Wednesday, May 31, 2006

[Wadabo_updates] A Tribute Class to the Late, Great Katherine Dunham

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Greetings Boston Dance Community
As many of you already know, the Great Katherine Dunham, who had such an enormous influence on American dance, world arts, & so many individual lives, passed on Sunday, May 21, 2006 (Please see the obituary below).

-In honor of Katherine Dunham's life's accomplishments;
-In honor of her conviction of the integral place that African dance and drum arts has in American arts and culture;
- & In continutation of her stead-fast mission to heal and educate through the profound wisdom of African diaspora arts;


Jean Appolon will dedicate his Haitian dance class to
Katherine Dunham's memory-

THIS SATURDAY, JUNE 3RD, 1:30-3:00PM

at The Dance Complex
536 Mass Ave. Central Sq., Cambridge
( www.dancecomplex.org), $13 per student

Please arrive in a timely fashion wearing white clothing.

Please also bring: your positive energy, artwork, poetry, photos, food/drink offerings, voices, songs and prayers to add to an alter constructed at the beginning of the class in Dunham's memory (sorry, we can not burn any materials in the alter).

We will invigorate the alter with our bodies, instruments, voices and positive intentions during class.

Peace to all of you,
we look forward to seeing you this Saturday.
Darya

Obituary of Katherine Dunham:
> Katherine Dunham, Dance Pioneer, Dies at 96 >
> By JACK ANDERSON
>
> Published: May 22, 2006
>
> Katherine Dunham, the dancer, choreographer, teacher and
> anthropologist whose pioneering work introduced much of the black
> heritage in dance to the stage, died on Sunday at her home in
> Manhattan. She was 96. Her death was confirmed by Dr. Glory Van Scott,
> a friend and former Dunham dancer. Miss Dunham also had homes in East
> St. Louis, Ill., where she ran inner-city cultural programs for
> decades, and in Port au Prince, Haiti.
> Skip to next paragraph
>
>
> Katherine Dunham in the Broadway musical "Cabin in the Sky" in 1941.
>
> Related
> An Appreciation: How Katherine Dunham Revealed Black Dance to the World
> Enlarge this Image
>
>
> Katherine Dunham in a publicity photo, ca. 1937.
>
>
> By creating popular and glamorous revues based on African and
> Caribbean folklore, Miss Dunham acquainted audiences, both on Broadway
> and around the world, with the historical roots of black dance.
>
> In the late 1930's she founded the nation's first self-supporting
> black modern dance group, one that visited more than 50 countries on
> six continents. Her achievements came at a time of widespread racial
> discrimination, which she fought against, refusing to perform at
> segregated theaters on tours of the South.
>
> "We weren't pushing 'Black is Beautiful,' we just showed it," she once
> wrote. One of her works, "Southland," depicted a lynching.
>
> Miss Dunham also became attached to Haiti and its culture, first
> arriving there as a young anthropologist. She later became a priestess
> of the Vaudun religion. In 1992, at the age of 82 and suffering from
> arthritis, she staged a much-publicized 47-day hunger strike to
> protest the United States's repatriation of Haitian refugees.
>
> In East St. Louis, she found talented young people living in one of
> the nation's most destitute areas and turned them into dancers.
> Describing her work there, she said, "It is our aim here to socialize
> the young and old through 'culturization,' to make the individual
> aware of himself and his environment, to create a desire to be alive."
>
> Miss Dunham was a recipient of some of the most prestigious awards in
> the arts, including the Presidential Medal of the Arts, the Albert
> Schweitzer prize (presented at a 1979 gala at Carnegie Hall), Kennedy
> Center Honors and membership in the French Legion of Honor.
>
> In her dance technique, Miss Dunham emphasized the isolation of
> individual parts of the body. Some of her concepts continue to be
> taught at modern-dance schools across America. Her work was an
> important influence on Alvin Ailey, among other contemporary
> choreographers.
>
> George Balanchine cast Miss Dunham in a major role in "Cabin in the
> Sky," a Broadway musical starring Ethel Waters that he staged and
> choreographed in 1940. She then went to Hollywood and danced in and
> choreographed the movies "Carnival of Rhythm" (1941), "Star-Spangled
> Rhythm" (1942) and "Stormy Weather" (1943), among others. It was in
> the 40's that Miss Dunham developed the fast-paced shows for which she
> was celebrated. "Tropical Revue," successfully produced on Broadway in
> 1943, later toured the nation to much acclaim. Its sensuality also
> drew complaints, and it was cut, and finally closed, in Boston. But as
> the dance historian Margaret Lloyd noted, the censors "ordered out not
> the silly vaudeville bits, not the occasional leer or calculated
> animality, but the solemn, sacred 'Rites de Passage' " � a
> coming-of-age ceremony that was one of Miss Dunham's most serious
> pieces.
>
> Miss Dunham was born on June 22, 1909, in Glen Ellyn, Ill. Her father,
> Albert Millard Dunham, was a descendant of slaves from Madagascar and
