BRATTLEBORO — African Dance Vermont and the Arts Council of Windham County present the 10th Annual Abene African Dance and Drum Festival from Aug. 21-24 at the Stone Church, 210 Main St.
This festival presents world-renowned performers and teachers of African dance and drumming. It is an opportunity for Brattleboro African Dance to showcase its teachers who give weekly classes at the Stone Church throughout the year, as well as some of its visiting guest teachers.
The festival includes dance and drumming classes and a dance performance. Prior to Saturday evening's performance, Dienba Macalou, who sells African food at the Brattleboro Farmers' Market, will offer authentic Malian cuisine.
African wares also will be sold throughout the festival.
Ah, but the centerpiece of the festival is that gala performance on Saturday, Aug. 23, when world-music percussionist and beat poet Tony Vacca, with an assist by Wyoma, presents a sonic celebration of Africa.
With an original storyline developed and choreographed for the festival by Pape Ba and Kabisko Kaba, the piece has been rehearsed all summer and will be presented by the festival dancers and drummers.
According to Naomi Lindenfeld, who is handling the publicity for the Abene Festival, Alice Landis is organizing the festival this year, and she has expanded the depth and breadth of the fest's performance schedule.
Lindenfeld said she became involved with Brattleboro African Dance about six years ago in part because she “longed to experience other cultures in white, rural Vermont.”
She said that given the area's demographics, she “wasn't too surprised to find that even here, more than 90 percent of the students were white.”
“But then again, every now and then an African studying at Brattleboro's SIT [School for International Training] might discover us and come to our classes,” she added.
“The class size varies from week to week, and can range from about five to over 20. We have about a dozen regular students. But Brattleboro African Dance is arranged so that newcomers are welcome and can feel comfortable at any dance session,” she said.
Lindenfeld also said African dance utilizes every part of the body - another advantage in her view.
“African dance is made up of patterns of movement that use the body in an exuberant way,” she explained. “When combined with the live drumming, a rich element that inspires the movement, there is a unique beauty about it.”
International - and intercontinental - flavor
According to Lindenfeld, America can take a “monolithic view” of Africa, as though the continent's many cultures were uniform. The dances taught at Brattleboro African Dance are mainly from Senegal and Cameroon, and some from Guinea.
Lindenfeld suggested that even within these regions, many distinctive dances stand out and find equal footing. She pointed to Cameroonian dance, which sees dancers move the torso differenly than do Senegalese dancers.
At Abene, both historic and modern African dance are performed. Caro Diallo takes traditional African dance and “modifies it with his own innovative choreography,” Lindenfeld explains.
Diallo, a Senegalese choreographer and lead dancer of the dance troupe Black Soofa, returns to the festival for the eighth time. He has been a lead teacher for Brattleboro African Dance and is named as the inspiration for the festival, which was named for his village in southern Senegal, in West Africa.
Abene means “the place where good is encountered,” Lindenfeld says.
She adds that Diallo has performed and taught throughout West Africa, the United States, and Europe. During the festival weekend, he'll teach African dance classes for beginners on up.
You'll also find him teaching every Monday at Sobo Studios at the Cotton Mill in Brattleboro and Wednesdays at the Stone Church, at least until early October.
Other performers and teachers at the 2014 Abene Festival include:
• Master drummer and dancer Pape Ba, from Senegal. He was a leader of Les Ballets Africains de Sangomar, a premier African dance troupe in West Africa. He teaches African dance and drumming in Northampton, Mass., and Brattleboro.
• Brattleboro resident Georgette Adjie, originally from Cameroon. She's danced and toured with the National Ballet of Cameroon and started Singo Dance Troupe, which performs internationally.
• Kabisko Kaba, from Guinea, has danced with Les Merveille de Guinée, undertaken a teaching residency at Lincoln Center, and been a resident performing artist for Walt Disney World. He is the African-dance teacher at the Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Public Charter School and teaches regularly in Northampton.
• Tacko Cissokho, also from Senegal, is a visiting guest teacher of African dance who has worked with the most prominent dance companies and singers of Senegal. He's led the Ballet Nationale du Senegal and has toured internationally for more than 25 years.
• Namory Keita, an accomplished Guinean musician, is the lead drummer for his village, Sangbaralla. He has performed and taught worldwide and played on several recordings. He tours with the Akwaaba Ensemble.
All dance classes at the festival are accompanied by the live drumming of Keita, as well as by that of Raoul Ombang, and the other dance teachers, all of whom are proficient drummers.
Keita will teach West African drumming on Saturday and Sunday. Djembe drums will be provided.
Wyoma, co-founder of Ngoma Drum and Dance in Boston, will teach a Saturday morning yoga class rooted in African dance during the festival. She's performed and conducted workshops and trainings for movement and healing internationally for more than 40 years.
Abene African Dance and Drum Festival has proved quite popular in the recent years, with admirers coming from all over the region, from New Hampshire to Albany, N.Y.
“All these places have African dance classes in their area, as well as their own African dance festivals,” Lindenfeld says.
She describes this area as a vibrant community.
“We love having them come to Brattleboro, but we would also like more local people to attend to see this wonderful art of African dance, and even perhaps get involved and come to some classes at Brattleboro African Dance.”