Encore discusses the legacy of DanceAfrica with founder and artistic director Chuck Davis
by Mary Staub
Encore Magazine
http://encoremag.com/?q=article&id=451
When DanceAfrica first came to the Brooklyn Academy of Music more than three decades ago it brought together numerous New York-based dance companies that previously had rarely intermingled. “There were several African dance companies in New York and there was much talk of this one don’t like that one,” says Chuck Davis, founder and artistic director of DanceAfrica. “When BAM asked my company [Chuck Davis Dance Company] to do a season, I said why don’t we open it up to other companies and have it together and support one another?”
What began as an occasion to share African dance traditions as developed by distinct companies from within New York has grown considerably. It is now an inter-continental, inter-generational celebration of dance, music, and culture that takes place in cities across the nation including Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Dallas. For example, every year since 1997 Davis has brought children from a youth arts academy in Bedford-Stuyvesant to the stage alongside professionals, who this year include Brooklyn’s Evidence: A Dance Company, the D.C.-based percussion orchestra Farafina Kan, and New York’s SeeWe African Dance Company. Every year, too, he brings back traditions straight from the source, from Africa and the Diaspora, to enhance understanding and further communication. “The very first companies we brought in were just that—very traditional,” says Davis. “It was about preservation of their tradition straight from the soil. I personally visit the soil from each company to see how they maintain traditions in these countries. Almost always it’s through dance that they keep tradition alive.”
Clearly, a major part of what DanceAfrica is about is tradition. But some of the festival’s most quintessential customs often go unnoticed. “We have a memorial where dedicated candle burners pay homage to ancestors who have passed on; whether blue, black, green or orange, the room is dedicated to ancestors,” Davis explains, giving one of many examples. And although DanceAfrica now typically falls on Memorial Day weekend, and many New Yorkers associate the multi-day festival with the ringing in of summer, one important tenet transpires in near obscurity a week prior.
“The week before anything can begin the council of elders pays homage at the burial grounds,” Davis says. “This is based on the traditions of countries in Africa. We have created our council of elders who oversee each performance. It’s about maintaining harmony, maintaining tradition and making sure that our house is built on firm foundations so it doesn’t crumble. African dance is about more than just jumping across the stage.”
