March 29, 2024

Tribal Dance

March 30, 2008
High school students in Petoskey are planning to bust a few dance moves to help the “Invisible Children” of war-torn Africa.
Taking education beyond the classroom, the high school students of Concord Academy in Petoskey will be performing a benefit dance concert called “Continuum” to aid the children of northern Uganda. Performances are April 10 and 11 at 7:30 p.m. at the Cheboygan Opera House and all proceeds will benefit Invisible Children, Inc. (www.invisiblechildren.com), a non-profit organization which helps provide health care, education and safety to African children who are being abducted from their homes and forced to fight as soldiers in their country’s 20-year civil war.

DANCES OF THE WORLD
Inspired by their studies in world culture, as well as a “Women of Darfur” benefit CD produced by the Berklee School of Music, Concord high school students will be performing a variety of dances with world culture themes. Traditional Chinese and Japanese dances, a Russian-themed dance, three African-inspired dances as well as some senior student dances with disco and more modern themes will be showcased.
The entire high school will be represented at the performance, as all Concord students are required to take dance, and many of the dances were choreographed by the students themselves.
“Our students have to dance, so our challenge is to engage them,” says Sylvia Jania, dance and theater instructor, who came up with the idea to have a benefit. “It’s an academic-driven fine arts program.” All students get some dance training where posture and alignment is stressed.
“Our students work creatively with dance,” continues Jania, “and by the time they leave, they have a definite appreciation for dance.”

INVISIBLE CHILDREN
Students were responsible for deciding who should benefit from their dance performance.
“We just split up into groups and went to research on the internet of the different organizations that we wanted to look into giving money to,” says student Clara DeJonge.
After research and viewing the movie, “Invisible Children – Rough Cut,” the students decided to donate to Invisible Children, Inc., a non-profit that began in 2004, which grew out of a filmmaking adventure.
In the spring of 2003, three young American filmmakers – Jason Russell, Bobby Bailey and Laren Poole – traveled to Africa and documented the plight of young Acholi children of northern Uganda.
Fearing abduction from their homes, children would commute every night to town and sleep together in the streets of the city for safety, to avoid being kidnapped and forced to fight as child soldiers in their country’s civil war. Through their movie and website, the Americans have been raising money to help the children, and others like them, featured in the movie.
All donations to the organization are not only used to help these children, but also to provide health care, safety and education for these children, as well as production costs for a final cut version of the movie, with hopes for a worldwide full-length feature screening to bring even more awareness to the situation.
“The organization that we chose, I think it’s very specific,” says DeJonge. “People can identify with it. There’s also video on various websites and there’s all this information you can gather, so I think for people who can do that first – be able to research it on their own and then come and know what they’re donating for – I think that’ll make it more successful, and it’ll really help us get the word out.”

AFRICAN INSPIRED DANCES
Using the “Women of Darfur” music as a starting point – which stresses the women’s experiences, not the media’s perception – students began choreographing their dances.
“Our dance is kind of more contemporary; we put a little bit of jazz in it,” says student Elise Strauss. “So it’s kind of a combination of African, traditional and jazz. We just wanted to come at it …and try to understand the lyrics from the music and how they feel and just kind of interpret that.”
“The song talks about the women and young soldiers with guns, but [the songwriter] used her pen as a weapon to fight against hate and crime and devastation,” continues Strauss.
Although the African music on the CD was inspiring, each student group had different ideas.
“We started out doing a dance to one of the Berklee songs, but then we realized that it was more modern-ish, contemporary, and we really wanted to do a tribal dance,” says student Kendahl Horrom.
Her group will be adding live African drumming to their choreography. Students met with native Flint artist Kevin Collins, a well-known percussionist who has produced two CDs and is skilled in African, Cuban and Caribbean drumming, to learn more about traditional African movement.
The final African dance focuses on one theme, with several sources.
“Ours is just evolution,” says student Craig Draheim. “It starts out really tribal, and as the dance goes on it’s more mechanical.”
The group’s inspirations are the movie, “2001 Space Odyssey,” Lucy – the hominid skeleton found in Ethiopia in 1974, and the evolution of man.
“Since Africa is the cradle of society,” says student Silas Grimes, “that’s why we decided to choose evolution for the theme of the dance.”

GLOBAL UNDERSTANDING
Concord students have gotten a new perception of the world through their research and ethnic dances and are excited to be able to make an impact.
“Through these dances and our studies of Africa, we’ve gotten a deeper understanding of the culture as a whole,” says student Sydney Anderson.
“For me, researching the organizations puts a perspective on things, like how good we have it here,” says student Erika Moeschke. “There are people in Africa, children are being abducted and forced to kill people, and here we complain about so many things. But in the end, there’s really nothing to complain about. It’s exciting to know that through dancing you’ll be able to help people…to benefit something greater.”
“It’s made us more aware of not only does Africa have a lot of problems as a whole, but each individual country has so many things that you can help with,” says student Megan Keith, “and we’re just trying to get the message across through our dancing.
Continuum will be performed April 10 and 11 at 7:30 p.m. at the Cheboygan Opera House. All donations will benefit Invisible Children, Inc. For more information, please call Concord Academy-Petoskey at 231-439-6800.

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