpe’s ‘Body of Knowledge’”
Carrie Noland (UC-Irvine)
“Poetry and Performance”
11:15 - 1:00
BODIES IN TIME: Synchrony in Music & Dance
Moderated by: Kay Kaufman Shelemay (Harvard University)
Corinna Campbell (Harvard University)
“Personalizing Tradition: Performing Daily Life in Surinamese Maroon Folkloric Dance”
Katherine Hagedorn (Pomona College)
“Mole Yansa: Embodying the Sacred Knowledge of Babalú-Ayé”
Carla Martin (Harvard University)
“Between Two Cultures: Language, Music, and Hybrid Identity in Sara Tavares
Urban Cape Verdean Diaspora”
Ingrid Monson (Harvard University)
“Jazz and Embodied Knowledge”
Patty Tang (MIT)
“Bàkks in Motion”
Break for Lunch
2:00 - 3:30
AFRICAN DANCE: Migration & Cultural Transmission
Moderated by: Thomas F. DeFrantz (MIT)
Esailama Diouf (Northwestern University)
”SAUCE!: Kitchen Conversations about Dance and Cultural Knowledge”
Habib Iddrisu (Northwestern University)
“From the Wellspring of Dagbon Village to International Stage: Understanding the Journey of Baamaaya Music and Dance”
Sharon Kivenko (Harvard University)
“Watching and Doing: Pedagogies of Performance and Practice in Malian Dance”
Mecca Zabriskie (Northwestern University)
“Quilted Embodiments: Dancing as a Way Back Home and Beyond”
4:00 - 5:30
MASTERCLASS:
Ronald K. Brown,
founder and Artistic Director of Evidence, A Dance Company
Break for Dinner
Saturday Evening
8:00 - 9:30
DANCE THE DIALOGUE: Performances & Roundtable Discussion
Ronald K. Brown (Evidence, A Dance Company, NYC)
“Prayer and Celebration”
Thomas F. DeFrantz (MIT, Slippage:Performance/Culture/Technology)
Excerpts from “Monk’s Mood: A Performance Meditation on the Life and Music of
Thelonious Monk”
Cynthia Oliver (COCo Dance Theatre, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)
“Calypso: An Agent of Caribbean Diasporic Communion”
Zab Maboungou (Zab Maboungou / Compagnie de Danse Nyata Nyata, Montreal)
“De/liberated Gestures”
10:00 - 1:00
UHURU AFRIKA DANCE CELEBRATION
@ CAMBRIDGE QUEEN’S HEAD
Featuring Malinké balafonist Balla Kouyaté
Sunday, March 27
10:00 - 12:00
DANCE WORKSHOP:
Lacina Coulibaly (Yale University) and Sidi Mohamed “Joh” Camara (Troupe Sewa, Boston)
12:15 - 1:15
NEW DIRECTIONS: An Open Conversation and Performance Excerpt*
Moderated by: Deborah Foster & Joan Frosch
Michelle Bach-Coulibaly (Brown University)
De Ama Battle (Art of Black Dance & Music)
Sidi Mohamed “Joh” Camara (Boston)
*Emily Coates (Yale University)
*Lacina Coulibaly (Yale University)
Fatou-Carol Sylla (Boston)
Grete Viddal (Harvard University)