AFROLOGICS NEWSLETTER: cart + wheel

AFRONAUTS! How you be? Habari Gani? Kuumba, that's what? Today is creativity to take it higher day in that mysterous "holiday" of Kwanzaa, and how fitting that it lands on new Year's Eve!  I have been thinking about what I would go and do, and I realized that I am still in love with a New Year's Eve at home setting intentions, clearing the energetic deadwood, and celebrating my best poems ever--my kids. Right about now, however, they are feeling all elegiac as I have both of them cleaning their rooms--disaster! What to say about this final week of 2010? It was telling that Christmas sells were up beyond industry expectations: how else could we force ourselves to ignore the obvious? I am using "we," because even I rolled into the 99cent store and temporarily lost my mind. As Reverend Billy will tell you, we shop too much. We are addicted to shopping. It is our national drug of choice, along with TV consumption. I long ago threw out the TV, but as it invades the smaller screen of my laptop, I am confronted with ever encroaching psychic slop. Cue Parliment Funkadelic!

 

So we went shopping because of the embarrassment of the Wikileaked cables. Those embarassments are MULTIPLE, large among them is pure and simple mismanagement. How on earth did that many people need access to those files? Why were they never properly archived? Next among them, why are our diplomats so damn snarky? Can't they be nice? And this of course lead to the realization that most of us are not nice in our daily dealings at work either. In fact, if you are "in it to win it" in the small-minded game of office politics, you are NEVER nice, only polite for selfish motivation. Where is that credit card?! Oh wait, I have no card? Okay, I'll just use all the cash from my check I have not received yet! Right. There are the lies told to maintain de facto slavery on the continent of Africa which are revealed in those cables. There are lies to maintain a lot of things, especially the thought, the feeling, the zeitgeist that we are a supreme nation. Kinda clear that ain't true now. Shopping feels like we still have choices (have you been following the debate over an open internet), that we live in a free society (remember those new airport rules), where every one has a chance to make something of themselves (how about that college debt that you can't shake and a degree for a non-existent job), be of service just by clicking a box (remember Haiti) and express themselves without repercussion (have you tried being an artist or gay or both or Latino in Arizona). Keep playing this game if you like. The close of 2010 is turning the wheel AND the cart. If you look just beyond all the crushed, shiny, phony stuff scattered on your metaphorical ground, you will notice a road you have never seen before. Take it. Walk into the second decade of the new millennium daring to take responsibility for your own happiness.

 

BLOWIN' BACK DA FRO : deadlines! Discounted tickets for an array of items and a few fundraising campaigns are coming to a close at midnight.

Celebrate Dance Festival had a sale on for this extravaganza in Glendale. Here is the link to the regular box office, then use the following info TODAY tog et the discount: 30% off tickets Use promo code: DANCE11 - on line at - the box office or by phone 818-243-2539 don't wait there will not be tickets on Gold Star this year - Promo Expires 12/31/10

LA Idea Project also has a discount going for this brain-food-more-than-you-can-fathom buffet: Check out their website for the link to the discount for the conference on November 5 & 6 and for an upcoming dinner on Jan 15th! I'll be at both. Holla!

The A.W.A.R.D. Show at the REDCAT is close to selling out! Unfortunately, there is no block ticket for each night, so throw fiscal responsibility to the wind (um, or not) and go to all 4 nights. If you are of this world of dance, sorry, your buddies are scattered across all four days, so suck it up and go. Conversely, write a scathing blog ont he role of competition and send it to itch dance journal!

Viver Brasil is needing to stock up on their 100 @ $100 donors before 2010 is gone! DONATE!

 

 

LOVELY!

Well, if you have plans that are not really making you feel festive or you have no plans, I have the desire to dance without music, dance to ambient sounds in a parking lot or a park, in my dance whites, in silence, to ring in the New Year. Who wanna ride in this possee?  

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Get ready for the rest: 1.1.11

The International Year of People of African Descent

SCREENCAST: post-turkey possibilities

NEWSLETTER: freeze go freeze go> a revelation of some length

Peace & Blessings!

