The Rhythm of Change
African Performance Weekend 2010
March 5-7 2010
Festival Artists:
Seydou Coulibaly is one of Mali's leading dancers, teachers, and choreographers. He began dancing professionally at the age of twelve, with the Artistic Troupe of the District of Bamako, the capital city of Mali, and from 1980 through 1990, was the troupe's highest ranking actor and dancer. Coulibaly has won numerous awards at national Malian dance competitions; in 1988 he was awarded the title of Best Actor and Best Dancer in the piece The Poor at the national level. In 1990 he was again awarded the title of Best Dancer, this time for his role in the ballet The Challenge. In 1992, along with the dance company Komée Josée of which he is both founder and artistic director, he won a medal from the Malian Minister of the Arts. He now teaches Mande dance, music, and culture at Wheaton College, as well as throughout Boston and Rhode Island.
Moussa Traore was born and raised in Mali, West Africa, and has been playing the djembe for the past thirty years. In 1984 he was deemed a "master" by his teacher, Sega Cisse. Moussa has achieved great recognition throughout Mali as an accomplished musician in theater and traditional ceremonies, as well as in the Malian pop scene. Among musicians in Bamako, Moussa is considered to be one of the top djembe players in the country.
Since moving to the U.S., Moussa has continued to distinguish himself as a highly respected teacher and performer. He has given drum workshops in cities throughout the U.S. He now teaches classes, leads drum ensembles for West African dance classes and performs with his troupe Timinandi and other Malian artists.
http://rokia.tripod.com
Buddha Stretch heavily impacted the dance world by bridging the gap between what was termed Ol’ Skool and New Skool. His dance style, known as Freestyle Hip-Hop, draws from all aspects of Hip-Hop culture, music and dance. These moves during the early days of music videos helped to launch the popularity of dance in this medium, as well as live shows. His first video was with Eric B & Rakim, "Eric B for President." He met the members of his first dance crew, Mop Top, at a music video audition each one had booked for Diana Ross, "Working Overtime." Stretch later formed a crew called Elite Force who appeared in documentaries, music videos, live shows and in countless projects overseas. His first choreography job was for Joeski Love (Pee Wee Dance) and went on to work with the likes of Rosie Perez, Will Smith (Men In Black and Miami videos); Michael Jackson’s Remember The Time video (his most memorable experience) and more. He was nominated for two MTV Awards for ‘Best Choreography’ for the Will Smith videos Men In Black, Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It, and Miami. Recent credits include choreography for Virgin recording artist Thalia (on Good Morning America), Aida, Tony Award Winner, Heather Headley, Hot ’97 Air Personality, Angie Martinez and rapper Rah Diggah. In 1989, Stretch was one of the first Hip-Hop dancer to teach Hip-Hop in a mainstream dance studio – New York’s Broadway Dance Center. Stretch is also no stranger to music. An MC and writer himself, he recorded an underground hit called It Don’t Matter by Ten Thieves and continues to make music today. His versatility is also displayed by his participation as a dancer and contributing choreographer for the Dance Theater crew Full Circle, and Co-Artistic Director of the Dance Theatre Company MiddleGround. His trend setting style keeps him in demand as a choreographer, dancer, teacher and performer. His passion for dance is exhibited every time you experience his work. Stretch believes “music is the universal language; dance is its interpreter.”
http://www.myspace.com/buddhastretch
http://www.broadwaydancecenter.com/faculty/bios/stretch_buddha.shtml
Tommy DeFrantz earned degrees from Yale (BA), the City University of New York (MA), and the Department of Performance Studies at NYU (PhD). His books include the edited volume Dancing Many Drums: Excavations in African American Dance (University of Wisconsin Press, 2002, winner of the CHOICE Award for Outstanding Academic Publication and the Errol Hill Award presented by the American Society for Theater Research) and Dancing Revelations: Alvin Ailey's Embodiment of African American Culture (Oxford University Press, 2004, winner of the de la Torre Bueno Prize for Outstanding Publication in Dance). DeFrantz served on the boards for the Society of Dance History Scholars and as Book Editor for the Dance Critics Association. He also organized the dance history program at the Alvin Ailey School in New York for many years. He is the artistic director of SLIPPAGE: Performance|Culture|Technology, a multi-disciplinary arts collective in residence at MIT. SLIPPAGE stages alternative histories of race, sexuality, gender, performance, and technology. Recent work: Ennobling Nonna (2004), a physical-theater solo by Maria Porter (performances US, Italy, Peru, and Denmark); tap/technology work Monk's Mood: A Performance Meditation on the Life and Music of Thelonious Monk (2005; NPN Tour 2005, Cape Town ZA 2008); The House Music Project (workshop 2006) a technology-driven exploration of queer black dance; Queer Theory! An Academic Travesty (Boston Center for Arts and Flynn Center for the Arts 2006, UCLA 2007, Wellesley College 2008), commissioned by Theater Offensive, Flynn Center, and NPN. DeFrantz has performed the Morton Gould Tap Concerto with Boston Pops conducted by Keith Lockhart and the Duke Ellington Tap Concerto with the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra led by Mark Harvey. Recently, he served as dramaturg and librettist for the Donald Byrd/Spectrum Dance Theater production of the Sleeping Beauty Notebook, cited by the New York Times as one of the year's best dance events; adjudicated at the New England Region of the ACDFA; and designed the theory and history curriculum at the Hollins University/American Dance Festival MFA program. He is Visiting Professor at Yale 2008-2009, and directed Women’s and Gender Studies at MIT from 2007-2009. Always interested in stories, how we tell them, and what we think they might mean. web.mit.edu/defrantz; web.mit.edu/slippage.
