Compagnie Jant-Bi

ArtPower! at UC San Diego

2010

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ulti-Arts Season

STUDY GUIDE

STUDY GUIDE 3. Welcome to ArtPower! at UC San Diego 4. Introduction4. Key Words5. Exploring Dance7. About Compagnie Jant-Bi8. About the Performance9. History of Senegal10. Activities & Discussion12. Your Role as an Audience Member

ARTPOWER! AT UC SAN DIEGOArtPower! at UC San Diego engages

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renowned international artists.

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POWER LINE MAGAZINEPower Line is a publication of ArtPower!

at UC San Diego.

UNIVERSITY EVENTS OFFICE Martin Wollesen

UEO Director/ ArtPower! Artistic Director

Lenise Andrade

Director of Development

Elizabeth Bradshaw

The Loft Curator

Brenon Christofer

Box Office Coordinator

Kristen Fernandez

UEO Business Manager

Alex Kushner

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Nelson Llorin

ASCE Production Manager

Adam Neill

UEO Production Manager

Amy Thomas

Director of Marketing and

Communications

Anthony Tran

AS/UEO Event Coordinator

Rebecca Webb

ArtPower! Film Curator

Beverly Ward

Box Office Manager

Elizabeth Yang-Hellewell

ArtPower! Program and Audience

Development Manager

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ArtPower! is a program of the University Events Office at the University of California, San Diego.

ArtPower! at UC San Diego brings internationally renowned artists from around the country and around the world to San Diego to perform and connect with students and audience members. ArtPower! presents performances in chamber music, world music, dance, film, and more.

ArtPower! is part of a vibrant performing and visual art environment on the UC San Diego campus. The university offers many opportunities to study and pursue professional careers in Theater, Dance, Music, Visual Art, and Art History, among others. Thousands of students at the university pursue their passion in the arts and go on to a variety of careers in the arts.

In addition, academic departments produce their own productions in theater, dance, and film, where students have the opportunity to participate on many levels, from performing to set design, directing, and lighting. There are also many opportunities for students to create their own work.

Learn more about ArtPower! at UC San Diego by visiting our website at artpower.ucsd.edu.

To discover the many ways to pursue the arts in college, visit the UC San Diego Department of Arts & Humanities website: http://dah.ucsd.edu

Martin WollesenArtistic Director

2010

–201

1 M

ulti-Arts Season

WELCOMEto ARTPOWER! at UC SAN DIEGO

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KEY WORDS AND PEOPLESenegal: a country on the West African continent

Dakar: the capital of Senegal

Compagnie: the French word for “company”

Polyrhythms: a term often used to describe the multiple, overlapping, and complex rhythmic patterns and beats associated with African music and dance

Germaine Acogny: Artistic Director and Choreographer of Compagnie Jant-Bi

Patrick Acogny: Co-Choreographer of Waxtaan, son of Germaine Acogny

L’Ecole des Sables: a school of contemporary dance, founded and run by Germaine Acogny, located on the coast to the south of Dakar

Waxtaan: the Wolof word for “dialogue”

Maurice Béjart: Influential French ballet choreographer whose unique brand of contemporary ballet theater was popular among European audiences in the late 20th century

OVERVIEWArtPower! at UC San Diego is thrilled to welcome back Compagnie Jant-Bi for the third time in six years. Compagnie Jant-Bi has made a powerful impression on ArtPower! audiences over the past several seasons with performances that tackle difficult subjects with honesty, sensitivity, and stunning physical imagery.

In 2006, Compagnie presented Fagaala, a haunting response to the Rwandan genocide. Then in 2008, the company came to San Diego with a collaborative work called Les Écailles de la Mémoire (Scales of Memory), about the importance of place and community, urban and rural life, and the diversity of the African and the African-American experience. For that performance, Compagnie Jant-Bi worked with the Brooklyn-based all-female dance company Urban Bush Women. The two companies visited each other in their own countries and spent many months exploring ideas and issues together to create the work.

Now the mesmerizing all-male company returns with Waxtaan, a work that reconfigures and re-contextualizes traditional African dances from around the continent, creating a sharp commentary on politics in Africa. Accompanied by live musicians, Waxtaan also celebrates Africa’s rich history and the wealth of dance handed down from generations past.

