Pocket Book - A Wise Monkey Knows Which Tree to Climb

A WISE MONKEY KNOWS WHICH TREE TO CLIMB: PERSPECTIVES ON DECOLONISING BLACK DANCE THOMAS TALAWA PRESTØ WITH A PREFACE BY PAWLET BROOKES

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A WISE MONKEY KNOWS WHICH TREE TO CLIMB: PERSPECTIVES ON DECOLONISING BLACK DANCE Published by Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage Serendipity 21 Bowling Green Street Leicester LE1 6AS +44 (0) 116 482 1394 info@serendipity-uk.com www.serendipity-uk.com Serendipity Artists Movement Limited Company registration number in England and Wales 07248813 Charity registration number in England and Wales 1160035 Copyright © Serendipity Artists Movement Limited 2022 Design © The Unloved Text © Pawlet Brookes, Thomas Talawa Prestø Photographers © Richard Bridgens, Sheri Determan, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Stuart Hollis, Per-Anders Pettersson, Ricky Rozes, W Eugene Smith.

Editor Pawlet Brookes MBE Additional Research © Amy Grain, Aderonke Omotosho, Georgina Payne, Heather Saunders, Ashly Stanly ISBN: 978-1-913862-12-1 A CIP record for this book is at the British Library Whilst every effort has been made to provide accurate information, Serendipity cannot accept responsibility for any inaccuracies contained within this publication. The views expressed in this book are those of the contributors alone, and do not necessarily reflect those of the publishers.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced except for purposes of research, criticism and reviews, without prior permission from the contributors and publishers.

A Wise Monkey Knows Which Tree to Climb: Perspectives on Decolonising Black Dance

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6 PREFACE – PAWLET BROOKES 8 INTRODUCTION 18 CONCEPTS, TERMINOLOGY AND PERSPECTIVES 36 DANCE AS DECOLONIAL ACTION 60 UNDERSTANDING RACISM AS A PREREQUISITE FOR DECOLONIALITY 106 FOOTNOTES 108 BIOGRAPHIES

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PAWLET BROOKES

PREFACE

A Wise Monkey Knows Which Tree to Climb: Perspectives on Decolonising Black Dance

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References Njotea, R., (2021) The Decolonisation of Language Starts With Awareness. The Low Countries [Article] Available at: https:// www.the-low-countries.com/article/thedecolonisation-of-language-starts-withawareness (Accessed 5 September 2022).

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THOMAS TALAWA PRESTØ

INTRODUCTION

A Wise Monkey Knows Which Tree to Climb: Perspectives on Decolonising Black Dance

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10 Introduction

to relevance, rejuvenation and to being “liberal and inclusive”. When programmed on a stage, Black dancers doing EuroWestern styles also tend to help the image of the stage as supposedly inclusive, diverse and liberal, as if allowing Blacks to dance ballet is an act of charity and goodness.

African, Caribbean and African Diaspora dance, with their rich coordinates, do not need to be “translated” nor “elevated” to be relevant. They have to be mastered and they must be claimed. The latter is scary and the former requires work. Because African, Caribbean and Diaspora forms are seldom taught institutionally, many artists although they subscribe to the aesthetics, do not have deep knowledge of the form, or not sufficient enough to be able to make new constructions and adaptations suitable for various formats. It is here for example we reach a decolonial diagnosis.

Through teaching and studying our forms, in depth, and by mastering it, we are decolonising. By applying the deep decolonised knowledge to our practice, we are further decolonising both the stage and the audience, as well as the institutions. To truly dance African, Caribbean and African Diaspora dance is an act of radical revolution. Ancient Power claiming a modern use, is an act of rebellion against the status quo and the neocolonialisation and constant re-appropriation of our practice and creativity.

This document is meant as a starting point for discussion, a possible stepping stone into your own decolonised art practice, and for mental nourishment. The Black practitioner is the central focus and I will illustrate how Black dance can create new relationships and decolonise from the stage, through a decolonised choreographic practice and philosophical centring.

Decolonising and anti-racism are by many used interchangeably. However, they are not interchangeable, because coloniality produces racism and continues through racism; anti-racist practice and understanding is a pre-requisite for decolonising. To share understanding and tools for recognising, countering and discontinuing racism the second section of this document is focused on racism.

