Department of Dance Studies
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Item Teaching Traditional Ghanaian Dance Forms in Higher Education in the Diaspora(Taylor & Francis Group, 2022) Ayi, B.T.Learning a dance form from a culture outside of one’s own, in my observation, can be quite daunting for students, especially those who do not have any dancing experience or those who have experienced dance but not in African forms. This was indicated each year in an assignment in which students were required to share their experiences in a West African dance class that I taught for 6 years in the Department of Dance at the Texas Woman’s University. In their responses, the students shared their fears, misconceptions, uncertainties and concerns, which can be put into two categories. The first category — from students with and without dancing experience — includes fears and misconceptions about difficulty in performing African dance forms resulting in concerns about their ability to dance. The second category — from dance students — includes concerns and uncertainties about the level of challenge that the class might offer to them as an elective class open to students from all disciplines. The students, however, indicated in their responses that the structure of the class and the way in which pedagogy occurred helped alleviate their fears, misconceptions and concerns. In this article, ideas undergirding the structure created to support pedagogy of West African dance forms as a university core curriculum course are presented. The structure focused on five ideas — the five C’s — which are the need to create a comfortable environment that will provide a support base for students to build confidence in their movement capabilities, encourage them to get involved in teaching and learning through the creation of community, and provide feedback in the form of comments and compliments to the entire class. The article concludes with a few suggestions for teachers who are engaged with the pedagogy of Ghanaian dance forms at the tertiary level.Item Cultural education in Ghana: A case study of dance development in the university system(Dance Chronicle, 2004) Adinku, O.Item Performing theory/embodied writing(Opening Acts: Performance in/as Communication and Cultural Studies, 1999) Madison, D.S.This essay performatively expresses specific theoretical ruminations on class, language, and race. This writing is a performance, while it is or is not necessarily for the “stage.” The performance seeks a felt‐sensing meeting between theory, writing, and performing. The performer claims an uneasy possession of performance as a means of both subjectivity and freedom. Theory becomes another way to know performance better; and performance becomes the desired illuminator of theory. From the burlesque to the sublime, the performer conjures four different encounters with her theoretical fathers: Karl Marx, Ferdinand de Saussure, Jacques Derrida, and Frantz Fanon. Needing useful theory‐from the ‘high’ ground of scholarship to the ‘low’ ground of ancient re/tellings‐for useful purposes, the performer must first remember where theories begin.Item Cultural education in Ghana: A case study of dance development in the university system(Dance Chronicle, 2004-12) Adinku, O.In 1962, when the Ghana Dance Ensemble (then the National DanceCompany of Ghana) was formed at the Institute of African Studies of theUniversity of Ghana for research into African dance-theatre, a group ofthirteen students embarked on a performing activity whose directionand founders’ aims we did not fully understand, yet we were enthusias-tic because of the encouragement of our parents, our peers, and thefounders themselves. Dance as a discipline and a profession was new inGhana at the time and needed much experimentation to mold it into anacceptable and honorable activity. Surrounded by some uncertaintywithin the academic system, it needed both tact and sacrifice to makeit blossom.There were some problems at the start. Just fourteen years after theestablishment of the university itself as an affiliate of London University,the academic community at the University of Ghana was not accustomedto a cultural program that brought local priests, musicians, and dancersfrom the ethnic system to the campus to instruct and interact withstudents. Earlier, the legacy of the community had been based solely ona British model, with African cultural programs relegated to the back-ground, so that one could expect ill-feeling and misgivings from a largesection of the academic community.Item The back without which there is no front(Africa Today, 2004-03) Anyidoho, K.Using as its point of reference the principle of "continuity" fundamental to Ewe conception of development and of life itself, this paper draws on the author's personal experience and testimony to establish an organic relationship between Ewe oral tradition and poetry written in English. The article examines contradictions surrounding the use of colonial-heritage language and culture as the basis of creativity and general education in Africa. It demonstrates the challenges of creative work in colonial-heritage languages and the benefits