African dance and its double. Part 1

A revolution must happen in the art face of Africa, i can't but react to effect this revolution on the terrane that affects me most, the African dance scene is in a state of puerility, a state that needs a revival; call it contemporary dance, tag it Contemporary-African dance or even Afro-fusion and Trado-African dance or Modern dance, name it hip hop dance, dance drama, dance theatre, acrobatic dance or whatsoever, so far its location or destination is Africa and has been destined for the theatre space, for public consummation and being part of the wonderful world of art, that is not the most essential, its not the nickname given to a new born baby that will change his destiny, the audience cares less about what we call it. 

I call it African dance, meanwhile, this branding is not guided nor misguided by a particular culture, ethnic, religion nor by political or salt water boundary, it is a branding that is solely a matter of location and destination. Since Africa is situated in a particular point in the world map, "a mere geographical statement" and the location i'm referring to is also in the same manner not determined by all these identifying elements i have stated above, the location in not somewhere situated outside the peripheries of the "conscious SELF", it has got no three dimensional space of existence, it might physically be anywhere in the world but its mind and conscious location is "Africa", while its primary audience lies amongst these sects. its quite a thing of shame that unlike every cultures of this world, their primary audience lies amongst the natives of such culture, which later moves on to become a global phenomenon, but in recent times, the reverse is becoming the case for Africa, it is only after it has become a global norm before it will begin to gain acceptance locally, our primary all in all is always coming from the west, from our potential fund raisers, to producers, tour managers and obviously that is where the majority of those who has ever been to the theatre to see African act lies. 

if we must bring back live to the theatre then a radical alternation must first be reacted to by the creators and performers, the audience for live or stage performance has reduced radically because there is no more life on the stage, for this i am emphatically proposing this critical writing to trigger a reaction in all thoughtful dance professionals to rise up today and reject those habits which cripples our aspiration and inhibit our chances of dance becoming a modern and attractive profession in Africa and also our engagement in Africa as well as in global discussion... here is African Dance and its double. 

African dance and its double. part 2

Understanding a city or a people, one doesn't go there just like every other tourist, not by looking at a map, taking pictures and moving around in a tour bus, moving around with the same old friends we left our homes with, by so doing nothing comes alive, all remains a look alike to the image of the city that we already got in our minds, that we already read from our false travel books, then we realize that at the end of the day, what do we know of this city or people? in truth what do we learn about their world when we haven't taken the time to live with them, to feel what they feel, we didn't get anything new about them, but when an encounter is made based on ignorance, accepting that what we read is not assuredly what we will see, understanding that the only thing that can be written in a tour book are the visible things, none can explain anything profound than their own imagination and perception. 

just like this we should amaze our audience, we should tend to create like the same people who live in the same situations they live in, like a people who understands under what circumstance they exist before judging them, they must be left open-mouthed, we can't afford to take our hands off their attention and still being the same person they were before coming to the theatre, every performance must be something they can familiarize with but a new encounter for them, if not soccer and cinema will continue to dominate...(Click here to Read full article)