INTRODUCTION

EXPLORING

MODERN DANCEWhat is modern dance?Modern dance is a phenomenon that started in the early 20th century, when individual dancers felt the need to break away from the traditions and structure of ballet and create a form of dance based on more natural motions of the human body. There is no specific definition for what makes something modern dance, as the concept of

“modern” was simply applied to the dancers of the time who had begun a rebellion against the strict discipline of classical ballet.

Today we perceive modern dance as a discipline defined by the people who began this movement and their individual traditions and followings. Now a widely appreciated style of performance, modern dance continues to be an experiment in new ways of moving.

What does a choreographer do?Choreography (also known as dance composition) is the art of creating movement in a particular space. People who make these compositions are called choreographers. A choreographer creates a dance by developing a vision and then arranging or directing the movements of the dancers. The choreographer must work closely with the dancers, the stage manager, the technicians, and the musicians during rehearsals.

AFRICAN DANCEDance in Africa has been an important part of community life for generations. Each specific community has its own dances that honor or represent specific practices, rituals, and components of daily life.

Characteristics of African dance tend to be collective, expressing the life of the community more than that of individuals or couples. Dances may be segregated by gender, kinship, age, and status, oftentimes serving to reinforce those roles through movement. The components of traditional African dance depend on the context, the people, and the gender of the dancers. In general, men use large body movements, including jumping and leaping. Women dance in smaller movements, their bodies in a bent position and feet shuffling. The circle dance figures prominently in traditional African dance

—sometimes with solo dancers or musicians in the middle, sometimes with couples. The ecstatic seizure is an essential element of ceremonial dancing, both religious and secular.

One of the main differences between African dance and dances from other parts of the world is that it is polycentric. The dancer’s body is not treated as one single central unit. Instead, it is divided into

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INTRODUCTIONDANCE

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several centers or segmented areas of movement, with each area being able to move to different rhythms within the music.

Shoulders, chest, pelvis, arms, and legs may move with different rhythms in the music. They may also add polyrhythmic components independent of those in the music. Very complex movements are possible even though the body does not move through space.

TYPES OF AFRICAN DANCESExamples from Across the African Continent

Warrior Dances are often performed at cultural events and at funerals. The dance movements mimic battlefield tactics such as stabbing.

Dances of Love are performed on special accessions such as weddings and anniversaries. One example of a love dance is the Nmane dance, performed in Ghana. It is performed in honor of the bride by women during a wedding.

Rites of Passage Dances are performed to mark the coming of age of young men and women. They build confidence for the dancers who have to perform in front of everyone. Upon completion, the dancers are formally acknowledged as adults.

Dances of Welcome demonstrate respect and pleasure to visitors and show how talented and attractive the host villagers are.

Dances of Possession and Summoning are very important religious dances. They all share one common link—a call to a spirit. These spirits can be the spirits of Plants or Forests, Ancestors, or Deities (gods).

EXAMPLES OF SPECIFIC AFRICAN DANCESAdzogbo (Benin)This is the war dance of the Fo (Dahomey) nation, that depicts the skill of warriors. The first part, Kadodo, is elegantly performed by women. The second part, Atsia, is performed by men displaying agility and power.

Agbadza (Ghana, Togo, Benin)One of the most ancient dances in West Africa, Agbadza was originally a war dance but is now a recreational dance performed at funerals, festivals, and other social gatherings of the Ewe nation in the Southern Volta region of Ghana. The word Agbadza means “dance for all.”

Bammaya (Ghana)This is the dance of the Dagomba nation of northern Ghana, originally performed to end drought and induce a bountiful harvest. In the past, Bammaya was performed by men who wore women’s costumes. Lately, this dance is also performed by women. The distinctive hip movements are said to shake mosquitoes away.

Tokwe (Ghana)This is the dance of the Ga-Adangbe people of Ghana that marks the transition from childhood to adulthood.

Gota (Benin)Cota is a dance of the medicine men of the ancient kingdom of Dahomey. It is a mystical dance featuring synchronized stop/start movements that create a sense of excitement.

Kumpo (Senegal)The great spirit Kumpo protects boys during their rites of passage. As part of this transition from boyhood to manhood, Kumpo is danced by men and women in celebration.

Kalela (Zambia)Kalela depicts the welcome shown to villagers who are forced to go into town to find work to support their families. Kalela movements mimic working life, the dance style of European colonialists and the joyfulness experienced by families upon the return of the workers.

