Dance Workshop

The word “Bantaba” is a Mandinka word meaning “gathering space or dancing ground.” As the director of AADC and the Annual Dance Workshop, we bring everyone together to launch into the workshop weekend with vigor and clarity, together. Through music and the movement, we will dance, for “as long as we dance together, we have no time to hate” (Baba Chuck Davis).

The Dayton Contemporary Dance Company (DCDC) is one of the premiere Black modern dance companies in the United States. DCDC recently celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2018. The founder Jeraldyne Blunden had a vision about Black dance in contemporary times, and her company is evidence of that. DCDC holds the largest repository of Black dance works of any company and is a living archive. DCDC represents Black dance in that particular way.

This class will be filled with history, culture, and FUN. We will explore the different dance styles, songs, and music from the different West African countries and tribes. Live music and instruments will accompany.

We will explore the free form movements of Tai Chi into the linear movements of Horton. We will begin with breathing and expanding our lungs and into the rest of our body. The class will start with warming of the body and body isolation. Combination, explanations and closing warm down. Wear dance clothes that are not cumbersome with jazz shoes, half soles, or bare feet. Bring water and hand towel . Tia Chi is a unique activity that bridges the gap between ancient and contemporary. The movements have qualities of calm , fluid and correctness. These movements represent philosophical principles, like relaxed power, wisdom in action, ancient knowledge, respect for tradition and being at peace with yourself and others. Tia Chi is known as an internal art because of its emphasis on energy cultivation and meditation. This helps with peace of mind and spiritual well-being. The origins of Tia Chi arts lie in the medieval China, where matters of life and death relied upon martial art skills. According to Chinese folklore, the creator of tai chi was a Taoist sage named Chan Sang Feng, who lived in the thirteenth century. According to the legends, he traveled extensively throughout China, eventually settling at the Wu Dang Mountain, famous for the spiritual practice of Taoism and for the Wu Dang Kung Fu. ( The style of Kung Fu used in the film Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) As the story goes the inspiration for Tia Chi came when he watched a fight between a snake and a crane- noting not only the graceful movements of each creature, but also the way in which each creature held its own. We will explore some of the first forms of Tia Chi arms legs and full body of movement. Parting the horse’s mane, holding the ball, and brush the knee and press.

Lester Horton (23 January 1906 – 2 November 1953) was an American dancer, choreographer, and teacher. His interest in dance was mainly stimulated by his fascination with American Indian culture after watching tribal dances in a Wild West show. He studied the Iroquois and Red River Indians, and Penobscot and Ojibwa tribes. He studied ballet for two years with a local teacher in Indianapolis, Theo Hewes. At that time he also took classes at the Herron Art Institute and worked with the Indianapolis Little Theater. Seeing a performance of the Denishawn company had a great impact on him. Horton developed his own approach to dance that incorporated diverse elements including Native American Folk Dance, Japanese arm gestures, Javanese and Balinese isolations for the upper body, particularly the eyes, head and hands. Horton also included Afro-Caribbean elements, like hip circles. Horton's dance technique, which is now commonly known as Horton Technique, has no style, per se. The technique emphasizes a whole body, anatomical approach to dance that includes flexibility, strength, coordination and body and spatial awareness to enable unrestricted, dramatic freedom of expression.

Umfundalai is a Pan-African dance technique that was created by Dr. Kariamu Welsh. This technique came through her to the masses. The technique acknowledges the Africanist past and the African Diasporic dynamics of contemporary African dance. It is a system of movements and practices that are borrowed from various Africanist cultures placed into a system for teaching and creating choreography. It is important for African Americans because the Umfundalai Technique is expressly used to facilitate dance from a historical perspective. Students are able to attach movements with particular meaning and modality from our Africanist past.

“Hip-Hop Freestyle” is an improvisational class that uses Hip-Hop aesthetics, vocabulary, footwork and social dances to guide students in an exploration of freestyle culture. It is a guided experience that focuses on technique while then using these techniques to explore terms such as "innovation", "individuality", "aesthetic nuances", & "foundation" with fundamental and inventive improv scores that come from the authentic forms of hip-hop dance. Forms born out of hip-hop such as Hip-Hop Social Dances, Lite Feet, Breakin’ and more are the playgrounds we dance on while things such as isolations, groove, musicality, floorwork etc. are the tools used to guide this experience that ultimately pushes the boundaries of what freestyle dance is and could be.

Andre Rosa-Artis will be giving a beginning to intermediate drum class/lecture demonstration based on west African and African Cuban drums and rhythms. Although encouraged, no drum is needed to attend this class as we will focus on demonstrating the sounds one can get out of the human body and how the drum mimics sounds you can naturally produce.

LAVAUGHN ROBINSON PHILLY STYLE

Students will learn basic steps, time steps and (Paddle and Roll) a Philadelphia style of tap. They will learn a Philly Tap `etudes (LaVaughn Robinson). They will learn about timing in music, (4 beats to a bar or measure) to identify where measures starts and end and to recognize different time signatures. Students will learn ways to listen for and feel the pulse of a song or rhythmic pattern.

We will explore movements of free form of house. Be prepared to sweat and be out of breath first half of class. We will do a lot of moving in the first fifteen minute of class. The class will start with warming of the body into body isolation. Combination explanations explorations and closing warm down. House dance is a freestyle street dance and social dance that has roots in the underground house music scene of Chicago and New York. It is typically danced to loud and bass-heavy electronic dance music provided by DJs in nightclubs or at raves. House Dance was born out of House Music and the interchanging creative flows between Chicago and New York in the late 1970s. House Dance is a freestyle and social dance form that originated from the underground club culture. Highly informed by African diasporic culture and aesthetics as well as queer culture and bodies, House Dance has grown from local to a transnational exchange of movement explorations contributing to its wide range of expressions and aesthetic styles. Its international popularity, starting in the 1990s by House Dance practitioners teaching nationally and abroad, thereupon initiated a codification of the form.

The main elements of House dance include "jacking", "footwork", and "lofting". The element of "jacking", or the "jack", – an ecstatic, sex-driven rippling movement of the torso – is the most famous dance move associated with early house music. It has found its way onto numerous record titles like the Jack Trax EP by Chip E. (1985), "Jack'n the House" (1985) by Farley "Jackmaster" Funk (1985), "Jack Your Body" by Steve "Silk" Hurley (1986), or "Jack to the Sound of the Underground" by Fast Eddie (1988). House dance is often improvised and emphasizes fast and complex foot-oriented steps combined with fluid movements in the torso, as well as floor work. There is an emphasis on the subtle rhythms and riffs of the music, and the footwork follows them closely. The name of the style comes from the club Warehouse where in the first DJs started playing house music. Footwork, Skating, Stomping, Shuffling and Lofting. House dancing is a culture that promotes freedom of expression, sharing, a sense of family and an honest connection with the music.