Ava LaVonne Vinesett for Smith College September 18, 2014

Practicing Power Through Movement: A West African Dance Workshop, Dinner and Lecture with Duke University’s Ava LaVonne Vinesett

Thursday, September 18, 4:30 – 7:00 in the Carroll Room of the Campus Center

Drumming and dancing are iconic representations of energy—capturing bold and powerful expressions, as well as nuanced voices reflecting the subtleties, which comprise “self” and identity. The manner in which people move through space often mirrors the way they navigate their world. Movement and music allow us to re-channel energy and manifest multiple sides of self. Developing an ability to manifest multiple sides of identity, or even an ability to acknowledge varying views, can be a valuable tool for resolving conflicts.

When we better understand the complexity of views we hold as individuals navigating our individual worlds, we can better understand the complexity of views of others with whom we interact on a daily basis.

Stage I: Gathering and Preparation Through working in a circle we begin with a few breathing and centering exercises to focus on our individual and collective intentions—taking care of self and group. The very nature of the circles is inclusive, thus we can visually see and connect with all participants.

Stage II: Theme Exploration (Wolo So Don/Jon Don, or Dance of the Enslaved) We can explore emotional areas such as anger, sadness, loss, fear, resentment, impotency, or ecstasy, accomplishment, pride, potency, confidence, etc. a broad enough range for the group to relate to. The movement captures the sentiment of the theme. Example, the slow part of Wolo So Don has an intensity of pain, longing, anger, and heaviness. You can intensify the movement by making it stronger, by punctuating aspects to help make the idea clearer. Jon Don, the complementing rhythm and dance, is upbeat with a driving tempo and push that requires a lighter approach to execute the movements.

Stage III: Reintegration/Sharing Intentions The participants will be divided into groups with each group presenting a section of the two dances. This will be presented as a “call and response”.

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Stage IV: Gratitude/Shared Experience/Personal Observations Here is an opportunity to share with all participants, ask questions, make comments, and consider what it might mean to move forward.

Lecture/Discussion: Reaching Into the Before-Time: Dance and Identity

Dance has been my way of investigating numerous descriptions of identity: cultural, social, political, and gender; just as others use the written word to document their theoretical research, I use dancing bodies to visually document my research interests and contribute to the field of the role of dance as a cultural expression.

This discussion furthers several of the themes explored in the workshop by contextualizing the manner in which particular peoples move through space and navigate their world. In the workshop we addressed how movement and music allow us to re-channel energy and manifest multiple sides of self, and in this discussion we look at how for many West Africans, dancing bodies became the mediators between humans and the ancestral forces, capable of requesting blessings for the land and people. In migrating to the Americas, the Circle Dance or Ring Shout was associated with ceremonies from their homelands—specifically, ancestral ceremonies. The Circle Dance encouraged the spirit of community and satisfied the required need for spiritual elevation. Dance was a means for individuals to enter the realm of the supernatural—a way of reaching into the before-time. Through ecstatic dance enslaved men, women and children reclaimed their bodies. The captives enrobing themselves in woven coverings of tattered cloth and native plants found in new lands, and while carrying sacred branches, herbs, and gourds of healing waters, they reclaimed their bodies, expressed profound pain, and reinvented their fragmented lives—they invited their gods and ancestors to manifest in a new land.

Ava LaVonne Vinesett, Associate Professor of the Practice of Dance, Director of Undergraduate Studies/Dance, Co-Director of the Baldwin Scholars Program.

In 1983 Ava LaVonne Vinesett began a professional dance career as one of the founding members of the internationally acclaimed, Chuck Davis African-American Dance Ensemble. During her tenure with Chuck Davis, Ava served as a principal dancer, Assistant Artistic Director and Educational Coordinator for the troupe. With a methodical approach, Ava studies the cultural origins and thus the continuous evolution of dances of Africa. She uses the term “dance translator” to describe her scholarship on the process of communicating existing legacies of danced religious, spiritual and cultural beliefs from one cultural group to another cultural group. Performance credits include world premieres by Donald McKayle, Ron K. Brown, Assane Konte, Titos Sompa, Abdel Salaam, and Nafissa Shariff. Ava serves as an

alv 2 Ava LaVonne Vinesett for Smith College September 18, 2014 assessor and dance consultant for several organizations. As a Patricia Roberts Harris fellow, she received her MFA in dance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Ava is the 2002 recipient of the Duke University Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award; she served as a Faculty-In- Residence in Blackwell on Duke’s East Campus for three years, served as a pre- major advisor, is currently the Co-Director and on the teaching faculty for the Baldwin Scholars program, and is the newly appointed Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Dance Program. In addition to directing the Duke African Repertory Ensemble, Ava teaches lecture and studio courses in the Dance Program and returned to Brazil during the summer of 2014 to participate in a Portuguese language intensive while researching Santo Daime ritual practices in São Paulo. Currently she is conducting a clinical trial with Ken Wilson, M.D. entitled “Traditional African Healing Ceremony in a U.S. Population”. Read more about it here: http://arts.duke.edu/artsjournal/duke-faculty-bring-two-disciplines-together- heal-through-dance

Richard J. Vinesett began his study of African percussion, specifically the instrumentation of the jembe orchestration, under the guidance of Khalid Saleem. For nine years Richard performed with the Chuck Davis African-American Dance Ensemble. He continued his artistry with Rhythms of Life under the direction of Khalid Saleem, Cultural Journey under the direction of Bradley Simmons and Kambankafo Dance & Drum Ensemble under the direction of Mohamed Da Costa. Richard combines his profession as a computer programmer in the Duke Medical Center with his profession as the accompanist, musical coordinator, and lecturer for the courses offered in dance styles of Africa for the Duke University Dance Program, and the Musical Director of the Duke African Repertory Ensemble at Duke University, Durham, NC.

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