University of Alberta West African Music Ensemble

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Here you will find daily records of what was covered in class, as well as links to specific things we learn, such as dances or drums.

July 10, 2006

The circle represents life and community

  • Life is a cycle.
  • Most Ewe dances are in a circle.
  • There is a connection between the physical and metaphysical--the living and the dead are related.

Gota

  • The dance's basic movement.
  • The beginning drum signal
  • The drum signal to change from the basic movement to improvised dance with your partner.

Gahu

  • The bell pattern: low high high high high
  • The rattle pattern: pum pa ti pa ti pa ti pa
  • The basic steps: right right left left

Call & Response


July 11, 2006

Gota

  • review of the basic movement, the drum signal to change
  • the drum signal to freeze
  • Tomorrow Wisdom wants to see good improvised dancing with partners.

Gahu

  • This dance was called the airplane dance by the old colonial masters. It can happen at any occasion, but especially for recreation. This is the dance where boys go to show off to get the most beautiful girl & vice versa (Wisdom).
  • We reviewed the basic step.
  • We learned variation one, variation two and variation three.

Call & Response


July 12, 2006

Introduction

  • Circle call & response
    • The leader calls: Circle, circle.
    • The group responds: Big circle.
    • While responding, the group gets into a circle and holds hands until the circle is the right size.

Gahu

Call & Response


July 13, 2006

Call & Response

Gahu

  • slow Gahu & transition to fast Gahu
  • Osee loo
  • Pe pa see

Introduction to drums

  • Boba-lead drum in Gota & Gahu
  • Atsimevu-lead drum in Gahu & Atsiagbekor
  • Kaganu-Bobobor, Gota, Gahu, Atsiagbekor
  • Kagan-Bobobor, Gota, Gahu, Atsiagbekor
  • Sogo-Gahu
  • Kidi-Gahu, Atsiagbekor
  • Kloboto (also known as Kroboto)-Atsiagbekor
  • Totogi-Atsiagbekor
  • Kpanlogo drums-Kpanlogo
  • Talking drum
  • The lead drum communicates to the dancers what they are supposed to do


July 17, 2006

Gahu

Songs
Dance
Drums
  • sogo, kidi & kagan parts


July 18, 2006

Warm-up

  • Story circle: One person starts a story, and each person around the circle contributes a few sentences until the circle is complete.
  • Wisdom and Nicole demonstrated the Atsiagbekor (aka Agbekor) war dance.

Gahu

  • We reviewed the Gahu dance today from beginning to end.

Atsiagbekor

  • We learned the basic movement. Step-Cross-Step-Cross/hop
  • We learned the "To te ga de ge" movement, which ends each variation.
  • We learned variation one: "To to crang crang"

Drum test

  • Today after the break, Robert gave a drum test. Each student was tested on one Gahu drum part, chosen randomly by Robert. All students demonstrated knowledge of how each part goes.
  • Robert and Wisdom mentioned that some students need to learn how the rhythm of the drum fits into the bell part.

Video

The video from today's class is split into 10 minute segments. The links for these are below.

July 19, 2006

Warm-up

  • Today Wisdom led a warm-up using a lot of Atsiagbekor movements.

Atsiagbekor

Dance
  • We reviewed the basic movement, to te ga de ge & the first variation (to to crang crang) without drums.
  • We learned two new variations:
    • a de-ge-den to (ewe upper body movement in 4 directions)
    • kito ge-den-ga (slash-slash-slash-jump forward-hop back-hop back-hop back-hop back)
  • Wisdom demonstrated these variations with the drum language.
Drums
  • We learned the bell pattern (gangkogui): Low Hi Hi-Hi Hi Hi Hi-
  • We learned the rattle (axatse): Pum pa ti pa-pa ti pa ti pa ti pa-
  • We learned the kagan: _ ka-gan _ ka-gan _ ka-gan _ ka-gan

Video

Click here to see the five Gahu dance variations. (7 minute video)

The Video from today's class is split into 10 minute segments. Links to each video are below.

July 20, 2006

Video

Here are some video clips for things we learned today:

Warm-up

  • stretching
  • Seniwa
  • circle circle
  • ha ha ha ha

Atsiagbekor

Gahu


July 21, 2006

Today we reviewed the Gahu dance and had a performance test for Gota & Gahu. Then we watched a video of Atsiagbekor (soon to be posted). The video is of the Sankofa Dance Theatre Group. You'll notice that in some spots the video seems to have been accidentally recorded over. This seems to be only for a few minutes at a time.

Video

Here is the video from today's class, split into 10 minute segments.

Here is the Sankofa Dance Theatre Group Video we watched, also split into 10 minute segments. From the beginning of video 7 to the beginning of video 9 is the section on Atsiagbekor. The fourth video also has a good close up on the Atsiagbekor drums from about 7:20 to the end (10:00).

July 24, 2006

To start class we did a warm-up of stretching & so on. A few announcements were made:

  • Thursday's class will be the graded performance exam.
  • Friday's class will be a fun performance and potluck. Please invite friends and family & bring food! Robert will look into booking a room for the potluck. Time TBA--possibly 6-8 p.m. or so.

Atsiagbekor

  • We heard the story behind the movement in Ending 1 and some of the history of the Ewe people and their migration through West Africa.

Video

Here is today's video, split into 10 minute segments.

July 25, 2006

Video

History & Culture

Today Wisdom talked about some of the History behind the movements in the Atsiagbekor dance and about some general history of the Ewe people in West Africa. Here are some brief notes from his story and from the questions and discussion that followed.

  • The elders deserve the utmost respect.
  • The symbol on the WAME t-shirt means Gye Nyame--except God. Wisdom gave several examples of the meaning. Here is one:
    • If you have enemies, they cannot do anything against you, except if God lets them.
  • The colour of clothing is significant:
    • Black and red clothing signifies danger or pain.
    • White signifies joy or happiness.
    • If an elder dies, the close family will wear white, because he or she has had a long, full life. This clothing would be worn just at the funeral. But if a young person dies, the clothing will be black or red and it would be worn for a couple of months.
    • A year after someone's death there is a service of remembrance, at which the colour of clothing is white.

July 26, 2006

General/Announcements

  • Today we reviewed the 3 dances we have learned: Gahu, Gota and Atsiagbekor. We also did evaluations at the end of class.
  • Tomorrow is the performance test! The partners you danced with today for Gahu & Gota will be the same tomorrow and the 3 groups for Atsiagbekor will be the same. Video is available to review the parts:
    • Atsiagbekor with the variations played randomly.
    • Gahu Variations --Dance Variations only. Please use this video to review the variations.
    • Complete Gahu with an incorrect variation. Please use this video to review the opening and closing of Gahu (Osee & Pay pa se).

Video

Here are today's videos in 10 minute segments:

July 27, 2006

Today the class had a performance exam. We danced Gahu, Gota and Atsiagbekor. Then we organized the performance for July 28, 2006.

Video

Here are videos of today's performance exam in 10 minute segments: (in progress)

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