This interrelatedness leads both the drummer and dancer into a situation where they are able to support each other and reinforce each other's performance. The drummers ability to move the dancer also enables the dancer to explore and improvise more readily than if they were dancing to set music of oratory accompaniment.
How does all this history and tradition translate into a modern Western thinking society? Peter Adegboyega Badejo sought to answer that question with his dance drama/opera, “Asa Ibile Yoruba” (The Ways of the Land of the Yoruba). Badejo, a student from Nigeria, wrote Asa Ibile Yoruba as his master's thesis while attending UCLA where it premiered at Schoenberg Hall in November 1979.
The next question was how could a culture specific art form be translated from Western Nigeria to southern California? Badejo who was the creator, choreographer, director, producer, and lead actor worked with a cast of fifteen dancers with whom only five were Yoruba. His solution was to keep the Yoruba dancers as the main focus and to express the musical drama as a mostly nonverbal work relying on the choreography and images to convey its meaning.
The play shows the contrast between the natural and supernatural world. The first act starts with the festival of “Ogun”, who is highly respected deity among the Yoruba. The whole first act takes place on earth in the court of the Oba (king). The “babalowo” is summoned to make the divination and let the Oba know what to sacrifice and who to sacrifice to. There is much dancing with the focus being on the festival.
In act two the focus switches to “Ogun”, who is now in Orun (heaven) and the spectator gets a glimpse into the heavenly scene. This is how the Gods celebrate the people on earth, just as the people on earth are celebrating the Gods. “Ogun” then calls upon other deities to help him in his celebration: “Eshu” is called upon first, followed by “Oshun”, “Shango”, “Shapona”, and finally the “Masquerade”. The “Masquerade' is the embodiment of all the other deities who could not make it down to earth for the celebration.
In act three we return back to earth for the ending of the “Ogun” festival. The Oba has made his sacrifices; the people who have completed the festival have now asked “Ogun” to bless them for another year and to keep them safe. What Badejo did was he preserved a piece of history and culture and successfully presented it to a modern day society where it was highly praised and accepted.
It has been an interesting experience for me to a part of this dance drama. I went into this practicum class in African theatre prepared to do an African play. When Dr. Murphy Ajayi announced that we were going to do a Nigerian dance drama I was very skeptical. I knew nothing about African dance, never mind the fact that I can't dance. What I found, that, though African dance steps themselves are quite simple. The biggest obstacle, for me, is keeping with the rhythm of the drums.
The most exciting element is seeing the progress we have made in recreating this dance drama though only one of our cast members is Nigerian. The other issue that we face is that we only have eight cast members. We compensated for this though by keeping the symmetry that is necessary in Yoruba dance. What I have learned through working on this show, the research that I have done for this paper, and what I have learned in class, is that there are a lot of things that carry over through the generations.
Within Africa alone there are many similarities in dance and why people dance the differences come in when location and outside influences are taken into account. All African dances no matter where you are in Africa are linked to ritual and culture. Dance in an intregal factor in all their lives. African dance still remains close to the ground and rooted deeply in religious beliefs.
We have seen the importance of dance to the African people throughout this paper starting with the general overview of African culture and dance and moving onto the Yoruba culture in general. Having people like Peter Badejo working within America to try to keep these traditions of this culture alive is one more example of how very important dance is to the African people.
It is so important to them that they have tried very hard to maintain its roots even though there has been an influence of dance from Europeans and Americans. Some of the tribal dances are similar to some of the chorale type dances and group dances in Europe. Some of the African dance influence has also carried over into the United States in the form of jazz and tap, both forms that originated in Africa and were modified by the slaves in the Southern colonies of the United States during the slave trade.
The difference between these two cultures is that for the Westerner dance is viewed as an art form and for African dance is a way of life.
What is it about Africa that makes them want to dance?