A Wise Monkey Knows Which Tree to Climb: Perspectives on Decolonising Black Dance

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Tanco, South Bronx, Hip Hop 1984. Photograph by Ricky Flores

12 Introduction: Anansi’s Web – Don’t drink bush tea for someone else’s fever

― Anansi’s Web Anansi’s Web is one of Norway’s first decolonial doctorates, and the first such to deal with dance, and Africana dance in particular. The research is called Anansi’s Web-entanglements without tripping. Anansi is a spider spirit/deity from western Africa, who travelled with Africans across the Atlantic and into the Diaspora. The folk tales of Anansi were hidden as stories of brother rabbit and are also the foundation of what later became for example the cartoon Bugs Bunny. In Europe and Scandinavia, the stories were appropriated as stories of a clever fox. Stories and communication are Anansi’s domain. Anansi is a trickster and embodies the principle of communication. They are a non-binary spirit and a shapeshifter. Things are not always what they seem with Anansi.

The imagery of the spider web, catching and entangling various elements, and the spider always being aware of how these elements vibrate in the entirety of the web is a way to synthesise a possible way to simultaneously view a larger construct in both its micro and macro iterations. A large web, expanding outwards and inwards in ever spiralling intricate designs of interconnectedness, it embodies the intelligence of both stickiness and mobility. It embodies the principle of being able to construct wherever we are, and construct to nurture, to catch, to shelter or to confuse.

This approach allows us to catch elusive elements and to sense how a movement, past, present or future, vibrates its presence and signals to the rest of the construction. We seek to be Anansi, capturing the uncatchable and connecting that which previously was perceived to be disconnected.

Syncretism is when various schools of thought, beliefs, philosophies and cosmologies are combined to form something new. This is usually done by accenting the underlying unity or co-cadence and builds bridges from there for these to co-exist in the same structure. Diaspora Voudun is such a complex syncretic polydiasporic4 construct and provides a template for how various African Diaspora practices and African continental practices could be brought together and be balanced A Wise Monkey Knows Which Tree to Climb: Perspectives on Decolonising Black Dance

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within the same construct, even with contradictions, and dissonances.

The project centres and orbits Africana (African and African Diaspora) coordinates for the how, why, who, what and where we dance. Voudun and other Africana syncretic theocorporhythmic5 (theoretical corporal rhythmic) practices provide conceptual and theoretical structure and logic. These logics, philosophies and structures are then applied to the production of artistic expression, knowledge and analysis. ― Don’t drink bush tea for someone else’s fever Coloniality is not always a Black issue. Often the white institutions themselves are those who are suffering; in decreasing viability, legitimacy and issues of audience recruitment are but some examples. Too often when racism, xenophobia and other such ism’s raise their heads and get a headache, we are the first to run to take medicine for them. Before we spring to action we should analyse if the headache is even our own.

Often when we are speaking about decolonising, we are talking about decolonising western institutions. We seldom talk about what decolonising looks like from the Africana practitioner’s perspective. Decolonising then becomes yet another situation in which Black people are working for white institutions, usually for free, dedicating and donating our time and efforts to make the institutions more viable, more sustainable and let’s be honest, more marketable.

Universities and institutions of higher learning are now experiencing issues of recruitment. Their sudden interest in “listening” to suggestions about having anti-racist platforms and for hiring some (usually temporary) Black professors or including hip-hop in their curriculum, is as much about recruitment and the institutions’ continued economic survival as it is about any social responsibility or sudden awakening to the multigenerational systemic racism to which they have also been part and privy.

The act of centring ourselves as Black people, using our own coordinates, philosophies, practices as not only inspiration but as the destination, is an

14 Introduction: Don’t drink bush tea for someone else’s fever

act of decolonising. To do this, you do not have to dismantle, completely reorganise or recreate entirely alternative systems to the EuroWestern modernity.

Firstly, we must rid ourselves of the notion that modernity, contemporaneity, globalisation, and business are white concepts, or even EuroWestern. The entire world has contributed to these four elements.

It is owned by all, but through manipulation it is wrongfully favouring just a part of the global population.

It is as much about “hacking” the system, knowing where to connect, where to disconnect, when you have leverage, when to be present or when to be loudly absent. Racism and coloniality are both processes that are designed to and are most apt at derailing Black people, either having us work to improve systems for them or having us burn ourselves out trying to put up wholly alternative systems. Sometimes, working in segregated rooms, ensuring that the actions that we take and the discussions that we have are FUBU (for us and by us) is an important strategy and an efficient methodology. Many times, we have misunderstood the process and hence also our leverage and agency. In the case of music, dance, and the arts it is not the EuroWestern institution including us, but us including them.

