The Department of Dance at SUNY Brockport will present the Sankofa African Dance and Drum Ensemble on Thursday through Saturday, April 21 through 23, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, April 24, at 2 p.m., in the Hartwell Dance Theater in Hartwell Hall, Kenyon Street, on the Brockport campus. Tickets are $17/general, $12/senior citizens, Brockport alumni, faculty, and staff, and $9/students. They are available online at http://fineartstix.brockport.edu, by phone at 395-2787, or at the Tower Fine Arts Center Box Office, 180 Holley Street, Brockport. SUNY Brockport’s up-to-date COVID-19 prevention guidelines can be found on the ticketing website, the Fine Arts Series Facebook page, and at brockport.edu/coronavirus. Compliance with campus protocols is required in order to attend any performances or events.
Jenise Akilah Anthony, artistic director of Sankofa, and Mohamed Diaby, the music director, are calling this year’s concert “Wonlande,” (“Let’s Come Together”), as a call to unite in order to “rebuild a stronger community as we emerge out of the crisis of this pandemic.” Anthony has curated and choreographed the concert to honor the spirit of women, who are more often than not, “the bedrock of our society. The dances in this show are centered around the roles of ‘the woman’: the mother, the wife, and the young girl who go through the rites of passage to become the woman who fulfills these roles. With traditional and contemporary pieces that are centered around female life, or the livelihood of women, this show celebrates their strength.”
One of the pieces on the program is “Fula Fare/Mane,” choreographed by guest artist Mouminatou Camara. Camara founded Seewe African Dance Company in September 2005. For a decade, she was the principal dancer for the world-renowned dance company, Les Ballet Africains. She also performed with Les Ballet Djonllba and the Army Ballet. An instructor and performer of West African Dance and Drum, Camara has performed and taught workshops extensively in the USA, Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, Martinique, and the West African countries of Senegal, Mali, and the Ivory Coast. Having spent her life in Guinea, Camara has stated that she has been dancing “since I was in my mother’s womb.”
In keeping with the West African influences on this year’s Sankofa concerts, the ensemble has just come off of a major Guinea residency with the world-renowned Youssiuf Koumbassa. Anthony revealed that the residency, “which drew crowds from Rochester and Buffalo, was a prequel to the Sankofa production which will include a snippet of class material from Koumbassa.”
Native Trinidadian Aviance Bain also set a piece on Brockport dancers when she was in residency at the College this past January. Bain is a choreographer and educator who champions the use of the arts to promote imagination, awareness, and ultimately tolerance. She created The Wonder Project in 2017 “as a vehicle to collaborate with artists and other creative minds who are committed to the unrelenting pursuit of inspired creativity… I feel that to be filled with wonder is to be perfectly poised for revelation.”
The Brockport concerts will also feature the participation of Rochester’s Atebayilla Drum and Dance. Founded in 2018 by Mohamed Diaby, Atebayilla performs traditional rhythms and dances from Guinea, West Africa. Diaby says that their mission “is to share the joy and beauty of this rich, cultural art form with audiences everywhere. The group has performed at schools, concerts, and festivals, and also teaches youth and adult classes across western New York.”
Anthony reminds us that “the word ‘Sankofa,’ loosely translated, means that you cannot go forward without looking back. None of us would be able to go forward in the world of African dance, without recollecting our roots and history. Though the last two years have been challenging, to say the least, they are but a blip in the history of the world.”
The Sankofa concerts often sell out prior to the first performance taking place. If that is not the case, any unsold tickets will be available for purchase at the Hartwell Box Office one hour prior to each performance.
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