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San Francisco Bay View Newspaper
I was running ahead of myself last week and thought I’d missed the Dance Showcase and Holiday Bazaar at Alice Arts Theatre on Saturday, Nov. 30. Instead, to my delight, it was a wonderful show choreographed by the Dioufs, Dr. Zakariya Sao and Naomi Gedo. Their Diamano Coura West African Dance Company presented its annual repertory production, “Heritage and Roots,” that showed the relationships between African dance styles throughout the diaspora. As choreography took the audience through Liberia, the former Graincoast or Peppercoast, via just a few of its 29 ethnic groups - Kru, Krahn, Kpelle or Guerze, Bassa, Gio and Vai. The dancers, dressed in traditional garb, illustrated the legacy or connection between contemporary African dance in diaspora and its “roots.” During the second half of the program, the ensemble performed the story of Kumba. Set in the great Mali Empire, a beautiful daughter whose mother dies has karma very similar to Cinderella. However, the magic in the Diouf tale is a lot darker. Kumba meets different characters in the forest where she performs different tasks. The tests passed, Kumba is richly rewarded, while her stepsister Penda, presented with the tasks later on, fails and loses her head. Between acts,
the women’s drumming corps, “Teugoum Djigume,” perform. The nine women
played sabar drums with sticks. With drums slung across their shoulders or perched on
hips, the group played multiple call and response rhythms led by Zak Diouf for their
audience’s listening pleasure. |
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Copyright © 2003 Diamano Coura |