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ABOUT THE COMPANYCompagnie Jant-Bi was created by Germaine Acogny in 1998, with dancers who had participated in the first professional workshop of the International Center for Traditional and Contemporary African Dances, L’Ecole des Sables, in Toubab Dialaw, Senegal. The company is under the artistic direction of the Senegalese choreographer and dancer Germaine Acogny.

The first choreography of the company, Le coq est mort, was created for 8 dancers (6 Senegalese, 1 Congolese and 1 Nigerian) in 1999, by the German choreographer Susanne Linke and the Israeli co-choreographer Avi Kaiser. This creation has been presented in Europe and in the United States, in places as prestigious as the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, the New Dance Festival in Montreal and the Jacob’s Pillow Festival in the United States.

In 2003, Germaine Acogny, strongly touched by the genocide of Rwanda, decided to create a new work that raised awareness of the atrocities that occurred so they would never be reproduced again.

Working with a choreographer from Japan, Kota Yamazaki, she synthesized the hyper-slow, extreme Japanese movement called butoh with traditional and contemporary African dances and to find a symbolic language of pain and hope. The work, called Fagaala, has been met with great success on its tours in the United States, Brazil, Germany, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Italy, Senegal, South Africa and Australia.

Thanks to the work of Compagnie Jant-Bi, a new image of the contemporary creation in Africa has been spread world-wide.

GERMAINE ACOGNYCHOREOGRAPHER AND ARTISTIC DIRECTOROf Senegalese and French origin, Germaine Acogny founded her first dancing studio in Dakar, Senegal in 1968. Thanks to the influence of the dances she had inherited from her grandmother, a Yoruba priest, and to her studies of traditional African dances and classical and modern dance, Germaine has given birth to her own dance technique.

Between 1977 and 1982 Germaine was director of the Mudra Afrique, a dance center created by Maurice Béjart and the Senegalese president L.S. Senghor. In 1980, she wrote a book untitled African Dance, edited in three languages.

When Mudra Afrique closed, Germaine moved to Brussels to work with Maurice Béjart’s dance company, organizing international African dance workshops. She repeated a version of these workshops in Fanghoumé, a small village in Casamance, the south of Senegal.

Germaine dances, produces, choreographs and teaches all over the world. Together with her husband, Helmut Vogt, she founded the Studio-Ecole-Ballet-Théâtre du 3è Monde in France.

After having been away from the stage for many years, Germaine returned to her work as a dancer and choreographer in 1987. She worked with Peter Gabriel for a video clip and created a solo piece titled Sahel.

ABOUTTHE COMPANY

In 1995, she decided to go back to Africa, with the aim of creating an international centre for traditional and contemporary African dances. This was to be a meeting place for African dancers and artists from all over the world.

In 1998, Germaine opened L’Ecole des Sables in Toubab Dialaw, Senegal. The Jant-Bi Company was created that same year with the dancers who had participated in the first workshop at the center.

PATRICK ACOGNY, CO-CHOREOGRAPHERA choreographer and dancer, Patrick worked in Paris with the company Ebéne of Irène Tassembédo, before moving to Birmingham, England to direct Kokuma Dance Theatre—an African and Carribean dance company.

Currently, Patrick is based in Brittany, France, and is regularly invited to work with professionals dancers all over the world. Portions of his most recent choreographic creation, Waaxtan, is being presented as part of this student matinee. cultural issues can improve.

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Africa is a continent of paradoxes. It is a place of phantasms and of multiple experiences on an economic, social, and cultural level.

Privileged by its natural products (petrol, uranium, gold, diamonds) and populations with rich and complex cultures, Africa is an out of norm continent. It is a prisoner of its economic bad habits, poverty, illnesses, international debts, wars, and corruption. But it is also a continent of spirit and vitality. The profuseness of its population, particularly of its artists, do not cease to inspire the other continents.

Traditional dance and music from Africa are some of the continent’s most valuable cultural wealths. National ballet companies like the Kotéba of Abidjan, Les Ballets Africain and the Linguère have brought vibrating, dynamic, and spectacular images of dance and music to the world. Thanks to the work of pioneers such as Germaine Acogny, new, contemporary tendencies in African dance have developed.

Waaxtan, the new choreographic work of the Jant-Bi, is based on the most beautiful and adaptable traditional dances from several African countries: Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Benin,

Congo-Brazza, and Senegal. Compagnie Jant-Bi emphasizes the incredible beauty and richness of these dances and their rhythmic complexities to offer a perspective different than what’s typically seen in popular folklore.