> West Africa. Her French Canadian mother, Fanny June Taylor, died when
> Miss Dunham was young. Her father then married Annette Poindexter, a
> schoolteacher from Iowa, and moved his family to predominantly white
> Joliet, Ill., where he ran a dry-cleaning business.
>
> Always interested in the theater, Miss Dunham shocked neighbors when,
> at 15, she announced she would stage a "cabaret party" to aid a
> Methodist Church. Later, she confessed that she had scarcely known
> what "cabaret" meant.
>
> Miss Dunham attended Joliet Junior College and the University of
> Chicago, where she received bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees
> in anthropology. She also studied dance in Chicago with Ludmilla
> Speranzeva and Mark Turbyfill, a choreographer and poet, with whom she
> established the short-lived Ballet N�gre in 1930. Ruth Page, a
> prominent Chicago choreographer, cast her in "La Guiablesse," a ballet
> based on Martinique folklore that was performed at the Chicago Civic
> Opera House in 1933. The following year, Miss Speranzeva helped Miss
> Dunham establish the Chicago Negro School of Ballet and a company, the
> Negro Dance Group, which evolved into the Katherine Dunham Dance
> Company.
>
> She did her anthropological in the Caribbean as a graduate student in
> 1935, receiving a Rosenwald Fellowship to study traditional dances in
> Jamaica, Martinique, Trinidad and Haiti, where she became close to
> Haitians and took up the Vaudun religion. Over the years Miss Dunham
> spent much time in Haiti and in 1961 established a medical clinic
> there.
>
> In the United States, she worked with the Federal Theater in Chicago,
> where she met John Pratt, an artist and designer to whom she was
> married from 1941 until his death in 1986. He also managed her career.
> They had a daughter, Marie Christine Dunham Pratt, of Rome, who
> survives Miss Dunham.
>
> Miss Dunham took her Negro Dance Group to New York in 1937 but did not
> attract wide attention there until 1939, when she choreographed "Pins
> and Needles," a satirical revue produced by the International Ladies
> Garment Workers Union.
>
> Her popular appearance on Broadway as Georgia Brown in "Cabin in the
> Sky" at the Martin Beck Theater led to Hollywood and her celebrated
> revues of the early 40's. Later revues included "Carib Song" (1945),
> "Bal N�gre" (1946), "Caribbean Rhapsody" (1948) and "Bamboche" (1962).
> They consisted of brief, vivid numbers inspired by African, Caribbean
> or African-American dance forms.
>
> In 1945, she founded the Dunham School of Dance and Theater in New
> York. Until it closed a decade later, it offered courses in dance,
> acting, psychology, philosophy, music, design and foreign languages.
>
> After World War II, her dance company toured constantly, visiting more
> than 50 countries in 30 years. "Judging from reactions," she said at
> one point, "the dancing of my group is called anthropology in New
> Haven, sex in Boston and in Rome � art!"
>
> She also continued to choreograph in New York. In 1963 she became the
> first African American to choreograph at the Metropolitan Opera since
> 1934, startling audiences with her lusty dances for a production of
> Verdi's "Aida." Writing in The Times, the critic Allen Hughes said:
> "There is 'modern' in it, belly-dancing, the foot-stamping and
> hip-and-shoulder shaking of primitive African dancing and much more.
> All pure Dunham."
>
> Miss Dunham began an association with Southern Illinois University in
> 1964 when she choreographed Gounod's "Faust" at the university's
> Carbondale campus. In 1967, she moved to its Edwardsville campus and
> founded the Performing Arts Training Center in nearby East St. Louis.
>
> She did more than offer courses there. Her collection of African and
> Haitian art became the basis for the community's Katherine Dunham
> Dynamic Museum, which opened there in the late-1970's. She also
> counseled disadvantaged young people, and her colleagues noted that
> she could calm the angriest of them through the sheer power of her
> presence, making her ordinarily soft voice even softer � yet always
> firm � as the counseling session proceeded.
>
> Miss Dunham was also the author of many books, some published under
> the pseudonym Kaye Dunn. Her books including "Journey to Accompong"
> (1946), "A Touch of Innocence: Memoirs of Childhood" (1959), "Island
> Possessed" (1969) and "Dances of Haiti" (1984).
>
> Miss Dunham remained relatively active in her last years. On May 11,
> she appeared at the Morgan Library in Manhattan for a screening of
> "Oprah Winfrey's Legends Ball," an ABC special, being broadcast
> tonight, celebrating Ms. Winfrey's personal heroes, Miss Dunham among
> them. She was resplendent in a robe that seemed a cross between moir�
> silk and kente cloth.
>
> Earlier in the month she appeared at La Boule Blanche (the White Ball)
> at Riverside Church, an event organized by her friend Dr. Scott to
> celebrate the publication of an anthology of writings by and about
> Miss Dunham. The book, "Kaiso!," edited by V�V A. Clark and Sara E.
> Johnson, was recently released by University of Wisconsin Press.