“While I am on stage, sweating, adding here that I am damn good at what I do, it is not you are including me, but me including you. Trust!”

Tabanka dancer The above quote was given by one of the principal dancers in my company Tabanka Dance Ensemble as a response to a particularly loud audience member. A white woman zealously advocating to us in the Q&A session after our premiere night, that we should be particularly thankful and grateful, that so many white audience members had come out and shown up to support multiculturalism, and to be inclusive and generous to us, so that we may portray our Black skin on stage and try to be proud. Yes, her A Wise Monkey Knows Which Tree to Climb: Perspectives on Decolonising Black Dance

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words were “try to be”. Her oration was a lesson in declassification and a study in whether “microaggressions” is a fitting terminology at all.

The dancer’s answer, however, did point to something of import.

It would be impossible for that audience to have the experience of expert Africana dance, to complex polyrhythms and erudite execution of call and response practices, without us. It would be a world that would be wholly inaccessible to them, without our mediation and inclusion. As such the dominant effort of inclusion is done by the Africana practitioner.

We continue to enrichen the horizons of many by our inclusive practice.

It is a gift, what we bring. I am not claiming superiority in stating this.

I am simply acknowledging that it is effort and generosity. For that, we should not feel inferiority, nor should we be any more or any less thankful than any other artist. We have, like them, gone through artistic boards to be accepted (if after a bid) or curated into a space. Our presence is warranted, our efforts are doubled, the distance travelled is greater and the impact, of our presence, due to the politics of our bodies, are that much more potent.

The reason for our absence is not us. It is not due to lack of quality nor of lack of effort. Obama for many was a symbol of Black progress. However, I argue that he is a symbol of white progress. Obama is not the first Black man qualified to be the President of the United States. He, however, represents the first time America had evolved into a nation which could accept (to the degree that they did) a Black man as President. The evolution was not that of Black people, but that of the white people in America and their relationship to the concept of race. Similarly, America has not yet proven that they are ready for a female President, although they now have a Black female Vice President and could for this have to test their progress, if she at some point will be afforded the opportunity to assume office.

Similarly, Africana dance has been spread and is spreading internationally.

Since the beginning of coloniality, until today, anyone living in an industrial western country would not have been able to avoid hearing Africana

16 Introduction: Don’t drink bush tea for someone else’s fever

influenced music. They have also, most likely, been doing dance moves which originated on Africana bodies. Even if we only look at the “Black World” there are more practitioners of Africana dance than there are of any other dance genre. Assuming that Africana dance is somehow a minority dance or is non-normative is misdirection. Hold your head up high and know that you are a practitioner of some of the most widespread aesthetics in the world. As an Africana dance practitioner know that your audience do have the references and connections needed to both understand and enjoy what you do. The focus here needs to be on the reframing and the reconnecting of our dance to intelligence, discipline, prestige, aesthetics, professionalism, etc. Decolonising what we do and how we are perceived/presented is also about disconnecting from the connotations established by the colonial project and the continued push for epistemicide and cultural arrogation.

The moral of the story, and the central learning curve for decolonising, is to not drink bush tea for anyone else’s fever (don’t take painkillers for someone else’s headache). Make sure as an Africana person or another person of colour, that the issues you are addressing are your own, your communities and that the solutions offered will directly address and benefit the previously marginalised. Be wary of when it becomes about bettering the white institution, or saving “white” people from their own history. We can recruit allies, but in the work of decolonising they must be contributors and not resource drainers. This means that the work of antiracism and inclusion must already have happened for decolonisation to be able to occur. As such we have now already defined that antiracism, inclusion and justice are not decolonising action but rather the prep work necessary for decolonisation to be able to occur.

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“Dance at Plantation, Trinidad, 1836” Illustration by Richard Bridgens

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THOMAS TALAWA PRESTØ

CONCEPTS, TERMINOLOGY AND PERSPECTIVES A Wise Monkey Knows Which Tree to Climb: Perspectives on Decolonising Black Dance

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“Not to know is bad, not to wish to know is worse” Africana Proverb ― Defining Colonialism and Decolonism Decolonialise is a new concept as it is being introduced to the mainstream.

