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» Continued from pg 3 Bringing the Minkisi Home
IN PRACTICE: Claudia La Rocco
» Continued from pg 2
as music by Bayaka Pygmies and composers Henry Torgue and Serge Houpin. Featuring text and videos about the cre- ative process and the history of minkisi , the piece recreates some of the dances that might have been used in the process of calling for the divine spirits to inhabit the body of the nkisi nkondi . “I don’t know if there was a specific dance used by the nganga when per- forming the ritual, but I deducted so because ceremonies always involve dance, music, chanting or clapping. I don’t think that a small matter such as two people sealing a contract with the help of a nganga included dancing, but a larger matter involving the whole community might certainly have,” Bibene commented. In Nkisi Nkondi , Bibene is not only draw- ing from the ethnic dances of his country but also from the photos of the minkisi that he came across during his research: “I’m creating from what the minkisi are telling us, from the power emanating from them. In the studio I may ask dancers to choose two of the minkisi ’s positions and activate them.” For Bibene this work is an excavation into a cultural heritage that was taken away by colonial powers. “We are remembering his- tory and honoring the spirit of the minkisi . With this piece I’m creating something that is my own internal ritual, connecting with my people’s history, which I didn’t know grow- ing up. There are still a lot of things that I need to learn.” This process of excavation raises ongoing questions: “What would have happened if people had held on to their beliefs and their healing practices? What if people didn’t em- brace Christianity? The people whose heri- tage minkisi are a part of don’t even know about their existence. Considering that I had to pay a museum entrance fee in Paris to see a nkisi for the first time in my life, what is the economy of this cultural heritage? Do we bring back the statues to where they belong or do we ask for compensation?” Bibene asks. A firm believer that the key to Africa’s advancement rests in the acknowledgment of its indigenous knowledge, author Chika Ezeanya-Esiobu advocates for the return of stolen art to Africa, as a first step in restor- ing a sense of identity to communities whose traditional practices and history have been partly erased: “It is very important to under- stand that while Africa’s artwork resident in museums across Europe and America hold mostly aesthetic value in the hands of their current owners, the value it holds for
Africans are completely the opposite. Africa’s artifacts hold the collective history and memory of several communities that make up the continent. It represents Africa’s pride in her past, the absence of which has robbed the continent of a clear understanding of its present situation and the will to chart a veritable path to her future,” she stated in an interview with the Danish newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad . Bibene hopes that his piece encourages audiences to delve into their own history: “I want the audience to realize how im- portant it is to know one’s history. A lot of issues we face in our society come from the fact that people have abandoned practices that were demonized by settlers – different forms of healing or documenting history, for example. I am also hoping to encourage my brothers and sisters in the African American community to connect with their roots.” My conversation with Bibene about Nkisi Nkondi inevitably brings me to consider the colonial history of my own native country. As a white woman originally from France, whose ancestors, and the generations follow- ing, if not directly responsible for colonizing Bibene’s land, undisputedly benefited from it, I am confronted with these implications and my own position in regards to the aftermaths of France’s colonial past. After a two-year hiatus from his bi-annual trips home to complete his MFA, Bibene will return to the Republic of the Congo this summer. He is building a cultural center on the coast, in Pointe-Noire, and continues to oversee the Rue Dance street festival that he co-created in Brazzaville, which is held every two years with international guest artists who come teach and perform. While bridg- ing cultural dialogue through artistic ex- change, Bibene hopes to keep on unearthing parts of his people’s heritage and returning them to his community. “For me encoun- tering the nkisi nkondi was the start of a personal revolution, similar to a rebirth. My research and this work have taken me closer to my culture in a way I couldn’t imagine. I started questioning everything, each aspect of my life. It is hard to trace our history, I am only discovering components of it little by little. It will certainly be a lifelong project.”
thought of criticism as a triangle between a work of art, an individual experience, and the surrounding culture. It would drive me crazy when people would say, ‘Balanchine works are timeless’ No, they’re not. He created in a very particular time. If a work of art is time- less and its creator a genius and everybody should just bow down before it, then by that logic if the art work isn’t ‘succeeding’ in any one moment, it has to be the fault of the people performing it or the people perceiving it. It can’t be that a thing that was created 70 years ago might no longer be legible in a contemporary context. Performance has to move. So does the writing and thinking that seeks to converse with it.” To write dancing from a position of inti- macy with dancers and with critical distance from the form is a delicate, difficult, and deli- cious balance to strike. When I awkwardly told Claudia that I would be interested in writing for Open Space, she said, “No awkwardness. Everything in life is hopelessly intertwined.” SIMA BELMAR , Ph.D., is a Lecturer in the Depart- ment of Theater, Dance, & Performance Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and writing fellow at the National Center for Choreography in Akron, Ohio. Her scholarly articles and book reviews have appeared in TDR, the Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices, Performance Matters, Contem- porary Theatre Review, and The Oxford Handbook of Screendance Studies.
Photo courtesy of artist
38th Annual Planetary Dance Sun, Jun 3, Mt. Tamalpais Sunrise Ceremony followed by main event at 11am Free The Planetary Dance is an annual all-day ritual of healing and community renewal started by legendary choreographer Anna Halprin. It is an invitation to join in a dance for peace. It brings people of all ages and abilities together in a beautiful setting to “dance for a purpose.” The Planetary Dance is a participatory dance rather than a theatrical performance. At its heart is the Earth Run, a simple dance that everybody can do. Participants are invited to run, walk, or simply stand in a series of concentric circles, creating a moving mandala. planetarydance.org Call for Applications: ODC Resident Artist Program ODC’s three-year resident artist program includes artistic commissions, creative space, choreographic and administrative mentorship/support, an annual retreat, technical residencies and preview performances. The Artist-in-Residence Program at ODC Theater is designed to offer a crucial developmental opportunity for Bay Area artists with an active recent history of creation and presentation. Successful candidates will demonstrate a clear and distinct artistic vision, rigor of practice, and point of view through their work. Applications deadline: May 1, 2018 odc.dance/resident-artist
1. Supported in part by Dancers’ Group CA$H Grant program.
MARIE TOLLON is the current ODC Theater Writer in Residence. Her stories can be found at medium. com/odc-dance-stories
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In Dance | May 2014 | dancersgroup.org
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