Apologies for my disappearance: my body decided it needed to rest, but my ego was having none of that. You can guess how that mind/body split thing worked out for me. So while I was knocked out in bed wishing for muscle relaxant, I was thinking of the looming tax revolt spurred by the "bailouts" of the 5 largest banks in the US. This could get pretty ugly, because from what I have heard from my friends of various political stripes, bailing out the banks seems about as smart as giving a crackhead $10 on a Friday night. "They made this mess. They misrepresented gambling as "investments," they deserve to fail, right?" Well, yeah, in a world where private financial markets are not sewn into government trade agreements, that would be the case. Example of what we are really talking about: when I first went to Brazil, I opened a Citibank account back in 1990, because it was the only US bank in Brazil at that time that had a post in Salvador. I could have my money deposited into my account here, and withdraw it there (Citi was also helping to orchestrate a flight of capital from Brazil that was startling through currency speculation). I could also receive emergency mail through American Express via the consulate. Okay. Peep that. Federal communication could be delivered to me through a private financial institution and US legal tender could be rendered in Brazilian cruzeiros without my having to present actual currency. If the large banks here collapse, the world banking system collapses. There has not been enough time to actually reconcile the ledgers between banks, between governments and--here's the kicker--between banks and investors. The logical move, the move that stabilizes instead of freezes for a bit is to nationalize those banks, but who said we were dealing in logical here? What to do? Get your bartering on. Set a rate of exchange among friends. Cancel all your credit cards and live beyond your FICO score; live through personal commitment and love.

Afrolicious. Afrologia. Afrodelic. Afropoesia. Afrologica. How big is your 'fro?
Fractal, improvisational, polemical, but always moving with spirit and in service to lifting us all up!
That's the Logic of the Afro--sign up, read up, be up--you can move mountains, now make it beautiful


BLOWIN BACK DA 'FRO right now is this big long realization that I got to do it to it since as a person kinda left by the wayside of the last few bubbles, I am in better economic shape than most. If this is you too, time to hustle and be of service. We got ta rethink "skill set." A laugh or two or genuine awe are fantastically valuable things right about now. You got a chance to see what I mean this, the last weekend of Black Artist Employment Month.



CALIFORNIA AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM
600 State Drive, Exposition Park, Los Angeles, CA 90037
Friday, February 27th, 7 PM - 10PM; $5- $10 suggested cash donation
"Quiet as It's Kept: CHANGE," A Performance Ritual By Ulysses Jenkins
This portends a night of epic experiences. Though a performance the following is tucked inside: "Quiet As Kept: Change" will serve as a reception for Ms. Hassinger and is a ritual performance which brings together the artist who were presented last year at the Getty panel "African American Avant Garde" in performance with other Los Angeles & Northern California artist in a celebration of the African Diaspora and Black Woman." Live music, Black Arts-era artists and performers, + Viver Brasil should add up to a fascinating evening. Plus there should be folks there from the CAA (massive art school conference in town) and Tavis Smiley's "State of Black America" gathering at the Staples Center. Dress to the nines...artist stylee!


UCLA LIVE
Batsheva presents MAX
Saturday February 28, 8 PM & Sunday March 1, 7 PM; $54, $42, $28
Incredible dancing from a company from an incredibly problematic place. I place this in the newsletter in conflict, but with a clear head: I am not going nor do I recommend that anyone else go. Art should always be the first line of open communication, but between parties that are pretending not to know each other, not as export material during a massive conflagration. This tour should not have happened, as beautiful as these dancers are; they are needed at home to help heal the gaping wound that is Gaza: 14 Israeli dead, 14,000 and counting Palestinians dead. A nation turned into a gang, another turned into its own worst nightmare...Sometimes, the show should not go on. I have a hard time thinking of this tour as a triumph of the human spirit. What do you think?