It is increasingly being discussed and the quality of discussions in academic spaces is not necessarily that much higher than the discussion that are being had on social media. This leads to a confusing field where it is hard to form an opinion as many people are discussing without first establishing a common platform. Often, we see calls for the decolonisation of curriculum or institutions, only to have the demands that follow be demands of antiracism and or inclusion. Decolonising is a more radical and a more thorough process than inclusion or anti-racism. However, decoloniality would not be possible if not built on a platform that has already gone through anti-racist revision and anti-misogyny and many other criticalities.

Simplified, decolonisation was originally a term used to describe the removal of colonial forces, from the geographical spaces and institutions that belong, or should belong to the indigenous, anterior or original peoples.

Singer Siyabonga Mthembu of South Africa states the following in the opening of his show Afropoets - the brother moves on6: “The argument about land is confusing because owning land is a European idea- a white concept. We don´t own the land, we are responsible to it”.

Lately, decolonising has become a term which is also used to refer to the removal of the intellectual colonial material, and the forceful indoctrinations that were originally designed to establish systems of inferiority and superiority. Referencing Bob Marley’s famous lyrics: “Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but our selves can free our mind”.

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Coloniality is not just about the occupation of land or the domination of people, it is also about the hegemonic monopolising of truth, knowledge, art and action. Often people are getting certain terminology mixed up. This is of no fault of their own usually, as the terminology can be confusing and because the American alternative right and other movements are doing their best to confuse the issue.

Colonialism Refers to the historical experience of domination that coincided with the colonial enterprise, typically traced to the period of eighteenth to twentieth century. Meaning the actual act of colonising by taking land, invading and subjugating peoples.

Coloniality An epistemic concept that finds its origins in the fifteenth century discovery of the “New World” which dominates and controls subsequent modes of knowledge production through codifying differences between the civilised west and the underdeveloped rest. Simplified, it is the monopolisation and construction of what is considered knowledge and what is truth and/or fact.

Epistemicide Episteme is the production of knowledge. Epistemicide refers to the destruction of existing knowledge. It is used within the context of colonisation which has brought violence against humans but also involved violence against indigenous knowledge of the natural world.

The destruction of existing and possible ancestral knowledge (multigenerational learning and archives) and the corruption of the deciphering keys. The body as epistemic deciphering keys: polyrhythmic practices predominantly favour the body. It is through the body that we exchange energy, engage in call and response and where meaning is both made and deciphered. Corrupting the deciphering key refers to how Black personhood alienated from the A Wise Monkey Knows Which Tree to Climb: Perspectives on Decolonising Black Dance

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Tabanka Dance Ensemble at Let’s Dance International Frontiers 2022.

Photographer Stuart Hollis for Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage.

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technologies of the Africana body will have problems accessing the meaning of many practices. Epistemicide must then be viewed as the destruction of the Black bodies/personhoods’ connection to itself, its history, art, culture, language and personality.

Decolonising Based on the above definitions I have designed a definition of decoloniality that is operational, and which serves me in my ongoing work. I will provide you with this working definition. In my 25 years’ experience of working against racism, I have found that it is important to define operational definitions that can be actionable, and which serve as a guide to how we should both organise and implement our work: “Correcting and addressing the fabrication of historical, social, economic and academic “knowledge” and teachings. Teachings which are designed to glorify or normalise oppression, abuse and monopolise knowledge in a way which awards power of definition and resources in favour of Euro-descendants.” ― Decolonising Language Slave vs enslaved Today, historians speak of “enslaved people” instead of “slaves.” This language separates a person’s identity from his/ her circumstance. It points to the fact that you were not actually a slave, but a person, enslaved by force. This gives agency and personhood to the person who is enslaved and does not perpetuate the treatment of Africans and African Diasporans as objects but gives subjectivity. Slavery was forced upon Africans and is not an inherent condition.

Enslaver vs. owner/master/human trafficker The usage of “owner” or “master” empowers the enslaver and dehumanises the enslaved person reducing him/her to a commodity A Wise Monkey Knows Which Tree to Climb: Perspectives on Decolonising Black Dance

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rather than a person who has had slavery imposed upon him or her.

The use of human trafficker highlights the activity, which today is more understood as to what these people engaged in actively. This is irrespective of whether they were directly enslaving or if they are hired by the enslaver in some capacity. Those who facilitate human trafficking are also in fact human traffickers.

When do we use African American?

