TRAINING

Here is my personal guide to teaching Traditional dances from Africa.
I hope this information can help you to gain the skills needed to teach                      the techniques and deliver meaningful lessons

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I am sure  there is more that can be added, and  it could be written better and I welcome  anyone who can help to enhance it. For now, I hope my attempt can help towards creating more information platforms and books that can help bring more respect to traditional dances not just from our motherland but anywhere where drums percussion are important to communities

Traditional African dance is communicated and  expressed in three main categories. Once you understand this you will know how to approach and teach the techniques appropriately, they are:

Religious Rituals:  

Are designed to honour and praise our ancestors for guidance from the good spirits as well as  protection from the negative spirits that is the common beliefs of Africans.

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It is used as a vehicle to communicate with the  creator and deities that  usually relates to the Sun, Moon, Wind, Fire, Earth, Water. For Example,  Sohu is the god of thunder in Ghana, He is also known as Shango In Nigeria and Thor in viking folklore. All have an affinity to water. As well as looking at the dance and drums of Africa, this is another way of finding how cultures of the world have links to this continent through the various celebrations or ceremonies for the same deities.

Social:                        

Dances are used to enhance happiness in the being and communities.

The  rhythms of African drums have influenced social dances such has: 

Samba. Zumba, Salsa, Zouk, Hi-Life, Hip Hop, Afro Beat, Jazz, Reggae

and many other social celebrations dances around the world even in places where many would be very surprised to learn for example, Morris dancing normally associated to being a traditional British dance.

Ceremonial:               

Are annual events or regular cycles of presentations that are vital to the communities as their purpose is to:

• Keep the memory of important events that occurred in their histories

• Honour and celebrate achievements  such as, Birth, Death, Initiation to adulthood,  Marriages. Battles, Great sufferings, Struggles and more

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• Honour nature and what it provided for us by communicating through  rituals and prayers, giving the  utmost respect to animals trees even mountains and anything that are vital and important for the communities well being.

All the categories above can merge, ceremonial and religious rituals for example. 

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                 When warming up this is what I feel should be observed:

Stance /Sitting/Squat Bent Knees:

In the warm up students must get used to dancing with their knees bent. They must be taught how to sink with gravity so they can launch and have control over their movements, whether soft or strong. It represents a seat of power, as it is the  solid foundation that the dancer need in order to control the movements of the body.

Suggested exercise:

At times try walking around on flat foot with bent knees and a book on your head.This helps with posture while

strengthening the lower part of the body, from hip downwards.

It helps the ankle as it has to adapt to the squatting position of the body. in ballet the pressure is on the toes and ankle , in African dance it is on the flat feet and ankle. 

Regularly sit in squats position like a weightlifter and hold for a minute, over a period this will strengthen the lower part of the body.

Use of the Ball and Flat:

The ball and flat technique are found in most dances and is executed in different ways depending where were from.  A lot of people find it hard to do at first. In African dance when a dancer is travelling or spinning around, they can do this on the ball or flat, or flat al the way with a fluid bent body.

The flat feet represent a common belief amongst the peoples of Africa that the Earth is a deity, (so you get the saying the “Mother Earth”) as it is responsible for feeding and nourishing us. This is main reason why dance is performed barefooted, and you find more use of the flat footed stance.

Suggested Exercise

place one foot on the ball with bent knee the other with a more straight knee and flat footed, Travel  sideways, To the front, to the back or circles in either direction with back straight or bent forward and hands in various positions either above the head behind the back or stretched to the sides

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Use of the Pelvic Girdle & Hips

From the squatting position, the hips and pelvis can easily move in all directions whether static or fluid. The hips can move in a side-to-side action allowing the bottom to move in a swinging motion, or in a swivelling motion around the centre of the lower spine bone. Learning Dances from various parts of africa enable one to move this part of the body in any direction at will thus bringing an equal balance, where you can execute the different dances that require you to lead on the right or left.

In males this can represent strength and prowess as this is the area responsible for creating life. In women it represents strength for sustaining, nurturing, and giving life to a new creation. A lot of attention is paid to this part of the body either by the way it moves or how it is decorated. Mostly found in celebratory social dances or ceremonial initiation dances.

Suggested exercise:

Stand still in squatting position and squeeze the bottom cheeks so it pushes your lower stomach forward. Whilst holding the squeeze push it to the back so that your bottom struts out and keep repeating. Also move in opposite circular directions. 