The choreographic tools used to deconstruct and reorganize these traditional dance forms are familiar to western contemporary dance artists. After removing certain popular, artificial, and spectacular elements, a reshaped and transformed dance form appears.

Waaxtan, does not just rely on the reformatting of traditional dance forms. It takes an equally critical look at political African leaders, parodying presidents, ministers, politicians, and men in power. The work questions these constructions of power in the hope that the economic, social, and cultural issues can improve.

Waaxtan is a request for excellency, generosity, and solidarity. It is an affirmation of Africa’s strength and capacity to negate the negative images that plague it. It is also a tribute to the ancestors—to the beauty and richness of their dances they passed on—in which the company presents anew, in today’s form.

ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE

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Senegal is a country located in western Africa. Senegal is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Mauritania to the north, Mali to the east, and Guinea and Guinea-Bissau to the south. The Gambia lies almost entirely within Senegal, surrounded on the north, east and south; from its western coast, Gambia’s territory follows the Gambia River more than 186 miles inland. Dakar is the capital city of Senegal, located on the Cape Verde Peninsula on the country’s Atlantic coast.

Eastern Senegal was once part of the Empire of Ghana. Islam, the dominant religion in Senegal, first came to the region in the 11th century. In the 13th and 14th centuries, the area came under the influence of the Mandingo empires to the east. The Jolof Empire was founded during this time.

Various European powers—Portugal, the Netherlands, and Great Britain—competed for trade in the area from the 15th century onward. In 1677, France ended up in possession of what had become an important slave trade departure point

—the infamous island of Gorée next to modern Dakar. Millions of West African tribes people were shipped from here. It was only in the 1850s that the French began to expand their foothold onto the Senegalese mainland, at the expense of native kingdoms such as Waalo, Cayor, Baol, and Jolof.

In January 1959, Senegal and the French Sudan merged to form the Mali Federation, which became fully independent on June 20, 1960. This was a result of the independence and the transfer of power agreement signed with France on April 4, 1960. Due to internal political difficulties, the Federation broke up on August 20. Senegal and Sudan (renamed the Republic of Mali) proclaimed independence. Léopold Senghor was elected Senegal’s first president in September 1960.

After the breakup of the Mali Federation, President Senghor and Prime Minister Mamadou Dia governed together under a parliamentary system. In December 1962, their political rivalry led to an attempted coup by Prime Minister Dia. Although this was put down without bloodshed, Dia was arrested and imprisoned, and Senegal adopted a

new constitution that consolidated the president’s power. In 1980, President Senghor decided to retire from politics, and he handed power over in 1981 to his handpicked successor, Abdou Diouf.

Senegal joined with The Gambia to form the nominal confederation of Senegambia in 1982. However, the union was dissolved in 1989. Despite peace talks, a southern separatist group in the Casamance region has clashed sporadically with government forces since 1982.

Abdou Diouf was president between 1981 and 2000. He encouraged broader political participation, reduced government involvement in the economy, and widened Senegal’s diplomatic efforts. Domestic politics on occasion spilled over into street violence, border tensions, and separatist movements. Nevertheless, Senegal’s commitment to democracy and human rights strengthened. Diouf served four terms as president.

In the presidential election of 2000, opposition leader Abdoulaye Wade defeated Diouf in an election deemed free and fair by international observers. Senegal experienced its second peaceful transition of power, and its first from one political party to another.

HISTORYOF SENEGAL

ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE

1. PRE-MATINEE ACTIVITYTime, Space and EnergyObjective: For students to explore the three elements of dance: time, space and energy.

Materials: Open space for movements, index cards, pencils

1. Review the three major elements of dance: time, space and energy. Give examples of each on the board. You may wish for students to add to this list.

• TIME: How do you move in time? Fast, slow?

• SPACE: Do you take up a lot of space or a little? Tall, thin, high, low, wide?

• ENERGY: How do you carry out the movement? Happy, sad, bouncing, stomping, angry, frustrated, heavy-stepped, flowing, sharp, light-stepped?

2. Ask the students to act out the following activities. The correlating dance element is included in parentheses:

• Walking happily (bouncing)• Walking angrily (stomping, scowling, crossed arms)• Walking while scared (fear, choppy, or nervous energy)• Crawling (low)• Reaching up to grab something on a shelf (high, thin)• Fast jumping jacks (fast)• Wading through a deep pool of maple syrup (slow)• Hands out like an airplane (wide)• Walk like an elephant (wide, slow)• Move like a bee (fast, small)

3. Now ask students to write down one “time” example (i.e., fast or slow), one “space” example (high, low, wide) and one “energy” ex ample (flowing, sharp, happy, sad) on an index card.

