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OCTOBER 16, 2003—For the second consecutive year, Oberlin’s Dance Diaspora will spend part of the College’s fall recess introducing schoolchildren in Appalachia to the traditions of Africa and its influences on cultures around the world.
The widely acclaimed national student-touring group and its artistic director Adenike Sharpley, an artist-in-residence in African American studies, will undertake a second residency with the non-profit organization New Performing Arts (NPA). Based in Louisville, Kentucky, NPA is devoted to providing live, professional performing arts programs to schools and smaller communities.
This year six dancers, three male drummers, and two female djun-djun players will perform at four elementary schools in Louisville and its neighboring areas from October 20 through October 24.
To say that NPA is thrilled to have Dance Diaspora back is an understatement.
"New Performing Arts has worked for several years to locate a quality program in African cultural traditions to supplement education not only in the arts and humanities, but in multicultural studies as well — and we’ve found the real thing!" says founder and director Steve Wogaman. He sees the residency as "an excellent opportunity to integrate music, dance, and culture in a single program, focusing upon an area that many districts are eager to explore with their students."
This year, Dance Diaspora will perform works inspired by the troupe’s summer study with masters of African dance and music in Gambia, Cuba, and, most recently, Brazil. Its repertoire ranges from the African American vernacular of dance –such as blues, jazz, and hip-hop–to African-Caribbean dance, African-Brazilian dance, and traditional African dance as interpreted by groups living outside of Africa.
The members have fond memories of their experience in Louisville last year.
"I was amazed by how much our performance meant to the children," recalls Yukiko Shidskura’05. Co-performer Pia Murray’05 agrees. "It was really motivating to see the looks of gratitude and appreciation on the students' faces."
"I was enthralled from the start," says dancer Sherece Donalds '06. "There is an incredibly invigorating feeling I get when I perform, which I certainly felt while I was there, particularly because we were performing for crowds that had never been exposed to the culture and art form that Dance Diaspora brings."
The residency was an empowering experience for the dance troupe in other ways. "We were all new to the company," recalls Murray. "It was the first strenuous performance of the semester for us, and it forced us to come together quickly as a cohesive unit."
The Louisville visit "was essential to the development of this generation of Dance Diaspora," says Rachel Schaffran ’03. "As new dancers performing four times a day for a week, we were forced to come together as a group and kick up the level of our performance."
"I learned the power of performance, in seeing how our bodies carried knowledge that was completely unknown to the children in Kentucky," she adds. "We were able to spread that knowledge in a way that was definitely engaging."
The performers say their involvement in the dance program infuses their experiences as undergraduates.
"Dance Diaspora is the starting point of my study at Oberlin," states drummer Adam Barr ’05. "The principles that I’ve been taught while studying and traveling with this group have shaped my approach to academics and to the world."
Schaffran, a visual arts major with a concentration in African American studies, says that being a part of the group has enabled her "to complement book knowledge with embodied knowledge. This has strengthened my work as both an academic and an artist."
Media Contact: Betty Gabrielli
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