Dance Diaspora

Dance Diaspora, a touring troupe from Oberlin College, came to the library on October 20, 2009, to provide four interactive workshops on the techniques and traditions of West African drum circles. The traditions of these drum circles came to the North American continent along with the people from West Africa who were enslaved there. The improvisation, call and response formats, and rhythms that inherent to them were among the roots of American jazz. We had a grand time with Dance Diaspora as the pictures below demonstrate. You can also enjoy a brief

video here.

Learning the Dance  Learning the Dance    Student Percussionist

During the workshop, the performers taught the students about the West African culture by preparing them to perform a version of the Funga, a welcome and harvest dance from the Vai people of Liberia.

Learning the Dance  Drum Master  The Drum Master  Learning the Dance  Learning the Song.

Students rotated through three stations in the library, learning the song, the dance, and the drumming.

The Gourd Master  Adenike Sharpley  The Song Master  Student Drummer

After all the participants had gone through the training at all three stations, the students divided once again and put all the elements together in a short performance which you can see at the end of the video linked in the opening paragraph above.