Performers from the Hawaii group
Top, left, performers from the Hellenic Pride Greek group.
Last Friday, May 1, 2009, the Millville Public Schools sponsored an event to mark the end of what it called a Multicultural Week. It was tagged Millville’s Multicultural Night 2009. Apparently, to underline the place of art in culture, it staged the events at the Glass Town Plaza, on High Street. Anyone who knows this small New Jersey town knows that much of High Street is Millville’s arts district. Here, all art forms, including photography, students’ art works, and glassware were in display. Winners of the Millville District multicultural essay contest were announced, too. However, it was dance that captured the most interest for me. My kids attend public schools and since the event was heavily promoted by the school district, I couldn’t but take my kids there. But, it was worth the time and other resources that I put into attending.
Although it was billed to be a multicultural event reflecting the rich and diverse cultures of the people of Cumberland County, for me, it was essentially the African culture, the African dance forms that were on display. Attending the event, also, showed me that the African child comes in a variety of forms, in America. As a matter of fact, only one group of performers, the Hellenic Pride Greek dancers, did not remind me of my roots in Africa – I mean the dance forms that I had witnessed in Africa in over 30 years before relocating to the United States, a decade ago. It is important to state, here, that all performers were children of school age and most were in high school.
The first group that entertained was the Latin American Club of Bridgeton High School. Its first performance was presented by students of Mexican origins. As I watched their costumes and other forms of dressing, their dance steps and patterns, as well as the entire ensemble, I was reminded of the traditional dances that I had witnessed in parts of Rivers State of Nigeria. I also had the same feelings when the group that comprised students of Puerto Rican descent performed. In that group, I looked at one girl in particular, how dark complexioned and fat she was, and what struck me most was how she could not be distinguished from any other African girl, say on the streets of Lagos Nigeria or Accra Ghana.
However, it was the troupe that has its origins in Hawaii, the Aloha Village Polynesian Revue, that had the most surprise for me. It reminded me of the Nkwa Umu Agbogho dance that is popular in Afikpo area of Igbo land and the various dances by maidens across Nigeria and Africa. Unlike the other troupes before it, this one included drums and drummers. To the adoration of the audience, the men on the ensemble danced “dirty,” shaking and twisting their hips and waists, gesturing and showing other body language in ways suggestive of love-making. The girls among them also gyrated and shook their buttocks, just as you’d see it in parts of Igbo land and the rest of Africa when maidens dance. To cap it all, admirers could walk to the dancer and paste dollar bills on her, in appreciation of her choreographic acumen, akin to the “spraying” of money on dancers that is the hallmark of African traditional dancing.
On the whole, what mattered to me that evening was not the art exhibition, entertaining and enlightening as it was, but the dances that provided me with information about the existence of the African child in areas that I never really knew of, particularly in Hawaii, the birth place of our current president, Barack Obama, an African child, himself.
Left, performers of Mexican origin from the Latin American Club of the Bridgeton High School.
The other African Child, in Hawaii, etc
By Azubike Aliche
By Azubike Aliche
Last Friday, May 1, 2009, the Millville Public Schools sponsored an event to mark the end of what it called a Multicultural Week. It was tagged Millville’s Multicultural Night 2009. Apparently, to underline the place of art in culture, it staged the events at the Glass Town Plaza, on High Street. Anyone who knows this small New Jersey town knows that much of High Street is Millville’s arts district. Here, all art forms, including photography, students’ art works, and glassware were in display. Winners of the Millville District multicultural essay contest were announced, too. However, it was dance that captured the most interest for me. My kids attend public schools and since the event was heavily promoted by the school district, I couldn’t but take my kids there. But, it was worth the time and other resources that I put into attending.
Although it was billed to be a multicultural event reflecting the rich and diverse cultures of the people of Cumberland County, for me, it was essentially the African culture, the African dance forms that were on display. Attending the event, also, showed me that the African child comes in a variety of forms, in America. As a matter of fact, only one group of performers, the Hellenic Pride Greek dancers, did not remind me of my roots in Africa – I mean the dance forms that I had witnessed in Africa in over 30 years before relocating to the United States, a decade ago. It is important to state, here, that all performers were children of school age and most were in high school.
The first group that entertained was the Latin American Club of Bridgeton High School. Its first performance was presented by students of Mexican origins. As I watched their costumes and other forms of dressing, their dance steps and patterns, as well as the entire ensemble, I was reminded of the traditional dances that I had witnessed in parts of Rivers State of Nigeria. I also had the same feelings when the group that comprised students of Puerto Rican descent performed. In that group, I looked at one girl in particular, how dark complexioned and fat she was, and what struck me most was how she could not be distinguished from any other African girl, say on the streets of Lagos Nigeria or Accra Ghana.
However, it was the troupe that has its origins in Hawaii, the Aloha Village Polynesian Revue, that had the most surprise for me. It reminded me of the Nkwa Umu Agbogho dance that is popular in Afikpo area of Igbo land and the various dances by maidens across Nigeria and Africa. Unlike the other troupes before it, this one included drums and drummers. To the adoration of the audience, the men on the ensemble danced “dirty,” shaking and twisting their hips and waists, gesturing and showing other body language in ways suggestive of love-making. The girls among them also gyrated and shook their buttocks, just as you’d see it in parts of Igbo land and the rest of Africa when maidens dance. To cap it all, admirers could walk to the dancer and paste dollar bills on her, in appreciation of her choreographic acumen, akin to the “spraying” of money on dancers that is the hallmark of African traditional dancing.
On the whole, what mattered to me that evening was not the art exhibition, entertaining and enlightening as it was, but the dances that provided me with information about the existence of the African child in areas that I never really knew of, particularly in Hawaii, the birth place of our current president, Barack Obama, an African child, himself.
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