CHOREOGRAPHY IN WEST AFRICA: KINESIS, PROXEM1CS AND ADORNMENT IN NIGERIAN AND GAMBIAN DANCE PRACTICE

  • Format
  • Pages
  • Chapters

CHOREOGRAPHY IN WEST AFRICA: KINESIS, PROXEM1CS AND ADORNMENT IN NIGERIAN AND GAMBIAN DANCE PRACTICE

Abstract:

The propelling goal of this research is to investigate the reasons for material duplication and artistic complacency which have become obvious characteristics of contemporary practice of choreography in West Africa. With the conviction that creativity and personal statements arc central to the art of choreography, we insist, the contemporary West African Choreographer must rise beyond a perpetual regurgitation of old dances by creating his own dances which are relevant to his time and society. This research however acknowledges and insists that the “linguistic” properties of the old dances should be used as vocabulary since a vocabulary of dance systems which produce new meanings is only possible through an examination of the very basis for the production of dances already in existence. The methodology used in collecting data for this study is based on library research and field experience in the two selected countries – Nigeria and The Gambia. The researcher had worked extensively with dance practitioners in most parts of Nigeria. Also, he was the choreographer in charge of The Gambian National Troupe between 1994 and 1996. This enabled him to get relevant information from books, journals and other bibliothecal materials as well as helped him to secure first hand information from practitioners in some other west African countries. After a careful study of selected dances, a body of vocabulary is suggested to the contemporary West African Choreographer to improve upon. This work is presented in five chapters. The first chapter introduces us to the problem and our argument which is that the contemporary choreographer in Nigeria should stop a whole sale pirating of the existing traditional dances and instead use the movement vocabulary of this existing dances as a language to communicate new and relevant meanings. Chapter two is a review of the existing literature in the area of study. The review enables us to discover that there is an abundance of anthropological information on the subject of choreography while little attention has been given by scholars to creative technical discourse on the subject. Chapter three explains the nature and essence of choreographic tools, while chapter four is devoted to the analysis of selected dances in Nigeria and Gambia. The analysis which is comparative in nature, enables us to unearth a body of vocabulary used in the indigenous dances. Our deductions and generalisations are discussed in chapter five where we also round off with a conclusion.

CHOREOGRAPHY IN WEST AFRICA: KINESIS, PROXEM1CS AND ADORNMENT IN NIGERIAN AND GAMBIAN DANCE PRACTICE

0 Shares:
Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You May Also Like