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AHRB Research Centre for Cross-Cultural Music
and Dance Performance |
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Photograph of Peter Badajo OBE |
This project aims to conduct a detailed case study of two traditions of African contemporary performance and dance practice in relation to changing criteria and modes of performance, production, and dance practice in Britain and in their home environment.
Regular meetings of the research team: Jean Johnson Jones, James Burns, George Dzikunu, Peter Badajo, Keith Howard, and other researchers. Meetings will monitor progress towards the objectives. The work of the researchers will be integrated in order to produce the outcome envisaged. Two workshops/seminars will monitor progress and enable feedback.
No previous project has combined dance and music research in this way. It is also unusual to combine ethnographic data collected in Britain and home (African) environments; this is central to the project because it is here that aspects of transformation can be elucidated.
With globalisation and the increasing movement of musicians and dancers around the world, the project is timely since it addresses a shift in the scholarly study of ethnochoreology and ethnomusicology, in which data is being collected both 'at home' and 'in the field'. A further important contribution will be the tracking and documentation of Bata dances of Nigeria for the first time.
Postgraduate students will be involved in documenting British performances by African performers, and in recording, documenting and analysing the music and dance of resident performers.
Winter 2003:
Ghana: project planning in detail, UK fieldwork, ethnography structuring
Spring 2004:
Ghana: fieldwork 1
Summer 2004:
Ghana: data analysis, preparation of materials for publication
Nigeria: project planning
Winter 2004:
Ghana: research seminar for team, further analysis and interpretative
work, preparation of materials for first publication
Nigeria: project planning
Spring 2005:
Ghana: planning, fund raising, and publicizing tour; preparation of
contracts for performer-researchers
Summer 2005:
Ghana: Tour, documentation of tour (tbc: this is subject to agreement
with tour management agency, and will only take place if suitable agreement
can be reached)
Nigeria: fieldwork
Winter 2005:
Ghana: documentation continued; performers in residence; first workshop/seminar
(UniS & SOAS)
Nigeria: data analysis, preparation of materials for first publication
Spring 2006:
Ghana: possible second period of fieldwork (dependent on decisions
taken during Winter 2003 planning period)
Nigeria: research seminar for team, further analysis and interpretive
work
Summer 2006:
Ghana: pre-publication preparation of CD-Rom and book materials on
project
Nigeria: performers in residence; second workshop/seminar (UniS &
SOAS)
Winter 2006:
Ghana: final preparation of materials for publication
Nigeria: final preparation of materials of publication
This project reflects the fact that, with globalization and the increasing movement of performers around the world, data in ethnomusicology and ethnochoreology is being collected both 'at home' and 'in the field'. The project explores the transformation of African contemporary performance and practice in relation to changing criteria and modes of performance and production in Britain and the home environment. We will conduct detailed case studies of two relevant traditions, utilizing an integration of highly specific skills in African performance practice. The sample will include fieldwork data, concert observation (it is hoped to work with a UK tour sponsor/promoter, but this remains subject to agreement), and research with resident African performers. The research questions addressed explore culturally learned responses to rhythm and tempo, particular music and dance styles, group dynamics and dance vocabulary, in order to analyze transformations in dance and music relationships, practice, vocabulary, and aesthetic perception. 'Transformation' here acknowledges that contemporary efforts to conserve, preserve and promote impose certain criteria on performance genres. The theoretical approach starts with John Blacking's discussion of change (1977): change is transformative, but needs to be studied by marshalling social and cultural evidence, and combining this with both performers' perceptions of what has happened and scientific analysis. Here, the use of the word 'transformation' acknowledges that contemporary efforts to conserve, preserve and promote impose certain criteria on any genre of dance and music. Some criteria are political, some concern authenticity and notions of historical accuracy, and others seek to match (or contrast) movement and sound performance with other extant dance and music genres. There is a considerable literature on the theory of conservation, for example Bert Feintuch's The Conservation of Culture (1988), Neil Rosenberg's Transforming Tradition (1993), and Max Peter Baumann's Music in the Dialogue of Cultures (1991). Transformation is equally important where dance and music is recorded, where local genres are put on national and international stages, and where group participation in performance is varied. Hence, the Centre extends existing theoretical frames through the emphasis on collating different elements (social and cultural, performer perceptions, scientific analysis).
The successful completion of this project requires the integration of sets of highly specific skills. First, an ethnomusicologist, James Burns, who is an expert in Ghanaian performance material, will work with Jean Johnson Jones to identify the specific cultural group and types of performance to be studied. They will be joined by Peter Badajo, expert on Bata dances of Nigeria, George Dzikunu, director of Adzido Pan African Dance Ensemble, and Keith Howard, expert on cultural conservation issues. Jean Johnson Jones will convene the project and co-ordinate the analysis of dance and movement material using a variety of tools, for example, Laban Movement Analysis, Labanotation and Body-Mind Centering, Input from an anthropologist specializing in the Anthropology of Africa (tbc) will also form part to the team. The skills of resident African performer-researchers will also be utilized to develop collaborative outputs, particularly CD-Rom materials.