Monday, May 22, 2006

[Wadabo_updates] Congalese Dance THIS WEEKEND

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_____________________________________________
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A full listing of regularly held West African Dance and Drum classes taught by master artists in and around Boston can be found at our website:
www.wadabo.com
WADaBo is an entirely volunteer effort, if you would like to help out in anyway, please contact wadabo@gmail.com
WADaBo is a collective of individuals interested in promoting and enjoying Dance, Drum, Music, Language and Culture from West African and the Diaspora
If you would like to be removed from this list, or only contacted for certain events (performances, workshops, etc), please go to
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Fatou N'Diaye Presents:

Master Classes in Congolese Dance with

Julien Babinga

Featuring the Dances and Rhythms from Central Africa

With Live Accompaniment by Master Artists

 

Saturdays, May 27 & June 3

4:30-6:00p.m. $15.00/class

At The Dance Complex

536 Mass. Avenue, Central Square, Cambridge, MA –

Central Sq. stop on the Red Line

Come and enjoy the dance arts of Central Africa with one of the best Congolese dance teachers. JULIEN BABINGA visited Boston last year and is returning to teach two special classes in the intricate and beautiful dance arts from Central Africa. Come and enjoy this rare African dance experience! Class is open to all levels of dancers. Accompanied by live drumming by African drum masters. For more info call 617.388.0413 or email wadabo@gmail.com.

[Wadabo_updates] Lamine Toure & Group Saloum this WEDNESDAY

_______________________________________________
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Subscribe, Unsubscribe or View Archive:
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_____________________________________________
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A full listing of regularly held West African Dance and Drum classes taught by master artists in and around Boston can be found at our website:
www.wadabo.com
WADaBo is an entirely volunteer effort, if you would like to help out in anyway, please contact wadabo@gmail.com
WADaBo is a collective of individuals interested in promoting and enjoying Dance, Drum, Music, Language and Culture from West African and the Diaspora
If you would like to be removed from this list, or only contacted for certain events (performances, workshops, etc), please go to
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and subscribe to this list. Pass it on!

________________________________________________________

Lamine Toure and Group Saloum

at Ryles Jazz Club

212 Hampshire St., Cambridge (Inman Square)

WEDNESDAY, May 24, 2006 at 9:00pm

cover charge: $10 at door
ticket reservations: www.rylesjazz.com

Don't miss this performance by Boston's hottest Afro-pop band led by
master Senegalese percussionist Lamine Touré!

Group Saloum is: Lamine Toure (sabar percussion and lead vocals), Thiokho Diagne (sabar percussion), Michael Lewis (drums), Raja Kassis (lead guitar), Akili Jamal Haynes (bass and backing vocals), Patricia Tang (keyboards and violin),  Kimani Lumsden (congas and multipercussion), Josiah Woodson (trumpet, flute and guitar) and Iginaijah Maxwell (backing vocals).

For more info, visit www.laminetoure.com
_________________________________________________________

Thursday, May 18, 2006

[Wadabo_updates] Dance from Guinea - THIS WEEKEND!!

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Subscribe, Unsubscribe or View Archive:
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_____________________________________________
This email is brought to you by www.WADaBo.com (West African Dance in Boston)

A full listing of regularly held West African Dance and Drum classes taught by master artists in and around Boston can be found at our website:
www.wadabo.com
WADaBo is an entirely volunteer effort, if you would like to help out in anyway, please contact wadabo@gmail.com
WADaBo is a collective of individuals interested in promoting and enjoying Dance, Drum, Music, Language and Culture from West African and the Diaspora
If you would like to be removed from this list, or only contacted for certain events (performances, workshops, etc), please go to
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and subscribe to this list. Pass it on!

A reminder for all of you fans of the dance and drum arts from Guinea, West Africa:

THIS WEEKEND- COME AND ENJOY DANCE WORKSHOPS WITH
TENENFIG DIOUBATE
& ALY TATCHOL CAMARA
SATURDAY, MAY 20 & SUNDAY, MAY 21!!!
At The Dance Complex

West African Dance Workshop with Tenenfig Dioubate

Saturday, May 20th, 4:30-6:00pm, $15

Fatou N'Diaye is hosting Tenenfig for a spectacular class of dance from Guinea! 

