A session of Afro-Modern dance wrapped up today, and as we are preparing to show off our new moves at Showplace on Dec. 30th, I'm thinking about how to write a description of what we've been doing this fall. African dance has always been a joyful experience for me and local musician Chaka Chikodzi's Zimbabwean marimba music (our live accompanient) has to be for me some of the happiest music on the planet. I can't think of a better way to ring in the new year and the beginning of the slow return of the light.
And yet I just finished watching a great Swedish documentary with archival footage from the 60's and 70's called "The Black Power Mixtape". Angela Davis and her powerful words have propelled me back into thoughts of power, domination and the dark side of American race history. Words like "cultural appropriation" are swirling in my head as I remember how anxious I felt about starting an African dance class in Peterborough. Me, a White Canadian woman who loves African dance but who has little formal training in the style. Should I be teaching and choreographing this?
I am realizing I am asking the same questions I asked in my twenties, about the place I should occupy in race politics, and in non-Western art forms. And yet my body calls me on, joyfully into the dance, as my group joins other dancers and styles from Sri Lanka, Mexico and the Middle East. I am laying down my sadness at the injustice of racism in the world, and lighting the candle that is a body in movement to celebrate the light. I know others will be oblivious to my concerns, simply enjoying our performance and the chance to dance along with us, and this will be enough for me. I will be thinking about the joy of African dance, and remembering that darkness and light meet at the horizon.
Join us and all the other performers at Showplace on Friday, Dec. 30th, 5:30 pm to 10:00 pm. There will be a potluck dinner in the Lounge (please bring a side dish or appetizer; a chicken or vegetarian main dish with rice is included in the $7.00 entry fee). There will be drumming workshops, live music, crafts for kids, and then the show upstairs between 8pm and 10pm.
http://www.showplace.org/
Visit our group Afrocentric Awareness Network of the Kawarthas at:
http://aank2007.ning.com/?xg_