Balla Tounkara, a griot and master kora player from Mali, West Africa, is one of the hottest artists on America's World Music scene. He and his band Groupe Spirit have been bringing a spicy, eclectic blend of danceable music utilizing African, Latin, Funk, Reggae, Jazz and Blues musical styles to enthusiatic audiences across the country. Balla Tounkara was born into the griot tradition of Mali. Historically, the griot’s role in the Malian royal court was to praise the the king and his warriors, and orally maintain the history of its society through music. Balla, whose ancestors were chiefs of the griots, began to play the kora (the original 21 string harp of Africa) as a child and honed his skills through years of strict discipline and commitment. Under the tutelage of his internationally acclaimed grandfathers, Batrou Sekou Kouyate and Samakou Tounkara, he learned to respect the significance of this royal music, becoming a master kora player and vocalist in his own right. Balla’s task and passion today remains in continuing the maintenance of his culture and family history, the playing of Manding music and the making of new music by fusing western styles of Jazz, Rock, Funk, HipHop, Reggae, Country, Blues, Folk and R&B. http://www.balla-tounkara.com/
Issa Coulibaly began studying the djembe and djun djun when he was 11 in his home city of Bamako, Mali. As his skill and reputation as a multi-instumental player, vocalist and arranger grew, Issa toured Africa and Europe extensively before emigrating to America. He continues to travel from Maine to Puerto Rico facilitating retreats and performing as the lead drummer and Musical Director for a variety of African Dance troupes. His CD debut 'Foliba' (May 2009) highlights his flamboyant playing style and original arrangements of traditional songs. He also teaches at Wheaton College and throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
http://issacoulibaly.com
Jean Apollon grew up in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, where he began dancing at the age of 13. In 1991 Jean received a scholarship to study with Lynn Williams Rousier Dance School where he commenced his training in Ballet and traditional Haitian Folkloric dance techniques. Because of Jean's great passion and aptitude for dance, he was blessed with the opportunity to study and perform with several dance companies at that time, including Viviane Gauthier Dance Company and the Folkloric Ballet of Haiti. After moving to the United States, Jean was able to continue his dance education at the Harvard and Radcliffe Dance Program (1995-1996 Miami, FL), Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (1996-1998 New York, NY) and graduated from the Joffrey American Ballet School (1998-2003 New York, NY) in the spring of 2003. In addition to those listed above, Jean has performed with many dance companies throughout the US including, Rainbow Tribe Company, Elma Lewis Productions (Black Nativity), Marlene Silva, North Star Ballet Company, Black Door Dance Company, and the Atlantic City Ballet Company. www.jeanappolon.com
African Underground with Salim Diallo (from Les Escrocs) and Waterflow (Wageble):
Salim Diallo is a member of Les Escrocs (The Crooks), an exponent of the youngest generation of rap groups in Mali that distinguish themselves by using traditional Malian instruments like the balafon, ngoni, tamani, djembe and calabash. With his group Salim has toured in Mali, Bénin and the Netherlands and were invited to perform at the opening ceremony of the African Nations Cup in Bamako in 2002. In 1998, they composed the title “Sara” (salaryin Bambara) that addresses the meager and irregular salary in Mali.Since the early 90s the group has helped to define the cutting edge of music in West Africa, mixing traditional instruments with international beats while boldly addressing sensitive issues of national politics.
