#  2011: African Dance Diaspora 

 



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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)