African American is a terminology which is placed in time and place.

I do not use the term African American about pre-civil rights Africans in America because the terminology points to citizenship, something they did not enjoy pre-emancipation and in other ways not before they were afforded at least the semblance of civil rights.

Afro vs African African specifically geographically places a coordinate. Afro is a terminology most often used about a hairstyle but is also meaning “Africanesque” or “African likeness”. Because I enjoy affirmative and precise language, I go to the trouble of pronouncing African fully and sometimes as an act of rebellion AFreeCan because as a Trini I enjoy word games and “ah free and ah Can”.

Maafa Maafa is a Kiswahili word that means “great tragedy” or “horrific tragedy”, referring to the period called the middle passage or transAtlantic slave trade. Maafa as a concept enveloped more than just the triangle trade and chattel enslavement, it also encompasses all the suffering that has come because of this on both sides of the Atlantic. The victims of the Maafa as such would then count in the hundreds of millions as it is multigenerational and still ongoing. It is an important perspective to carry with you in the process of decolonising our understanding of enslavement and colonialisation.

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For the sake of this exercise, I will provide a shortlist of reframed concepts where: • • • • •

•

•

• • • •

A colony can be viewed as an invaded country, acknowledging that there were people living there from before.

Colonialisation as an extension of this is then viewed as acts of war.

Slaves/enslaved are then perceived to be hostages of war.

Enslavers and all who facilitate or work with them are to be perceived as human traffickers “Slave catchers” are synonymous with the military police, as in both the Caribbean and in Northern America the original police were not established to provide law and order but predominantly to capture escapees and maroons.

Plantations are to be perceived as death camps, as very little natural death occurred on the plantations and because they were in fact work camps and death camps. The term death camp is most often associated with the Jewish holocaust although it was first used in the Congo. The use of the term on plantations is legitimate.

Mistresses who are sometimes referred to in texts were not autonomous and could not choose themselves if they wanted or did not want to engage. The vast power-differences between the human traffickers and the African women are such that it begs to question what level of autonomy the women had. They are more accurately referred to as victims of rape, or more empowering, as survivors of rape.

Trading is to be perceived as kidnapping.

Overseers are to be perceived as both human traffickers and as torturers.

Profit as theft (due to unpaid labour).

Middle passage as a for profit genocide.

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Colonial Language

Decolonised Language

Colony Colonialisation/Colonising Slavers with “colleagues” Slave Catchers Plantations

Mistresses Trading Overseers

Profit Middle Passage Slaves

Invaded country/nation Act of war Enslavers/Human traffickers Military police Death camps and work camps Rape victims/rape survivors Kidnapping Torturers/human traffickers Theft For Profit Genocide Enslaved/hostages of war

Examples above are of both a colonial and a more decolonised description of the same situation, giving clarity around understanding what language does to our perception, but also to demystify what decolonising the language of a curriculum means. Mind you this is just the decolonisation of the language used. Decolonising the institution would be a much more radical process.

Ex.1 Colonial • Slave families lived on plantations owned by white slaveowners who hired overseers to maintain discipline.

Ex.2 Decolonised • African/Black families were held as hostages of war and forced to work on death camps by white human traffickers who employed torturers to torture and kill them to keep them from escaping.

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― Embodied Knowledge Embodied tacit and implicit knowledge In Africana practices much knowledge is embodied. It is not true that our knowledge is predominantly oral. Africa is historically known to have vast libraries and even centres of education, where, among others, Greek philosophers went to study. Papyrus scrolls (basically paper) was developed in Africa due to the need to document and write things down.

They even had a version of printing presses. However, the focus on embodiment of knowledge and “knowing thyself”, emphasises the body as that which deciphers and interprets, and communicates the knowledge.

Astute in many ways. We all have experience of struggling to interpret something, when the reader themselves do not understand what they are reading. The concepts become increasingly hard to understand and something seems to be missing in the dissemination. This is because the knowledge is not embodied and hence is also not communicated, the words are only regurgitated. It is established that the more people know something, the faster new initiates learn or embody the same knowledge.

This most often pertains to tacit knowledge or implicit knowledge.

Tacit/implicit knowledge is knowledge that is difficult to express or extract, and thus more difficult to transfer to others by means of writing it down or verbalising it. Personal wisdom, experiences, insight and intuition fall under this domain for example. Implicit knowledge is usually gained by doing or at least observing over time. Much of human knowledge, especially that which could be considered “culture” are implicit knowledge systems. That which can be written and understood by a recipient is often termed explicit knowledge. However, interpreting this text, or even writing eloquently and expertly, would be implicit knowledge qualities.

