October 19th, 2019
It was a chilly October afternoon on a Saturday, and I happened to be walking past the south oval and towards High St. Since it was El Dia de los Muertos, there was a festive display of skull faces and children running about in a courtyard. The event that caught my attention had little to do with the Hispanic culture, however. It was a display of traditional African dances and their effects on the modern dance moves of America.
They started off the event with a speech by the director of the group speaking about the universality of dance across cultures and the historical significance of dance as communication. There was a short display of traditional African drumming techniques and a small introduction of some of the most commons moves that were seen in their culture. This captivated the audience’s attention thoroughly, and the resemblance to some more modern dance moves could be seen clearly. The migration of these tribal movements and ceremonies were shown to have leaked into the modern culture all the way here in America to this day.
One demonstration that was particularly intriguing to me was when they invited audience members down to the stage to learn some moves and join in the dancing. They started by showing the moves, one at a time, and asking the volunteers to repeat after them. They started off shakily, but only after a couple minutes they were already moving with the precision and recognizability of the actual dancers. After they started playing traditional music to accompany the learned dance, their perceived proficiency only improved too. That whole exchange of culture and knowledge happened at such a fast rate, demonstrating the tendency for music and dance to transcend culture barriers and history.
Overall, it was an enjoyable and informative experience that helped to widen my lens of the human nature. Rather than just saying, it showed the visual similarity of the body in motion and what we can do as people when we open ourselves up to new cultures.