Foot Patterns And Unison

I invited dancers to take my movement workshop where we explore various ways to connect with the body through percussion, and connection to specific parts of the body, our first class explored the use of the pelvis, and our theme was resistance.

Resistance not only as a political idea but as an idea for existing. While the percussion remains a emblem and foundation for many different African influenced dance and musical forms, the history of the percussion as a tool for survival across Latin American cultures is also symbolic to modes of resistance that have taken place.

In order for different cultures and religions to exist, they did so through drum gatherings, carnivals and other public exhibitions where then white European spectators were able to indulge, all the while African slaves were forming rich traditions heavily rooted in the diaspora.

Our class focused on accessing the pelvis and the use of footwork. By using a series of movement forms in conjunction with a percussive sound we repeated a series of exercises, my goal was to get the movers to access another level of movement in a form of a movement meditation. By repeating a movement over and over while accessing different levels of effort and musicality the mover through the movement eventually becomes one with the sound. Similar to Bomba where the dancer and the percussionist are essentially one.

I have been focusing my current readings by John Charles Chasteen (National Rhythms, African Roots: The Deep History of Latin American Popular Dance)on the role of Afro Latin Social dances as a form of resistance. Chapter Six The Drums of Epiphany describes just that, the evolution of social forms in public spaces, therefore I wanted to access that exact mode of resistance in a movement workshop form as a means to then discuss the possibilities of decolonizing our bodies through these movement sequences. Decolonizing all bodies. So I began with foot patterns and unison with music. I am awaiting written responses from the participants, I posed the simple question “how does the repetition of movement help you to explore your own musicality?”

If the mover is one with the music then surely the relationship to the music sets the foundation for this investigation. And if music was a driving force for the survival of both cultural and religious practices for African slaves of the diaspora then music; specifically the percussion in this research, may very well serve as a form of resistance.

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