Cultures combine on Buskirk stage

Senior Antwonette Demming has been dancing ballet and jazz since she was eight, and she has spent the past six semesters fusing these styles with African dance. She will bring all three styles to the stage along with the 21 other members of The African American Dance Company when they celebrate the company’s 36th annual Spring concert at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater.

The first half of the show will feature five collaborations choreographed by dance company students. This year, the students have an environmental justice theme. The second half will feature African American Dance Company Director Iris Rosa’s choreography and performances by two guest performers from Ghana, graduate student Bernard Woma and his niece, Yaa Bekyore.

“It’s one of those things when you see someone who is actually from there and see her do it,” Demming said. “It’s another experience that gives you the upper hand and you feel like you really learned a piece of the culture.”

Rosa and Bekyore both stressed the importance of learning dance in African culture.
“I think dance serves a lot more purposes than we think it does,” Rosa said.
Rosa said people learn culture, values, history, the process of oral tradition and respect through dance.

Bekyore said when she was a child in Ghana and her mother returned home from work, her mother would ask if she had danced that day. When Bekyore said no, her mother would immediately take her to dance.

“You have to learn no matter if you want to or not,” Bekyore said. “And if you learn it wrong, then it is an insult.”

Bekyore has been teaching the students African dances since February.

“The students have learned so much about the culture and dance,” Rosa said. “She was hooked and we were hooked.”

Rosa said her choreography stems from the perspective of the African Diaspora. Rosa’s love of dance grew early on from her own cultural dancing with her family growing up in Puerto Rico, but her formal training began during her freshman year at IU in 1968.

Rosa said there were definite transitions from a student to a teacher.

“A lot of people think dance isn’t research, but you have to start with a thought, continue the research and then polish the piece,” Rosa said. “It’s not only absorbing the dance.”