Chest and shoulder :

For men and women in Africa, this can represent a show of strength and stamina and individual styles. The movement is the most common feature of dances across Africa and very used in most dances around the world.

With the women the breast contains the liquid of life, so this is honoured in various ways across the continent, once again either through movements or decorations ( or lack of it ). Chest, shoulder, and back movements are very popular throughout the continent and around the world. In some areas it is known to be a representation of the bird.

Suggested Exercise:

Once again in squatting stance close your shoulder blades together forcing your chest to open to the front. From there you concave your whole body by moving your shoulders as for forward as possible. Keep alternating from front to back to strengthen this area.

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The Hands and Arms:

These can be used to assist a move or as a sign language within the dance communicating to those attending. When an Ashanti Chief is dancing, he is using sign languages to communicate with his people. In some of cases an item of significance is held by the performer to assist the movements and to bring the correct style/message to the celebration. An Example of this is a farming dance where they would be using their tools in the performance, sometimes the clanking of these items can assist or be part of the music.

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Twirls and Spin

Twirls and spins are executed in the squat position with both feet flat you spin by running on the spot and landing on the flat at the completion of each turn.

Spins are also executed on the ball and flat. It is done by keeping one leg on the flat and the other on the ball leaning in a  forward position. once again this can be done in several ways depending on the  country, area, region or community the dance originates from.

It can be used to create a transition in the dancer to a trance like state, where they seem to reach a level of sub - consciousness about how they are moving and can shift one  to a level of possession where they enter another form of reality and perform mind boggling feats. Spinning with controlled rhythms does affect and shift the state of the  mind.

The beauty of African dance is that the dancer is not restricted to set counts and the musicians are not following a musical score. The lead drummer takes care of all that for they are free to give a command when they feel to. This relationship can leave the dancer on an exciting edge for they do not know when they are going to be told to change to the next move.

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When teaching a routine one must be mindful of:

• Transitions between moves so that dancers become adept to shifting their body instantly to the required positions when changing from one move to the next,  on the commands of the drums 

• Developing dancer's responses and reaction to the master drummer’s instructions

•  Expressions in accordance with the mode of the dance that is being celebrated be it a war dance or a social dance. This is influenced and guided by the various  vibrational frequencies that the drummers plays

• The origins of the dances that you learn when possible as information is not easy to find. This helps with your creative planning and thinking when your confident in knowing all of the above.

Take Note:

The key to being a qualified teacher is in how to breakdown the components of the movements and how you guide the students to execute a fluid transition from one move to the next. This is not easy as there are so many ways of doing this due to the complexities in the rhythms and variety of bodily movements across Africa.

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                                THE DRUMMER DANCER RELATIONSHIP

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In an orchestra the musicians follow the Metronome clock while the African musicians use a bell or something that serve the same purpose. They can play with every scale you can find of poly and cross rhythms. This in turn is transferred to the dancers who can perform complex poly and cross-rhythmic movement with their bodies.

This can affect the inner self and lead on to incredible feelings as if shifting on to another plane. We all know that music instantly changes the human conscious state, but I personally feel that African people have the key to the highest state of essence with their music and dance.

African Traditional dance is as old as the the birth of the first human beings on earth, it is an extension of nature and therefore has the power to connect one to their true origins. It is Yoga, Martial Arts, and anything else that uses the body to connect to or transcend their physical capabilities.

In order to teach traditional dance and music the teacher must understand the science of both. Therefore, you will pass on the knowledge in a holistic manner, knowing that you are enhancing nature’s ability to heal, to bring joy and create harmony amongst the peoples of this planet.  The frequencies and vibration flowing from earth instruments feeds the unseen energy that Mother Earth needs to fight or re-balance the destruction being inflicted on her.

This is my blueprint to becoming a qualified tutor of traditional dance.

What I have experienced in order to reach this point is not what I want anyone else to go through. It can be painstakingly slow as there are no established  schools of learning. Practically no universities and places of higher learning which offer traditional african dance studies 

One must do the research themself and this requires a determination to the point of an obsession to learn different styles of dance and music from across Africa.

This will give you the skills to teach with confidence knowing you are protecting a very important tool for humanity to gain from. This organic way of living can still be of great benefits even in a modern technological world.

An example of this is Yoga which is an  ancient practices that continues to help peoples of this planet who chose to look after and be in tune with their vibrational being.  I am of the opinion that if traditional dance and music were included as a curriculum study in schools and institutes of higher learning it will help towards the improvement society desperately needs

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