4. Students can trade cards with a partner and have the partner carry out the same procedures as before.

2. PRE-MATINEE ACTIVITYTextures and EnvironmentsObjective: This activity allows the students to explore how different creatures and objects move in different environments.

Materials: Tape player or stereo. A variety of musical excerpts such as classical, jazz, Celtic, Indian, swing, Latin, pop, etc.

1. Clear the room of desks, chairs and other furniture. Have the students find some personal space.

2. Teacher leads with such questions as: Imagine you are in water. How would you move? Explore different ways of moving in water. What does it feel like?

3. Explore different texture environments such as clouds, peanut butter or jell-o.

4. Have the students emphasize different parts of their bodies as they walk, such as leading with the head, the toes or the knees.

5. Instruct the students to walk like animals. Try a wide variety of creatures such as elephants, whales, crickets, snakes or penguins.

6. Have the students act out the motions of objects. Try popcorn popping, pancakes flipping or an avalanche.

7. Play musical excerpts from several genres and allow the students to move in a style implied by the piece they’re listening to.

Discussion/Follow-up• How did it feel to mimic walking through different textures?

• How did leading with different parts of the body affect the students’ balance and coordination?

• Did it take a little practice to remain steady?

• How was walking like animals or objects similar to acting?

• Did the students use facial expressions or sounds as well as their walk to help?

• How did the music’s beat or dynamic level affect the way the students walked or danced?

• Did they coordinate their movement with the musical phrase?

• Do choreographers select movement to correspond with their music to correspond with their planned movement, or a little of both?

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ACTIVITIES AND DISCUSSION

The performance reminded me of:

My favorite part of the performance was:

I wish I had seen more:

3. POST-MATINEE ACTIVITYMy Review

You are a reporter for your schools newspaper! Write and illustrate

a review article to inform others about the performance you just saw.

Name your article, illustrate a moment on stage, and write about the

performance.

I saw:

I heard:

The performance made me feel:

RESOURCESArtists (from Movement Revolution Africa): Company Kongo Ba Téria (Burkina Faso), Faustin Linyekula and Studios Kabako (Democratic Republic of Congo), Company Rary (Madagascar), Sello Pesa (South Africa), Company TchéTché (Côte d’Ivoire), Company Raiz di Polon (Cape Verde), Company Jant Bi (Senegal) and Kota Yamazaki (Japan), Nora Chipaumire (Zimbabwe), Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and members of Urban Bush Women (USA).

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YOUR ROLE AS

AUDIENCE MEMBER CHECKLIST FOR REVIEW AT SCHOOL • Leave your food, drinks, and chewing gum at school.

• Remember to turn off all cell phones and pagers before the performance begins.

• When the house lights dim, the performance is about to begin. Please turn your attention toward the stage.

• Cameras and other recording devices are not allowed in the theater.

• Talk before and after the performance only. Remember that not only can those around you hear you, the performers can too.

• Appropriate responses such as laughing and applauding are appreciated. Pay attention to the artists on stage; they will let you know what is appropriate.

• Open your eyes, ears, mind, and heart to the entire experience!

• At the end of the performance, show the artists you appreciated their performance. Applaud loudly!

• After the performance you will be dismissed when your school is called from the stage. Remember to check around your seat for everything that you brought into the theater.

PROPER ETIQUETTE IN THE THEATERAudience members play a special and important role in the performance. The performers are very aware of the audience while they perform and each performance calls for different audience responses. Lively bands, musicians, and dancers may desire audience members to clap and move to the beat. Other performers require silent focus on the stage and will want an audience to applaud only when they have completed a portion of their performance. As you enjoy the show, think about being a part of the performance.

• What are the differences between attending a live performance and going to a movie or watching television?

• What are some different types of live performances? Name a few as a class.

• What kind of responses might an audience give in each circumstance?

• What are the different cues that a performer will give you so that you know how to respond? For example, might they bow or pause for applause?

Also, remember that a theater is designed to magnify sound and even the smallest whispers or paper rustling can be heard throughout the auditorium. When you come to an ArtPower! performance, you are part of a community of audience members and you all work together to create your theater experience.

AN AUDIENCE MEMBER