REDCAT
631 W. 2nd St
Jérôme Bel: Pichet Klunchun and myself
Friday February 27 & Saturday 28 8:30 PM; Sunday March 1, 7 PM; $12/$20/$25
Instead, go check out this choreographic essay on tradition, cultural exchange, cultural imperialism and formal decay. This piece has received good reviews and will likely be rather challenging: here's the stuff we don't like to think about while thinking about dance. My friend Ananya Chatterjea saw that I was going (will be on the next ear full of dance podcast chatting about it) and wrote on my wall (Face Book) that I had to call her as soon as I saw it since she has not been able to stop thinking about it. She also called me in a panic about going to see Batsheva in Minnesota. Omigawd, dance scholars!

also at the REDCAT
Redcat Children's International Film Festival!
February 21 - March 8th, each weekend.
Each program is $5 and jammed packed at around 75 minutes. Most programs are shorts, perfect those wee little attention spans. And your kids will like it too! My picks: Nickelodean Family Fun Day(yikes); then next weekend "Rise and Shine" and "Animated Genusis: The Films of John & Faith Hubley" (jazz scores!). Check out all the programs and buy tix in advance.



HIGHWAYS
1651 18th St., Santa Monica, CA
DreamAwake presents "Simple Matters"
Friday + Saturday, February 27 + 28 @8.30pm; $20
Featuring Vladimir Levitansky, Noah Veil, Martina Oskarsson, Kate Gibson, and Eleni Zaharopoulous, this show should be wickedly funny and entirely thought-provoking. Vladimir Levitansky is "an artistic resource" for Cirque de Soleil and has generated his own special blend of clowning: "Bul-Artoh, a synthesis of Clown, Comedia Dell-Arte, Buffoon, and Butoh." What a tough weekend! You could see Jerome Bel on Friday then this one a Saturday for a complete re-think of art in the social sphere. Or you go to just have a good time.


UCLA, GLORIA KAUFMAN HALL
(Room 200), 120 Westwood Plaza, map
New Dance and Theatrical Works-in-Progress

Saturday, February 28 @ 8pm; FREE; Parking $9 in Lot 4

As if there were not already too much to choose from, Angela Jordan and Michael Sakamoto open their process to the public this weekend in preparation for their joint show in the department of World Art and Culture. This is a great opportunity to engage artists as they move towards a "final product." Angela Jordan’s “Trio” and “Don” blend modern, West African, and postmodern dance to explore love, gender relations, while Michael Sakamoto presents “Vestiges of Creation,” a series of dance theater vignettes filled with: mysterious characters, dark netherworld, ritual embodiment, cultural conventions, and of course audience expectations.


Looking for details from last week? check the archive. If you join Afrologica, you can look at a live calendar whenever you feel like it!


WORKSHOPS & ONGOING CLASSES
A few weeks back I announced all the international dance camp notices I received...so I thought! My daughter deleted that part of the newsletter apparently, so I will have to build it from scratch. Basically, I was urging you all to go to one of these by setting aside money in a local credit union in preparation for your trip. Yes, you can help your community while you get your self together to travel. For most of these, you will need to sock away $400 +/mo to be ready to get on the plane. Just keep thinking "beyond the FICO score."

Congolese Drum and Dance Workshop in Maui, Hawai'i starts today!!!! AND IT"S 30 YEARS OLD!!! Somebody send me! I need a break. Really. Okay, then. You go, you need a break too. Hot dancing, smoking drumming and fantastic food all over looking the ocean on a lush camp ground. I have been to this workshop a few times with my son. We had a blast. The drumming is clean and sweet; the dance instruction sensational. Disclosure: I was in Fua Dia Congo back in the 90s. Friday, Feb 27 - Monday, Mar 9 2009. You can attend for a few days or jump in for the full run. $90/day; $800 for entire thing. Air & car travel is on your own, there sometimes there is a shuttle from the airport on Maui into Camp Kenae. Dancing is inside. A few bunk dormitories, but camping highly recommended. Pack lightly; wash frequently. Lots of info on their website and you can pay via paypal there, too!


