The uniquely dynamic community dance event that is DanceAfrica brings its annual celebration of African diasporic culture to the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) May 24-27, with a theme-based program that celebrates the present and affirms the group’s commitment to the future of the global community.
“Each year, we embrace the diversity of the African continent,” said artistic director Abdel R. Salaam. “Since 1977, when Baba Chuck Davis founded DanceAfrica, the event has presented a meeting of the communities of the African diaspora.”
Since Salaam is in charge of the annual cultural phenomenon, he has been joined by dance companies from Senegal, Guinea, South Africa, Rwanda, Burkina Faso and Ghana. “We also honored the African-American dance companies that joined Baba Chuck Davis when he started Dance Africa here at BAM in 1977,” Salaam added, underscoring the celebration’s commitment to programs that are as much fun as they are about big local and global issues.
“This year, the title of our program is ‘Cameroon: The Origin of Communities/ A calabash of culture.’
Salaam said DanceAfrica is excited to welcome Sirens: Protectors of the Rainforest, a Brooklyn community-based dance ensemble led by Cameroonian-born Mafor Mambo Tse, as well as the percussion ensemble Women of the Calabash, the which was founded by ancestor Madeline Yayodele Nelson. and is now headed by Caren Calder.
The Women of the Calabash musical ensemble is known for their mastery of percussion instruments such as the shekere, djembe and mbira, as well as the calabash, and for creating complex multi-layered polyphonic beats that make anyone within earshot want to get up and dance . .
Also on this year’s program are the DanceAfrica Spirit Walkers and the talented young artists of tomorrow who make up Billie’s Youth Arts Academy Dance Ensemble.
As DanceAfrica devotees know, the annual festival, founded by Baba Chuck Davis in the 1970s, also features a full immersion in African culture that includes dance lessons and more, offering the whole family a fun-filled exploration of the fundamentals of African dance. This year, the lessons will focus on Cameroonian dance. There will also be film screenings, an art installation, the DanceAfrica bazaar and more.
With the ultimate goal of highlighting the interconnectedness of dance, music and the ancient foundations of human civilization, DanceAfrica 2024 focuses on exploring the cultural practices of Cameroon and the Rainforest. “Protecting the rainforest is important to protecting our global environment,” Salaam said. “The rainforest is the lifeblood of the planet.”
Tse, head of Sirens: Protectors of the Rainforest, a performance group started in 2008, couldn’t agree more. “We use our African dance and music as a siren call, an alarm, to alert people to what is happening in what we call the Congo Forest. It’s in danger. And when I say the Congo forest, I’m not talking about the country [of] Congo. I’m talking about the Rainforest that starts in Nigeria through Equatorial Guinea and goes all the way to Angola… Protecting it is something that has been part of our dance team’s work since the beginning. That’s why we call ourselves Sirens: Protectors of the Rainforest. Our main goal is to sound the alarm – a siren call for the environment.”
The rainforest isn’t just important to her people, who, Che said, traveled all over Africa before settling in Cameroon many, many years ago in what she calls “the mouth of the forest.” It is equally important for all life on the planet because the rainforest is “the lungs of the earth”. Today, its well-being is even more important. “Protecting it has been our main goal since the beginning, but now countries are stealing and killing trees, animals and people. They too are at risk. That’s why we call ourselves what we call ourselves.”
Che also described the ethnic diversity of Cameroon, which is known as “Africa in miniature” because “whatever you find on the African continent, you find in Cameroon.” This creates a variety in the dances and dancers that allows them to perform any style.
As Tess explained, there are traditionally two main ethnic groups in Cameroon. “I am an Ewondo woman and we are one of the few ethnic groups that have played a big role in shaping the national culture of Cameroon,” she said. However, he wants the DanceAfrica audience to experience as much diversity as possible from Cameroon and enjoy, apart from enjoying the drumming and foot-clapping, clapping, a taste of Cameroonian culture. “I want people to enjoy music and dance as we perform works like the one whose name translates to ‘My feet are the drum’, which draws on ancestral spirits, because we cannot do a show without honoring the forest and this is our way of allowing people to see the gods of the forest.”
Salaam said the message delivered by Tse will be underscored by the DanceAfrica Spirit Walkers as they perform a choreographed Salaam dance titled “Rain Forest: Streams and Reflections”. He will have the usual physicality that audiences have come to expect.
Salaam said the set design will capture the atmosphere of the ecological phenomena he and a small group of BAM staff encountered in the fall of 2023 during a trip to Cameroon, allowing audiences to experience something very similar to the awe he felt. on that visit and encountered what she calls “a life-changing experience.”
For more information, visit www.bam.org/danceafrica.