of original work in African languages that draws on models from the oral tradition; however, given that African cultural practice is primarily oral, the paper acknowledges the need for using modern technology for transmitting African literature, especially poetry, through recordings of the spoken voice.Item Ghanaian Screendance Perspectives: The Nuance of ‘Sankofaism’ as Emerging Aesthetics and Rejection of Orthodoxy(2016) Benagr, S.; Ofosu, T.B.K.Screendance is a hybrid art in which choreographic and film techniques are necessary for creating texts where the body dialogues with camera. Ghanaian dance film is best understood within the context of postmodern discourse. This article argues that indigenous and foreign cultural practices are convoluted by morality and hegemonic influence of western culture. Moving from orthodoxy, the Ghanaian dance film re-contextualizes dance practice and film techniques into a composite construct with a tinge of Afrocentrism. Framed by *critical sankofaism*, screendances in Ghana are discussed as being influenced by individual musician's ideas with western biases. Dances for television are shaped by institutional guidelines gleaned from Ghanaian culture. Using *Heyba* and screendance at TV3 Network and GTV, this article discusses dance films as an emerging aesthetic that re-interprets the function of bodies, their relationships with the camera, and concludes that more than being a hybrid site, screendance in Ghana is a 'polybrid'.Item A study of amateur groups’ re-interpretation of traditional dances in Ghana: Role on continuity and safeguarding(Acta Ethnographica Hungarica, 2015) Awuah, E.The amateur dance category in Ghana has been a vibrant force in the performance of traditional Ghanaian dancing for over 20 years. Fluid in ideologies, they have been able to affect the paradigms of traditional dancing in Ghana so much that their activities cannot be overlooked. Even though they are mostly taunted as the ‘destroyers’ of traditional forms by some schools of thought, this category’s input is especially important as they have a direct influence on dance structures in Ghana through their re-interpretations of traditional dance forms. This paper seeks to identify some distinctive re-interpretative styles/patterns this category exerts on traditional dances and their effects on preservation of traditional dances in Ghana.Item Negotiating the Narrative Themes of Traditional Ghanaian Dance Forms within the Museum Context(2016) Awuah, E.B.As facilities for preserving tangible heritage, museums and galleries have partially opened up to the idea of merging intangible cultural heritage, such as dance, storytelling, and music, with their tangible collections. As lived heritage that serves as an emotional, spiritual and physical reflection of the people that created it, traditional dance can add to the socio-cultural understanding of tangible artefacts. This article discusses the possibilities and problems of using traditional dances from Ghana within the nouvelle musŽologie context (de Varine-Bohan, 1976), touching on the functionality of museum spaces, ownership, and interpretability of artefacts in relationship to the embedded narratives and contextual themes of the dances. It considers the practical implications of the thematic synergy between dance and artefacts and explores the potential uses of Ôneo-traditionalÕ dance genres in GhanaÕs museums.Item Semiotics of costume in Baamaya dance suite of the Dagbamba(2015) Kwakye-Opong, R.; Salifu, J.T.The paper discusses the symbolisms and the aesthetics of costume in the Baamaaya Dance Suite among the Dagbamba in Northern Ghana. It looks at semiotics of costume from the general framework of non-verbal communication within the context of the dance. Costume within the framework of the dance will be interrogated based on gender sensitivity. Why the choice of feminist costume for the opposite sex?, The myth surrounding the choice of feminist costume for the opposite sex, as well as clothing representations, will be investigated on the cosmic world view of the Dagbamba. Through participant observation, interviews and content analysis, the paper posits that the feminist reflection of clothes on the men in the Baamaaya dance performance is rooted in the Dagbamba mythology. Again, the costumes are not only aesthetically applied, but they are also embedded with philosophies, symbolisms, signs, texture and elements that are impetus to the general framework of the dance.Item A unique African storytelling theatre tradition and architecture in Ghana(2017-04) Kwakye-Opong, R.; Gharbin, E.This paper investigates the Atwa Kodzidan at Ekumfi Atwa in Ghana, designed by dramatist Efua Theodora Sutherland, as an indigenous theatrical edifice apt for the preservation of oral traditions and the performing arts. The study has relied on interviews, content analysis and participant observation to discover that the Atwa Kodzidan has functioned as a model for indigenous national theatre architecture as it has also promoted and sustained the ideals of the storytelling tradition to the benefit of the people of Atwa, its surrounding communities, and around the world.