OUAGADOUGOU Dance and Drum! Baker & Tarpaga Dance Project & DAFRA Drum Ensemble in association with Napam Beogo/Center for Artisans and Visual Arts invites you to study West African Dance and Drumming in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso this Summer, August 1-15th, 2009 Fee: $2500, covers all workshops, lodging, three delicious homemade meals per day, local travel with group, and excursions outside of the city. Airfare to and from Burkina Faso is not covered. Dance: Traditional Manding, Gourmanche, Gourounsi, Warba; Contemporary African Dance and Improvisation. For further questions and more information email: bakertarpagadance@gmail.com; Phone: 323-641-7476
$250 Non Refundable Deposit Due By: May 1, 2009
Full Payment Due By: June 1, 2009
Please mail deposit to:
Olivier Tarpaga
2631 West 17th St
Los Angeles, CA 90019

Salvador, Bahia Brasil with Viver Brasil!! One of the longest running arts edutours to Latin America concerned specifically with the arts of the African Diaspora, "Roots and Contemporary Development of Afro-Brazilian Dance & Music Workshop" will connect you with the top dancers, choreographers and researchers in the City of Seven Gates. As disclosure, I am on the board, but as a researcher of this field in particular, I can tell you that this program has great integrity. August 1-17, 2009: Package Price: $3495, based on double occupancy price includes travel from LA, NY or Miami to Brazil, airport transfers, all course-related activities and events, translators, double occupancy accommodations (upon availability) and breakfast. If you are traveling from a city other than LA, Miami or NY, you will be responsible for flight costs from your departing city. $400 Deposit (check or money order) due upon registration (no early bird info). Deposit is non-refundable. Full Payment Due: June 15, 2008. You can have all your questions answered and even pay your registration fee via paypal on the company's travel program page!


Contra-Tiempo ahas a CUBA trip, but I can't find details. More info to come on that.

Camp Faretta will happen in July I believe. That is a West African Dance camp in Cali, data to follow.

Congo Drum & Dance returns to the mainland in August, check their site.

Tambacounda is likely to happen this year to help lift up djembefolla Abdoulaye Diakite. Stay tuned for that.




LOVELY!
I am very excited by this glut of work to see and experience this weekend! We can continue to expect each weekend to get more challenging because there is a lot for artists to make work about. And since we are experiencing a "Recession" (wink wink nod nod), artists will need to put up more and more work at less and less cost to the consumer in order to continue making work. You know that bumper sticker: "I owe, I owe, so off to work I go"? I can't stand but, hot damn, here we are a toiling in the mines getting to pretend like we wanted to give billions of our national rainy day fund to a bunch of thieves. This is not the way out of a recession, but it is the way out of indentured servitude. THAT'S what these folks in the gov'ment are really seeing when they decide to bailout the banks first and not to award the small local banks and credit unions. Those banks did not fall for the hype, continued to serve their communities, and now shoulder far more than their fair share of the FDIC expense to cover the bad bets of Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Citibank, Wamu, Wachovia, Bank of America...the list grows everyday. Mainstream press has stopped reporting. They have not stopped trying to divert our attention to good old standbys like racist engravings and sexists proclamations over motherhood. You feel it though, that sensation that you are looking directly at something without seeing it, even though there appears to be quite a bit of information coming your way. The tax revolt is coming as a global tidal wave. It won't be Republican. It won't be labor revolt. It may or may not usher in a socialist reality here in the US. It will not be led by the Greens or pushed by a clamor for a green economy. It likely will never be characterized as communist. The tax revolt is coming because the largest number of investors in these companies drinking our taxes like a cactus after a rainstorm is, well us!!! We poorly invested our money and now that we are not getting dividends, now we have to pay for our bad investments because they are costing us money. Paying three times is not sitting well with most of us, and since we owe ourselves, we are likely to say, we ain't gonna pay, and hopefully then, once we have recognized that value lies not in instruments of investment but in exchanges between people, we can then go about building a society that is just and fair, that acts locally while thinking globally, that provides mechanisms for citizens and non-citizens alike to be treated with respect and grace. That recognizes that people have to flow just as easily across borders as "capital" does. A society where artistic practice is not considered leisure, but a road map to a stable, vibrant economy. Watch what happens in Sacramento in the coming weeks. It will be monumental. Get up there and place your voice in the chorus. Bring some percussion.

NEWSLETTER: zippity do dah day

ALAFIA!!! Ola!!! Hello and how do?