Colonialism over-privileges explicit knowledge, as it is also most easy to manipulate. The over-focus on the dominance of the written word and controlling who gets to write and even read these words, like outlawing reading and writing by enslaved Africans, or only allowing for the reading A Wise Monkey Knows Which Tree to Climb: Perspectives on Decolonising Black Dance

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of an altered version of the Bible in the colonies, are examples of how explicit knowledge has been forced on the colonised with a EuroWestern perspective. Many decolonising strategies therefore focus on changing and adding to curriculum, correcting factual fabrications in history such as “Columbus discovered America” and “ballet is the root of all dance”.

Both these claims are not only colonial, but they are also racist and hinder embodiment (and access to implicit knowledge). For Columbus to be able to “discover” America, the people who were already living there must be reduced to flora and fauna, or to sub-human status. Their treatment and following genocide show the consequences of this brutal practice of dehumanisation. This is a practice we co-sign each time we utter the factual myth, that Columbus discovered the Americas. When we say “Indians” or call Caribbeans “West Indians”, we are allowing a white man, who was confused about where he was in the world, refused to ask locals for directions (so to speak) and stubbornly insisted that he was, in fact, in India to dictate terms. Hundreds of years later, we still allow this directionless turpitude to frame terms and context. Decolonising the curriculum is often not more radical than just addressing and correcting such factual myths.

“If better cannot be done, let worse continue” Africana Proverb The statement about Columbus is also a patriarchal statement, as it is phallus-thinking and supports notions of “virgin land”. The idea is that whichever man gets there first and sticks his flag into the soil has the right to claim and to own. The problem with this colonial and patriarchal thinking is that there are very few places in the world where the EuroWestern arrived first.

In the case of the statement about western ballet, it erases all other ethnic dance, and yes ballet is an ethnic dance, and places all dance on one timeline. Further use of language like calling the central stance of much African dance a “primitive squat” further establishes the notion that we somehow started with African dance, and this later evolved into ballet,

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allowing ballet to claim modernity and contemporaneity for itself. When I say ballet, I mean ballet and the dance genres which break off from it. The dominant EuroWestern form of dance “evolution” is through breaking or rupturing. Modern dance breaks away from ballet, and postmodern dance breaks away from modern dance again. This brings us to contemporary dance which again breaks off from modern. This is done, every time, predominantly through appropriation. Rather than crediting the Black dances that have influenced each evolution, focus is rather given on the rancour one has towards a previous white “innovation”.

African dance, even African Diaspora dance, should not be put on the same timeline as EuroWestern ballet, and if anything, modern, postmodern, and jazz dance could be put on forks breaking off from the river which is Africana dance practice if we view it from a perspective which centres ourselves as Africana practitioners.

“If you think you’re too small to make a difference, try spending the night with a mosquito.”

Africana proverb Decolonising core perspectives Decolonialisation is often believed to be a return to a time before coloniality. Not only is this an impossibility, but it also continues the trope that modernity does not belong to the keepers of tradition or those who choose to engage with ancestral dance practices.

I believe part of decolonising to be about examining function and consequence right now, using knowledge of the past, and ethics that are informed by this knowledge.

The issue of decolonising education is being treated now as if it is a brandnew idea. It has been widespread and demanded from people of colour since before the 1920s. Martin Luther King Jr, Cheik Anta Diop, W E B Dubois are scholars of note on the subject.

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Central aspects of coloniality Coloniality have some central aspects which are the reason why we focus on it and decolonising: • • • • • • •

It does harm.

It removes ownership from the originators and passes it to oppressive powers.

It declassifies standards of the original space/creators (cultural arrogation).

It creates disparity in value/appreciation/acknowledgement.

It warps value-based systems.

It monopolises culture and passes on genocide and epistemicide as culture.

It reproduces itself.

The above list outlines criteria to evaluate the validity of an action we claim to be decolonial. The criteria would then be as follows: • •

• • •

In what ways does it address the previously defined ways in which coloniality is perpetuating harm. Is it sufficient? Is it efficient? Is it systemised and non-person based? Is it sustainable?

In what ways is the ownership, reference, standards and respect for originating spaces/people/cultures acknowledged, upheld and affirmed?