Come and enjoy the dance arts of Guinea, West Africa with one of the best female teachers state-side. TENENFIG DIOUBATE was the lead dancer of the National Dance & Drum Troupe of the Republic of Guinea, LES BALLETS AFRICAINS de Guinea (West Africa). Les Ballets Africains has been considered the best African dance troupe of its kind in the world for more than 50 years. Class is open to all levels of dancers. Accompanied by live drumming by African drum masters. For more information on Tenenfig, see below. Call 617.388.0413, email wadabo@gmail.com or for info. A special thanks to Fatou N'Diaye for giving her class time to host this event with Tenenfig.

Guinea Connection Workshop with Aly Tatchol Camara

Sunday, May 21st, 1:00-3:00pm, $14

Last Guinea Connection workshop until September - Don't wait until the fall to experience dance with Aly Tatcol!

Get connected! The next Guinea Connection Workshops brought to you by West African Dance in Boston ( www.wadabo.com) features one of your favorite Guinea dance teachers, Aly Tatchol Camara. EXPERIENCE THE JOY OF THE DANCE AND DRUM ARTS FROM GUINEA, WEST AFRICA IN A TWO-HOUR CLASS WITH ONE OF NEW ENGLAND'S MOST GIFTED TEACHERS! Expect a high-energy class geared to dancers of all levels. Class will start PROMPTLY AT 1:00PM. Accompanied by live drumming with master drummer, Lansana Toure, and other gifted drum artists from New Haven and Boston. Come and see why everyone has been raving about Aly Tatchol!! Call 617.388.0413, email wadabo@gmail.com or for info. For more information on Aly Tatchol, see below.

Both of these workshops are at:

THE DANCE COMPLEX, 536 MASSACHUSETTS AVE, CAMBRIDGE, MA - www.dancecomplex.org

CENTRAL SQ. STOP ON THE RED LINE

***************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Tenenfig Bio: In addition to her career with the world-renown Ballets Africains, Djeli Guinee Tenenfig Dioubate was the lead dancer of the Les Ballets Mervelles D'Afrique & the National Ballet Silinbo of Senegal. Djeli Guinee Tenenfig has toured throughout Africa, Europe and the United States of America, including performances at the Lincoln Center and the United Nations. She is a master teacher of traditional dance and rhythms. Tenenfig has conducted workshops across the United States at many institutions, universities, colleges, schools and community organizations. Tenenfig Dioubate is currently teaching Dance troupes in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and one of the largest African-American Dance & Drum Ensembles in the United States of America, the Universal African Dance & Drum Ensemble, headquartered in Camden, New Jersey. Tenenfig has also taught in Chicago, Illinois, New York City, New York and many cities in the United States of America.

Aly Tachol Bio: Aly Tatchol Camara began dancing and drumming at age 6 as part of traditional Kouffin village life in Guinea's Boffa region and went on to learn and teach the acrobatic street dances of Kamsar. In 1984 Aly was recruited on the street into the renown Les Ballet Dougouffissa dance company. Since then, Aly has performed around the world with Ballet Variety, Ballet Unite Africa and Les Ballets Bougarabou. In the US, Aly has taught at Barnice Johnson Cultural Arts Center and Fareta School of Dance in New York. He lives in New Haven, CT and teaches at the School of African Rhythm and at Yale University. He is the founder and artistic director of Kouffin Kanake Dance Company.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Last Workshop with Lacina Coulibaly

This THURSDAY, MAY 18th from 8.15 - 9.30, the last workshop with Lacina Coulibaly will take place before he heads back to Burkina Faso. Please come out and show your support and thanks to Lacina. We'll be headed to the Middle East immediately after class for a little sending off soiree, so join us for some dance and then some fun.

Lacina Coulibaly (Burkina Faso) Contemporary African Dance Workshop
Thursday, May 18, 8:15-9:30PM, $11
at the DANCE COMPLEX, 536 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA, Central Square

Modern classes with Lacina Coulibaly, choreographer and dancer hailing from Burkina Faso, West Africa, focus on his original blend of traditions and genres. Lacina has been working for years to develop his own unique style that exists at the intersection between the traditional styles of his home country, the expressions that emerge from the exploration of the self, and the techniques of European modern dance.

Students of both Modern and traditional African dance genres will find correlations, challenges and revelations in Lacina's technique and
choreography.

Testimonial from a series participant - "As a dancer trained in both classical and modern styles, and now with years of experience in African dance, I find Lacina's classes especially valuable to the modern and contemporary classical dancer. The rhythmic detail, awareness and fully inhabited quality that he brings into his movement (clearly from the traditional dance of his native country), is both challenging and powerful. The depth that this adds to any expression of modern dance is profound."