DANCE AFRICA/CHICAGO: HONORING THE SOURCE
Seeing dance in such spectacular venues is wonderful, but it does create pressure on choreographers and dancers to fill the space, somehow match it. We’re used to seeing ballet in large houses, and I think the dancegoer’s eye seizes on and magnifies the often well-known steps, bestowing on them a dignity, even majesty that comes as much from our awareness of ballet’s tradition as from what we see onstage. But we’re less aware of the traditions–the technique, purposes, history–behind modern and so-called ethnic forms. That makes it tough for audiences and performers alike, especially in a big, scary house.
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But however uneasy, everyone there–black, white, or somewhere in between–wanted to experience African dance. The presentation of this concert certainly suggested authenticity. But was this the genuine article? These American troupes–the Ko-Thi Dance Company from Milwaukee, the African-American Dance Ensemble from North Carolina, and Chicago’s own Muntu Dance Theatre–have clearly researched African dance and music pretty thoroughly. Still, they have to have made choices, and perhaps some compromises. Last summer I saw Ballet du Lac Tumba, from Bikoro, Zaire, at the American Dance Festival in Durham, North Carolina; the dancers had themselves killed the animals whose pelts were hung around their waists. How much authenticity is practical, or even desirable? The Zairian troupe painted elaborate designs on their skin with white clay–clearly authentic, but in the heat of the dancing it melted into whitish smears.
Later, when the women of Ko-Thi dance, what we hear is almost more important than what we see: they tend to move bent over, as if obscuring the body; we hear the soft thuds of feet, the jingling of ankle bells, the women’s high, soft yips. Overall there’s an elusive, whispery quality to their dancing, a smallness and subtlety. The three male dancers, deploying big sticks in what looks like a dance preparing for battle, were somewhat disappointing, lacking the absolute decision so essential to strong male dancing. But Ko-Thi’s male drummers were magnificent, one in particular–a lanky fellow with a broad grin and expressive face who succeeded in bringing a back bend full circle, touching his head to the floor and drumming triumphantly throughout.
The organizers of “DanceAfrica/Chicago” expect it to be an annual event. So if you missed it this year, you can catch it the next. And you should catch it, because African dance supplies a charge like no other.