Is misappropriation and arrogation avoided and is proper adaptation and appropriation facilitated and evaluated?

Are the processes made sustainable? Has it become a strong practice and an institutional culture? Will new members quickly be able to join the effort?

What are the short-term and the long-term results? In what ways are we evaluating this?

Are opportunities for advancement created for alumni, pre-student, and employees past, present and future?

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Notes on decolonising Decolonising as a concept, itself is appropriated, usually by liberal contemporary practitioners. Their own utopian perspectives are superimposed on top of decoloniality, and it becomes about liberating practices for them. Decolonising is not necessarily liberating and can be full of friction and can even be harmful. Think of it as a broken bone that has not set properly. It is possible that the bone must be rebroken to heal correctly. Decolonising can at times be just such a process of healing.

This means that decolonising can be triggering, even to the point of being harmful. It requires strategies for self-care, especially for the Black people, but even for whites as the repositioning of their identity can be quite traumatic. Decolonisation is a communal effort and should be engaged with through community. In institutions where Blacks are few, it is important to seek bubbles of support, understanding and collegial sympathy, through the internet and through travel. Always make sure you have support.

Regardless, all ideas that decolonising is somehow comfortable should be done away with. It is a process which involves and even welcomes generous rage, empathic friction and non-dissonant togetherness. It validates difference and values it. It is however not an embrace of flat structure, freedom or lack of rules. It is rather a very strict set of morals, guidelines, ethics of engagement and considerations. It is the constant critical evaluation of position, and it is a commitment to doing the work beyond exhaustion and back again. It is also the commitment to revitalising practices and communal healing.

Decoloniality is the balancing of multiple perspectives. It is a critical practice geared towards maximising the efficiency and the potential released by intersectional perspectives and having multiple centralities and entry points at the same time. It does not negate the EuroWestern nor the Africentric or desicentric perspectives at its disposal but rather seeks to find connections, congruence and balance between these perspectives.

They would all be deemed valid if they avoid universality and provide room for the other perspectives.

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Tabanka Dance Ensemble at Let’s Dance International Frontiers 2022.

Photographer Stuart Hollis for Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage.

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Decoloniality is full of criteria. A hip-hop dancer could conclude that they need to radically change their engagement with hip-hop or their practice after using decolonial processes to evaluate their practice. They might be left feeling neither validated nor affirmed, but they will however be provided with a clearer path and a concrete list of tasks and points to study. Decolonising is an unromantic commitment to work, justice, strategic rebellion and revision.

Decoloniality is intersectional in its interrogation. It is feminist where patriarchy has had dominance, it is inclusive of LGBTIQ+ and other perspectives where these have been lacking. The general rule is multiplicity and the acknowledgement of multiple vantage points and centralities.

Efforts are therefore made to balance perspectives in an “yes and” approach to ways of knowing and the experiences through which we filter knowledge.

Decoloniality is not a safe space, although it welcomes safe space practices.

Decoloniality is triggering, and it requires understanding even of the feelings of the perpetuators of oppression and acknowledges that they too are victims of inhuman action. Decoloniality acknowledges that all suffer morally and ethically from coloniality even though some benefit materially.

Decoloniality embraces spirituality and especially ancestral practices and indigenous cosmologies. Decoloniality is not a neo-pagan shopping list of spiritual practices of privileged engagement and demands respect and accountability and caution.

Decoloniality applies ancestral knowledge to contemporary issues.

Evolution is only deemed possible by first mastering that which has come before and moving it forward onto the next generation for further development. It is a process of continuity rather than rupture.

Therefore, strategies of decoloniality also knows to use and repurpose platforms which may have been built by colonial efforts. Like a hammer can do harm or can provide structures that shelter, decoloniality may be utilitarian in its vie for efficiency when addressing colonial harm and alleviating it at the same time as using it as propulsion and learning for a more sustainable and viably equitable future.

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Decolonising the academy When thinking about the decolonising of an institution of learning the following perspectives are important to discuss: Who teaches Are the teaching staff knowledgeable about decolonial processes?

Does the staff include Black people? Do they have agency to change the institution, the curriculum and processes in ways that will have a sustainable and decolonising effect?

What is taught What is the content and the nature of the curriculum? Is both content and language decolonised? Are non-western perspectives not only included but perceived to be completely viable alternatives?

