COVER STORY: A&T dance professors get bodies, minds moving
By Joe Scott, News & Record (GoTriad)
November 4, 2009
It’s a challenging Monday afternoon for a group of students at Bluford Elementary.
For the 25 fourth- and fifth-graders enrolled in the African dance and drumming workshop sponsored by N.C. A&T, this is the first time they will wear their multi-colored traditional garments tailored from Nigerian fabric.
“I ain’t wearing that mess,” says Jordan Bigelow to his male peers, all of whom are lined up to receive their new duds.
With some laughing and joking around, they quickly fall in line, waiting for the female students to do the same. But in their ornate purple outfits, the girls appear somewhat vulnerable and shy as they approach the male students.
Realizing the situation, program coordinator Eleanor Gwynn issues the following buffer to the young men: “These are traditional outfits that are worn in Africa. If you laugh at them, you’re laughing at your own culture, and I don’t like that.”
Her speech works. The boys do not even snicker at the girls as the two groups merge to dance, drum and sing with the instructors and performers.
Since October, instructors from A&T as well as performers from across the Triad have been conducting these workshops at Bluford Elementary School as well as Washington Elementary, High School Ahead Academy and Greensboro Urban Ministry’s Partnership Village. The classes culiminate this month with free final performances by the students this week and next.
Funded in part by the United Arts Council of Greater Greensboro, the workshops are intended to not only teach these children how to dance, play drums and sing, but to also give them a broader understanding of African culture. The kids also learn valuable life lessons in discipline and how to behave with confidence.
“Anybody could just teach dance,” Gwynn says. “But for us, it’s so much more than that.”
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Gwynn is certain of the positive impact these workshops have on the students. She was always interested in dancing as a child, but that passion elevated when she was in the fifth grade and a teacher, who was also the school’s dance instructor, asked if she would dance dressed as a fairy for the school’s book fair. Afterward, she went on to study dance at her elementary school and continued on through college before founding her own troupe, the E. Gwynn Dancers of N.C. A&T.
“I just felt that it meant so much for me; it brought me out,” said Gwynn, chair of the department of visual and performing arts at A&T. “I was a very shy person, nobody would believe that, but I was the youngest of four children, so I used to be the last in line for everything.
“And I wanted to do something that they didn’t do, and dance gave me the opportunity to express myself, to develop self-confidence.”
It’s her hope that the dance and drumming workshops will do the same for the students. She also adds that it gives them the chance to study African culture from people who have visited the continent first-hand, such as Cheryl Stevens, a workshop dance instructor. She traveled to South Africa on two separate occasions, and lived in Ghana, in west Africa, as a Fulbright Scholar. She says that many of the young students she has taught have a negative perspective on the region due to its portrayal on TV and in newspapers. One of the biggest misconceptions she has addressed with her dance students is the living conditions in Africa.
“I told them I’ve seen everything, from people who live in a shantytown where their house is very small with one room, where everyone functions, to gorgeous homes with swimming pools in gated communities,” said Stevens, who is also a dance professor at A&T. “And they’re like, ‘What? A swimming pool in west Africa?’ ”
Teaching the concept that people in Africa share many similarities to those in the United States is something Stevens also incorporates into her dance instruction. While students learn traditional African song and dance routines like their first number, “Fanga,” she added a mosaic afterward, where smaller groups of children perform dances and games that they already learned on the playground and from popular musicians.
“I like it when they let us do ‘The Jerk,’” says Keshaun Rhodie, 10, referring to the current dance craze made popular by the hip-hop group New Boyz.
“We want them to see those connections and realize we’re not two separate things,” Stevens said. “They’re over there and they’re over here, too.”
The classes also fulfill the need for dance programs in schools. Funding for the arts in public schools is on the decline nationwide, and in Guilford County, few schools –– and even fewer elementary schools –– have dance programs. And for those not enrolled in a specialty school and who can’t afford outside lessons, this means they will most likely have to do without.
“I think there’s a definite connection between learning dance and music and learning in the classroom,” Gwynn said. “If educators could ever understand that connection, they would put all of the arts back in tomorrow.”
She said she believes performing arts programs not only allow more active children to channel their energies in a positive way, but they also give kids a stronger sense of discipline.
“It can make them work harder so that they can keep that opportunity and not lose it,” Gwynn said.
For student Trey Malloy, 11, who already learned how to dance from his sisters, the opportunity to learn new dances and perform them in front of his fellow classmates is one he would like to continue the rest of the year. Aside from adding new moves to his repertoire, the experience has taught him to be less shy.
“I think that even though you’re shy, you’re still going to have to dance in front of people,” Malloy says. “So that’s why I’m not shy dancing in front of people anymore.”
Gwynn said that stories like Malloy’s give her hope that the workshops will continue beyond 2009 on a weekly basis.
“It means as much to us as it does to them,” Gwynn said. “There’s a good feeling to know that you made an impact and you made a difference.”
Want to go?
African Dance and Drumming Performance
What: Three live presentations of traditional African dance, drums and chorus sponsored by N.C. A&T and the United Arts Council of Greater Greensboro. Admission is free.
When: 5 p.m. Monday
Where: Bluford Elementary, 1901 Tuscaloosa St., Greensboro
When: 5 p.m. Wednesday
Where: Washington Elementary, 1110 E. Washington St., Greensboro
When: 4:30 p.m. Dec. 10
Where: High School Ahead Academy, 329 College Road, Greensboro
Information: 334-7852