Bless that ocean, will ya? Not too hot, just enough breeze coming on shore, beautiful waves. This is why we lived so jammed packed out here on the West Side. But we often miss the adventure and thoroughly jagged edges of art in the City. So here's to the time disruption torn map known as "El Lay." This weekend there is no class as I get ready to hit the road and embark on a series of local projects. AFROLOGICS West African Dance Class will return, but in a different location and time.


Afrologic. Afrological. Afrologica. How big is your 'fro?
Multiple, fractal, improvisational, polemical but always moving with spirit and in the service of lifting it/us all up. That's the logic of the Afro.


BLOWIN' BACK THE FRO
My goodness, there is a A LOT happening in these next 73 hours, so this edition of the newsletter will feel more like a dispatch, cause I'm tryin' to get one of the events tonight, so that I can make the rest over the weekend!

OPENING TONIGHT:
Task FORCE
11 Missing Days


Actually TaskForce has been dancing on/in water for a few days now, but they go on tonight in San Pedro. Last night they were at the OPEN SPACE. They continue through the weekend.

Meg Wolfe's "11 Missing Days" starts its first weekend at the Unknown Theatre. I think you can still book tickets right now to get the $18 price. It is $25 at the door.

THE BIG BLOW OUT COMB
Viver Brasil takes the stage on Saturday, July 5th at 8:30 PM. There are still tickets. So get some asap. I'll be there. Shall we meet?

So my recommendations:

STEPHAN KOPLOWITZ: TASKFORCE tonight
11 Missing Days on Friday
"Omi Odara/The Gift on the Water" Viver Brasil on Saturday
TASK FORCE Sunday Afternoon
11 Missing Days Sunday night

There is still the Hawai'ian Fourth of July right now at the Santa Monica Pier. It is free. They are planning on breaking a world Hula record. Show is underway.

You can do this!

UPCOMING:
July 11th on Wilshire BLVD, there will be watermelons...
July 12th at the NEST, Pat Payne hosts a salon, myspace.com/spunkyxipe


OKAY my dears, I must away. I've just been told that I must go take a master dance class, so no Task Force for me tonight.

There will be a dispatch with further show info...there are so many splendid things happening for children and families this weekend, too!

Look to the Dark for all the light you need...

in love,
-Anna

NEWSLETTER: somersaults

Oh my! How are You?

The longest day and shortest night is upon us! What a perfect time to throw a party. School is out and nights are hot in most parts of the city, perfect for getting out and walking around a bit. But since this is SO. Cal, of course, we drive there first, then we get out and walk around! Take the bus if you can and enjoy some of the City's delicious free events. This weekend I'm back at Shakti's, so come party with me!


West African Dance with Anna Scott, 1:30- 3:30
Shakti's Elements, 717 Broadway @ Lincoln, Santa Monica.
$12 cash love offering; $10 if you ride the bus. children welcomed!

Best place to park is in the 7th ST public lot. 1st Two hours free!

Afrologic. Afrological. Afrologica. How big is your 'fro?
Multiple, fractal, improvisational, polemical but always moving with spirit and in the service of lifting it/us all up. That's the logic of the Afro.

The summer solstice is BLOWIN BACK THE 'FRO this weekend. A few events to marvel at the stars also caught my attention.


GRAND PERFORMANCES
If you like your groove thick, long and honeybuttah sweeet, you do not want to miss this FREE concert downtown tomorrow night! Fela Kuti's youngest son brings it like daddy, but knows he is his own man. Me and kiddies will be there, gettin our afrofunk on. Text WATA to 41411 on Friday night to find out where we are sitting and join us. Right now, if you are reading this on Thursday, you are missing Garth trinidad rippin up the 1s & 2s (turntables).

06/20 - 8:00 PM: Seun Kuti & Egypt 80


BRAUDE CENTER PLAZA
6262 Van Nuys Blvd. Van Nuys 91401
DanceCamera West: Videodanza
Saturday, June 21, 8 pm, 10 films, 70:00
FREE - bring blanket or lawn chairs
The Plaza is behind the Van Nuys City Hall street parking or underground
parking is located off of Sylvan St.

This lineup looks so interesting. Dancefilm from across Latin America--with a very strong Brazilian presences--are presented in this 70 minute show. Too bad I have a gig at the same time...


