This article was originally published in a special autumn edition of ADAD’s Hotfoot Magazine in 2010 as the organisation celebrated its 15th anniversary and was written by Lisa Nkrumah-Mweu who currently works at ADAD North.
It’s Tuesday night at the Brixton Rec and studio one is teeming with people dancing to the polyrhythmic beats of traditional dance from Africa. The sweat begins to pour as the energy of the music rises, faces beam with concentration and delight, the atmosphere is electric. “Let’s go to the corner!” instructs the teacher Emmanuel Nii Tagoe, where he proceeds to break down the sequence for the class to follow and repeat.
For several years, Tagoe has taught dances from Africa, in particular Central, South, and West Africa. His open class is extremely popular due to his energy and skill, as well as the vast knowledge he has obtained through years of independent travels throughout the African continent. The class has become a firm fixture amongst artists and non-artists alike who, for two hours, come with a passion to have fun, and learn more about traditional African dance.
This aspect of Tagoe’s practice represents the vision that he laid out for his company, Frititi (meaning ‘ancient’ in the Akan language of Ghana), which he founded in 1993. He wanted to “create and pass on to future generations, artistic expressions through dance, music and ritual”. His intention was to steer traditional dance in a new direction ready to embrace a contemporary society, without losing the influential significance of its historical and cultural past.
By the early 90s, traditional African dance – which to an extent has structured the evolution and the diversity of African People’s Dance (APD) – had begun to falter and go out of fashion. Funding bodies moved their support towards companies and organisations that incorporated a fusion of styles into their dance repertoire, rather than those who chose to focus on the quality presentation of one particular style.
Artists dancing within the framework of traditional African dance struggled for work, many leaving the art form as broken and disillusioned individuals. Sadly, they took with them the experience, knowledge, and in-depth understanding of a movement vocabulary that in retrospect should have been harnessed as a point of reference for performance, education, research and development within the APD sector. However, there were some, such as Tagoe who chose to soldier on. He had been a principal dancer with the celebrated Adzido Pan African Dance Ensemble for 3 years, and was a tour de force on stage, so he decided to use that experience as a springboard for new ventures.
Subsequently, he set up Frititi and expanded his performance portfolio through community and educational programs both nationally and internationally. His aim was to “project a more positive image of Africa, and to dispel the myths and negative stereotypes of the African continent and its people”. Tagoe found support and work in the commercial sector and in Europe where he taught, performed and toured with successful bands such as Osibisa, Asian Dub Foundation, and Baka Beyond, as well as choreographing for Peter Gabriel’s floor performance at the Millennium Dome.
He resiliently continued to self-fund projects for his company, which is probably why he has survived as a practising artist. By taking this path, he cleverly side-stepped the complex dependence on funding bodies which many dance companies enter into at their own risk. It is well known that Adzido themselves fell foul of their funders resulting in the company’s tragic demise in 2004. If this can happen to Britain’s largest and most celebrated African dance company, what hope is there for fledgling artists trying to break new ground? This stark reality that many artists and companies face is one that Tagoe sagely recognises. He believes that in the nineteen years of working as an artist in the UK, little has changed in this regard, which is why he chooses to dance to his own tune.
The popularity and support of Western contemporary dance and its integrated fusions have pushed traditional African dance to the periphery of both the APD and mainstream dance sectors. Traditional African dance is often seen as something that has little resonance beyond social gatherings. There is a misconception that it cannot offer dancers and audiences something of technical, physical, artistic and emotional relevance. Nevertheless, those who have participated in, watched, and researched African dance, understand the relevance that African dance could have in the dance industry, yet unfortunately its educational, performance structure and holistic benefits go largely unrecognised and unexplored.
The power of traditional African dance lies in harnessing knowledge about its history, movement form, and music. Tagoe continually travels to Africa, learning more about dance and its cultural traditions, deepening his knowledge and mastering his art, “respecting where the dances come from, because they are the work of many”, developing local and global awareness about the social and holistic benefits of traditional African dance, and the many ways it can contribute to and enrich society.
By accepting the framework of traditional African dance, creative diversity can be explored, notes Tagoe: “Traditional dance is like a tree; its branches and leaves can be seen from a distance, its roots grow underneath and spread in many directions, but still it is connected to the tree- the branches are there still growing”. This is an art form that Tagoe affirms could embrace dances created to the beats of Lady Gaga or Jay-Z, costumes made with contemporary character, and choreography that explores the vast movement vocabulary that endures in traditional dance.
Traditional African dance deserves acknowledgement and support, in order to maintain its vibrancy and to allow artists such as Tagoe to further develop the form. This is an art form that could embrace collaborations amongst dance practitioners and form a coherent package for the school curriculum beyond the one off workshop, so that the popularity and understanding of traditional African dance can continue to rise and become, as Tagoe says, “as popular and regular as Eastenders!”
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Nii Tagoe will be teaching IRIE! dance theatre’s next Making Tracks dance master class. Click the link below for FULL details:
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