Long before the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) doors opened for the performance, the energy that DanceAfrica injects into the community was palpable in all directions. It was a weekend of African culture- films, dance classes and more. Memorial Day was the finale. Outside BAM, a sprawling street market of African garb, jewelry and collectibles exploded in color. African clothing though never seems to fit that adage of sometimes looking better on the hanger than on the person. This is our chance to see all around us revealed as royalty.
Regal bearing was especially the trademark of older men and women in the procession of elders who marched down the auditorium center aisle to take their places in the front seats as was their due. They are the founders of several of the African dance troupes who continue this 45 year-old tradition.
For those of us new or relatively new to African culture this repeated high regard for elders was the first among equals lesson about the shared culture of African people. As the many generations of performers danced towards the stage, the last were the younger fledgling dancers not yet at their full height. Even the AI-enhanced performers on the jumbo screen above set in a mythological-seeming African landscape couldn’t compete with the fresh-faced beauty of these youngest dancers, in this reviewer’s opinion.
The show hasn’t yet officially begun, yet spirits soar as soon as the first drum beats begin and then peak to pave the way for the dancers to enter the hall.
DanceAfrica Celebrates African Diaspora Culture
DanceAfrica’s Artistic Director, Abdel R. Salaam, very briefly broke the spirit uplift by reminding of the perilous times we are now called upon to survive. With his words re-framing the spectacle, we are reminded to think of all that followed as a sorely needed vitamin shot of resilience.