The team will meet regularly, allowing for the fact that not everybody within the team will be employed for the full period of the project. There will be an intensive seminar to study data and to begin interpretative work, followed by consultations with both the academic and professional communities, in the form of seminars. Material will be written up for publication in article, book and CD-Rom formats.
The project has three distinct elements:
1. The Essential Relationship Between African People's Dance and Music (Ghana/UK)
It has been said that traditional 'African' dances are inseparable from the
music which accompanies them, and that 'African' dance does not and cannot
exist without music. This examination of the interdependent relationship,
based on Ghanaian music and dance in Ghana and Britain, aims to provide a
perspective through which to track 'development' and 'transformation' both
as a distinct sub-project, and also to inform other aspects of Project 5.
Research will involve fieldwork in Ghana, where a team of researchers will
work with urban and rural local artists. Ghana has a thriving music and dance
tradition that can be studied both in its traditional context and as presented
by folklore dance ensembles, a factor which is important for studying processes
of transformation. It has an important centre for music and dance located
at the University of Ghana that not only houses the Ghana National Dance Ensemble,
but also employs well-known ethnomusicologists and choreographers. It is anticipated
that the focus of research in Ghana will be with representative groups from
both sides of the spectrum: the Ghana National Dance Ensemble, which is the
oldest national dance company and employs musicians and dancers from the main
ethnic groups, and which performs choreographed versions of traditional dances;
the Dzigbodi community dance club, a group from Dzodze, a rural village of
the Ewe ethnic group in the Volta region, part performance group and part
mutual aid society, which performs in special open areas between compound
houses and for which the experience of performing on a stage for a non-Ewe
audience outside of traditional contexts will be new, thereby allowing us
to observe the process of transformation as they develop.
It is planned that Ghanaian artists will be invited to Britain to work as resident performer-researchers. While we cannot confirm at this time who will be invited, we hope to invite Johnson Kemeh, who is on the faculty at the University of Ghana and who has been teaching Ghanaian music and dance for more than 30 years. It is hoped that one or both of the groups can be invited, as part of a performance tour organised and part-funded by outside bodies; clearly, this is subject to agreement being reached with appropriate bodies.
Duration: Three years, October 2003 - September 2006.
2. The influence of Ghanaian 'national' dance companies on African Peoples' Dance in Britain (UK).
There are two Ghanaian 'national' dance companies. One is committed to maintaining 'traditional' Ghanaian dances, and the other has as its mission the development of 'contemporary African dance'. Many of the practitioners of African Peoples' Dance in Britain have been influenced by one of the other, or by both, of these companies. This aspect of Project 5 will take the form of a case study and will focus on the distinctions between the two companies in terms of: dance/music relationships, vocabulary, the role of choreographer in traditional and contemporary Ghanaian dance, aesthetics and transformation in performing in differing contexts, etc. The research will question culturally learned responses to rhythm and tempo, distinctive music and dance styles, group dynamics in performance, transformations in performance in relation to participant and audience evaluation, and the influence of the two companies on the work of dance practitioners based in Britain. t is anticipated that research will involve interaction with individual practitioners such as H. Patton ( dancer, film maker) and Judith Palmer (dancer), and with the Adzido Pan African Dance Ensemble.
Duration: Two years, September 2004 - August 2006.
3. The Transformation and Codification of Bata in Nigeria (Nigeria/UK)
The Bata dances of Nigeria are the foundation of the artistry of Peter Badajo OBE. Peter is one of the United Kingdom's major African artists, an acknowledged practitioner, a dance ethnographer, and director of Badajo Arts. Bata, though his wor, has influenced independent dance practitioners and the choreography of dance companies in the UK such as Adzido Pan African Dance Ensemble and Irie! Dance Theatre; Bata dances are a part of the dance repertory on GCE 'A' Level syllabi. Having spent the last 35 years studying, performing, and teaching Bata, Peter will collaborate with researchers to examine, codify and document Bata in its home context and in Europe.
The project will examine the transmission, function, practice and performance of Bata in Nigeria. There, traditionally, Bada has been handed down through family inheritance; we will compare this approach to contemporary practice, where a more European system of training has been adopted. We will question how approaches to transmission and performance have influenced the development of Bata in Nigeria and Britain, tracking transformations through ethnography, interviews, movement/dance analysis, and music analysis.
The project will bring Peter Badajo and his team-his 'family'-and contemporary Bata practitioners in Nigeria, Master Drummers, and so on, together with Research Centre researchers.
Duration: Two years, September 2004 - August 2006.
[Revision: 20 September 2003/Version B]