SANTA MONICA ART STUDIOS
3026 Airport AVE, Santa Monica, CA 90405; 310-397-7449

Kong Pao Carnival : Deliciously Uncivilized
June 21 - June 28, 2008 a series of completely invigorating unstable art makers and works!

Saturday, June 21 6 - 10 PM
Opening Reception Performance ART by Jeremy Hahn at 8:45 PM; followed by Lucent Dossier Circus Art
Jeremy has invited a boat load of us fellow crazy-makers to join in him creating an event. Please come and check us out! I'll be howling at the moon...

FARM LAB
is hosting a very interesting artist next week, and Meg Wolf would likely say "you should go."
Visiting from Berlin, Yuko Kaseki, is doing a 2-day workshop.
Participation in the workshop is limited, so make a reservation right away.
June 23,24 7:00-10 pm.
Butoh Dance Improvisation Workshop taught by: Yuko Kaseki
at Farmlab + Studio for Social Sculpture
1745 N. Spring Street #4, LA, CA 90012
$50 for both days 323-226-1158 or email: studioforsocialsculpture.ignite@gmail.com




REMINDERS:
SKIRBALL
2701 N. Sepulveda BLVD, LA, CA 90049
"Rammed Earth," Tere O'Connor Dance
Thu- Fri, June 26th & 27, 8PM; Sat June 28th 7 & 9 PM; Sun June 29th, 7 PM
$20, general; $18 members; $15 full time students
enter 99522 at on-line purchase and get %15 discount

THE UNKNOWN THEATER
Eleven Missing Days
Meg Wolfe/Show Box
with Faye Driscoll & Arianne Hoffman July 3 - 6; with Sam Kim and casebolt & smith July 10 -13th

JOHN ANSON FORD AMPHITHEATER
"The Gift on the Water"
Viver Brasil, July 5th

SANTA MONICA PIER
GLOW, dusk to dawn festival
July 19th



ONGOING CLASSES
Viver Brasil
The Water Series continues through September with an extravagant line up of guest teachers! Class packages are available. Dance Arts Academy, 8 PM. $15/class

Modern Roots with Sarita Moore @ Shakti's Elements a fusion of Modern,Yoga and Afridance!
Saturdays, 11-12:30, Shakti's Elements, 717 Broadway in Santa Monica (btw Lincoln & 7th)$12 or 4 classes for $40

Kimberly Mullen throws down at Electric Lodge at 10:30 AM every Saturday, don't sleep! Afro-Caribbean..

Shelby Williams and 27Juncture Dance has class at 8PM @ THE DANCER'S STUDIO
5772 W. PICO BLVD @ OGDEN!!! Afro-Brazilian and release technique

DANCEbank, Thursdays 7:00 - 9:00 at The Open Space, $10 for Bankers, $12 drop in
209 S. Garey St., 2nd Floor. LA, CA 90012
(3 blocks east of Alameda off 2nd St. Ample street parking is available!)
Mira Kingsley up this week! (Her class merges release-based phrase work with structured improvisations to create a wildly physical forum where an imaginative body can engage rigorous, personal investigation within a consciously communal setting.)Go to Meg Wolf's MySpace page to get on the list...

Christophe is offering a Roots Dance Class@ the Pacific Arts Center in Westwood. Tues @7:30-9:00.
pacificartscenter.com for address and info on other classes offered there.

And don't miss...
Anna Scott and my Afrologic West African Dance @ 1:30- 3:00 PM on Saturdays @ Shakti's Elements. Come get elevated and free, really. Sometimes a little structure is liberating.
717 Broadway in Santa Monica$12 drop in; $10 bus rider; $40 4 class series


PERFORMANCE OPP (this does not pay in money, but is flush with good vibes!)
Viver Brasil invites you to become a pre-show procession for Its 6th season at the Ford Amphitheatre on Saturday, July 5. This same processional will join them again on July 20 at 7am (yes a.m.) at the Glow Festival in Santa Monica to march down to Mama's hemline and dance on the beach! The final event in the Water Series will be the World Festival of Sacred Music on September 28 with "Honoring the Sea" preparation workshops prior to the event. Dates and location to be announced. Viver Brasil thanks Swing Brazil for the collaborative vibrations!! Let it FLOW!!!



