Gracieux Feet Dance Theatre

olling waves of the sea? The slithering of snakes or the stomping of elephants? Indeed these have come to be dance styles practiced in different cultures all over the world and all over time. What is interesting is that with the world becoming a global village, due to migration and other factors, the original dance culture of many regions hasn't been lost. With the explosion of hip pop in West Africa in the 70’s to 90’s for example, robot dance and b balling came but they didn't take West African dances away. With the start of the noughties (year 2000-10) there was an awakening of West African dance, African artists have been able to successfully take their ethnic dance styles to international attention under their foreign influenced music. Take what ‘Fuse’ did with the Ghanaian ‘Azonto’ for example. Or what Nigerians are doing with ‘Etighi’. This synergy can be achieved between ballet dance style, a form of dance that progressed in Western Europe during the Renaissance era and African dance style. Now African dance is a very ambiguous term as Africa is not a country, but there are some similarities between most dance cultures across the continent. The male dance pieces usually require physically strong men to execute powerful moves from feet stomping to fight simulations. The female dance numbers require flexible bodies for rigorous waist twisting and thrusting. Ballet dance on the other hand consists of mostly slow techniques that emphasize versatility and loss of gravity, which requires lots of jumps and stretching of limbs. This two dance styles may seem conflicting at first, but on a second look won’t we find beauty in contrast? What if a graceful lift and jump in the air is followed through with a victorious stomping of feet on the ground? What if a session of rigorous waist shaking is ended with a graceful stretch of limb? Dance on closer observation carry similarities from place to place. Elements of ballet dance can be found in the extremely flexible stretches and fluid movements of the ‘Swange’ dance of Tiv people for instance. There is a secret power or joy (for the less superstitious) I believe, waiting in the place in between where ballet and African dance styles meet, that there is the promise of an even more wholesome state of mind in it than just dancing to one style, an exalted state that could bring new epiphany to what it means to be human. Welcome to Gracieux Feet Dance Theatre, School of Contemporary dance and African Arts.