Papa Moussa Lo, aka Waterflow, is the charismatic and thoughtful spokesperson for Wagëblë, a pioneer hip hop group in Sénégal, formed in 1997.Wagëblë’s music is a unique blend of hip hop, poetry and spoken word. They describe their style as ‘Rap Afro,’ a style fashioned by combining rhyming patterns with themes that speak to the difficult life of the disenfranchised youth. Their first album, Wagëb’ Rap New Generation, firmly established Wagëblë as the “voice of the voiceless” on the Senegalese hip hop scene. Wagëblë’s second and critically acclaimed album, Sénégal, was released in 2005 and voted best album by a group at Sénégal’s Annual Hip Hop Awards. Wagëblë has toured Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, France, The Gambia and Guinea, while remaining steady on the scene in Sénégal.
Maya Breuer has been practicing Yoga for 25 years. She has a special interest in bringing the healing properties of yoga to African Americans who are still largely absent from the wider yoga culture today. She has worked on the creation of the Teaching for Diversity Program at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, participated as a supporting member of the International Association of Black Yoga Teachers, has created and directed the Yoga Retreat for Women of Color at Kripalu twice per year for the past decade, and founded, and currently directs, the Santosha School of Yoga offering Yoga Alliance-approved Yoga Teacher Training & Certification Programs.
http://www.mayabreuer.com
Kera Washington has been performing and teaching music for seventeen years. Her first love is percussion, which she found while studying ethnomusicology at Wellesley College and Wesleyan University. She studies with master musicians from Uganda, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Haiti Brazil, and the United States, and has traveled to Haiti, Brazil, Cuba, Sierra Leone and Palestine to advance her studies. She is on faculty at Wellesley College, and has taught at MIT and Northeastern University. She is currently a full-time Integrated Arts Teacher at the Emerson School in Roxbury, and directs the Yanvalou Drum and Dance Ensemble at Wellesley College. She was semi-finalist in the Thelonius Monk Institute of Jazz International Hand Drumming Competition, and performed at the Jonh F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, DC, Sept 2001. She has performed and toured internationally with Tjovi Ginen, featuring Haitian mizik rasin (roots music); with Mystic Jammers, reggae; with Sistahs of the Yam, all female R&B covers; with Patrica Williamson, jazz; and with In The House, 60s-90s Motown, R&B, & Funk. She founded "zili roots," performing roots music of the African diaspora, in 2001, which became "Zili Misik" in 2006.
http://www.myspace.com/zilimisik
The Inziragukanya Burundi Ensemble was recently formed here in Providence, Rhode Island in cooperation with the International Institute of Rhode Island and St. Michael's Parish in an effort to reclaim and re-unite the refugees' cultural identity after leaving Burundi due to prolonged political instability and devastating civil wars. Though removed from their homeland, these drummers and dancers are working to preserve their traditions here in their new home of Rhode Island.
Eli Marienthalis an activist scholar,writer and performer. Eli is a three-time Brave New Voices Slam Team member, a Brave New Voices Slam Team coach, a San Francisco Youth Grand Slam Champion, and a member of the traveling Brave New Voices College Tour.He is a long-time spoken-word-arts educator, having facilitated creative writing workshops from Berkeley High School to Rhode Island's Adult Correctional Institution. On Verging Spring, a collection of Eli’s prose and poetry, was published by First Word Press, and is included in the Youth Speaks anthology, My Words Consume Me. He has contributed writing to Scourge, Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s play about Haitian culture, history and mythology, which toured internationally between 2006 and 2007. Eli earned a Master’s degree in Development Studies from Brown University in 2009, where he focused on global food policy.
Sidy Maïga is a percussionist from Bamako, Mali, West Africa, who specializes in djembe and dun dun. Though trained in the complex traditional rhythms of Mali, Sidy is also well versed in Caribbean and hip-hop rhythms. He has performed with a variety of different artists, including Percussion Fassia du District de Bamako, Troupe Artistique du District de Bamako, Coumba Sira Koîta, Saly Sidibé, Mamoun Sidibé, Paye Camara, Toumani Diabaté, Binké Traoré, Tata Pound, Troupe Baden’ya, The Jamal Jackson Dance Company, New Works World Traditions and many others. Sidy was the Drummer in Residence at the Providence Black Repertory Company. He has taught workshops in schools throughout Rhode Island. http://www.sidymaiga.com
Clementine Igilibambe, a survivor of the Rwandan Genocide and civil war of 1994, had to dodge bullets, run from bombs and step over mutilated bodies of her neighbors at the age of eight. As a professional Rwandan dancer, she has held workshops and taught students all over the country the beautiful and graceful dances that she learned as a young girl in refugee settlements. Clementine believes that dancing can be part of the healing process for people who have endured suffering in their lives. She shares her story to raise awareness of the life changing event in Rwanda and to seek help from the International community to assist those who still suffer from the tragedy and similar tragedies around the world.