AFROLOGICA
Thanks to those of you who have signed up! Look soon for a BEATIN" THE BUSH podcast with Pat Payne! We just went to the African American Museum, and found ourselves wondering, "what for?" You'll be able to listen to our discussion on Afrologica sometime on Friday. Become a member of my free on-line community, AFROLOGICA, to hear this and other madcap adventures. I love the 'net, but nothing beats hanging out at a show, or even making one! It is housed at www.ning.com, so you will need to sign up and sign in. Reviews, podcasts, YouTube recommendations, live calendar with eventual push to hand held device written by YOU and me...working smarter, not harder to connect artists and their audience.



LOVELY!

So normally, I sign off right here, but below you will find the beginning of my African Dance class Inventory. please help me out and tell me all about your favorite class! Best place to do that is either by friending me on Face Book, or joining up to Afrologica. Soak up the sun, but remember to kiss and thank the moon.

in love,
-Anna






African Dance Classes, an ongoing project

Why am I doing this? Well, I would love to be able to dance much more in the idiom of my first love, Senegalese/Mali dance. There has lately been a surge in Guinea classes around the US, driven mainly by drum masters coming to stage drum camps with very loyal students across the US. Here in LA, we have a gathering of drummers from all over the Songhai Empire, who drum for classes from just about any heritage. In addition to this, there is a group of very loyal African-American drummers and dancers who came into African Dance and Music through Olatunnji and early tours of Les Ballets Africain from Senegal. Needless to say, this makes for a very INTENSE 'community' of meaning makers. As someone who was trained in Oakland during the 1990s by a former Ballets Africain drummer and dancer, I am often intrigued by the shifts in emphasis in the body and rhythm as time marches on. So it is my goal to get to EVERYBODY"S dance class that I find, to learn more about how "African" dance resonates in Southern California. It is also my goal to get more of you to more of OUR classes. To receive, you have to give.

Lula Washington Studio
Lula employs Roshada to teach a teen class on Saturdays 3:30-4:30 . Lula also hosts on Tuesdays from 6:30 - 8 and Saturdays 4:30 Marieme Faye; live drumming can get a wee chaotic due to sheer number of drummers and breaks are not played for the students. LOTS of folks, highly competitive, very advanced. Not for beginners.

Your Neighborhood Studio
Niancho gives a class Wednesdays 7:30 - 9:00. I've never made this class because of my teaching schedule in Riverside. If you have been and are a regular, please let us know what the class is like. I do know that he is recently back form a visit home and has a big fan in the African Beat moderator.

Long Beach
I KNOW there are classes jumping off in Long Beach, but I am not finding a schedule. People to look for: Khaleah London (OMG can sustah DANCE!); Jeffrey (he goes to Senegal regularly); Nzinga Camara is on the faculty of CSULB as a lecturer. Cabrillo College hosts special workshops all the time--who is teaching there regularly?

Debbie Allen Dance Academy
So...their website is not the friendliest, but the studios are lovely. Currently Titus Fotso is no longer at DADA, but Nzinga Camara continues on Thursdays 7:45 - 9:15 PM. On Wednesdays a person by last name Mack is teaching 7:45 - 8:45. Mama Camara's class is very intense and advanced. I do not know much about the other class.

Dance Arts Academy
On Sundays 1 - 2:30 PM you can find a sauna-of-a-class taught by Aziz Faye. This is a Sabar class and is full of very loyal students, many who began dancing with Aziz. It's a party! But an advanced one at this point.


Shakti's Elements
This studio hosts my class, Saturday 1:30 - 3:30. I would have to say that the level of the class is open and it varies depending on who shows up as the class is more focused on instruction and learning. The goal is to learn and respect the dance-rhythms, express joy, and enjoy one another. Sarita Moore teaches a African dace fusion class earlier in the day at 11:0-12:30 that leans more towards a Caribbean style of movement.

SO, if you have info, especially on Pasadena and Long Beach, please let me know ASAP. Next installment I'll look in Fontana, San Bernadino and Riverside.