How is it taught Do the applied methodologies, didactics pedagogy include the privileging of various forms of learning and facilitate the embodiment of knowledge intersectionality? Does the teaching methodology open multiple entries and centralities simultaneously?

How is it embodied Does the institution open up for multiple modes of communication and digestion of the knowledge at hand? Are students and teachers engaged and actively participating in the process of decolonising the institution?

Who is the student Does the student body represent the full decolonial potential that they can? In what ways are they recruited, retained, empowered and advocated for moving forward? Are opportunities created both inside and outside of the institution? In what way is the acknowledging capital of the institution used for the students and alumni’s benefit?

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How do we assess the work?

How are both students, teachers, curriculum and long-term results assessed and evaluated? In what way are we dynamic in our adjustments and the way in which we process this information?

Is there congruence in how assessment is done across the board?

“Knowledge without wisdom is water in the sand” Africana Proverb Cultural theft: The consequences of misappropriation In relationship to both art and academia it is hard to deal with or talk about decoloniality without also dealing with the complex issue of appropriation. I will lightly brush on this topic to provide a common platform for future discussion. I start by providing some terminology and understanding of the most common terms used: Cultural Appropriation To take or borrow a cultural element or artefact from a culture which is not your own.

Cultural Misappropriation To misrepresent a cultural element or artefact from a culture which is not your own. Often in a way that makes it difficult for the originating culture to continue to use the cultural element in its original intent or purpose.

Cultural Expropriation To take a cultural element or artefact from a culture in such a way as to make it accessible to others for which it was not intended.

Often for commercial use. This also done in such a way that the originating space is not the main benefactor.

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Cultural Arrogation To take, copy, or misrepresent a cultural element or artefact without justification. Misrepresented to such a degree that it would not be acknowledged by the criteria of the originating culture.

I have coined the term cultural arrogation as I am not at ease with the unspecific way cultural appropriation is used as a term. Arrogation is to make claim or to take without justification. I feel this happens more often than appropriation. Appropriation requires a level of skill because you are copying an original. Most often the “appropriating” culture does not have the skillset to do this hence the rather imperfect rendition of movements, song styles, or others. They arrogate terminology such as, let’s say, jazz or tap and give it to their own practices which are imperfect copies. Insisting that it is the same allows them to take and override the standards and criteria of the original. Hence, the process to me is that of arrogation, not appropriation. Seldom have I seen or heard appropriation if we are to be strict with the criteria of this term.

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THOMAS TALAWA PRESTØ

DANCE AS DECOLONIAL ACTION

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“A fool cannot untie the knot tied by a wise man.”

Africana Proverb Decolonial practice views aesthetics and aesthesis and the EuroWestern hegemony over these concepts as an extension of decolonial abuse of power and imperial structure of control, which was put in place during the sixteenth century with the emergence of the triangle trade and the colonisation of the “New World”. This continues through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and up to the present. aes·thet·ic or es·thet·ic: that which concerns beauty and the appreciation of beauty. adj.

• • • • • • •

Relating to the philosophy or theories of aesthetics.

Of or concerning the appreciation of beauty or good taste: the aesthetic faculties.

Characterised by a heightened sensitivity to beauty.

Artistic: The play was an aesthetic success.

Informal: Conforming to accepted notions of good taste.

A guiding principle in matters of artistic beauty and taste; artistic sensibility.

An underlying principle, a set of principles, or a view often manifested by outward appearances or style of behaviour.

Aesthesis: the perception of the external world through your senses.

Aesthetics became decidedly Eurocentric around the eighteenth century, when it was established as a key concept for theories of sensibility, sentiment, sensations, and emotions. What is often thought of as aesthetics today emerged from European experience and local history, and is rooted in what they perceive to be their capability to judge and perceive/ sense what is beautiful. Through colonialism, coloniality, enforced racism, and cultural imperialism these aesthetic ideas were projected to almost

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the entire global population. Aesthetics hence favours the EuroWestern, which is also why the idea of the EuroWestern “taking” or being “inspired” by something from another culture would be considered “elevation” or “evolution” of that aesthetic, regardless of its original prestige or level of complexity.

Aesthesis is not only concerned with beauty and how it looks but also with how things feel, how the art feels and what it does to us, as in Black art, African art and so much indigenous art around the globe. The embodiment of what one does, of becoming rather than of performing.

The Sami7 people of northern Norway, Sweden and Finland have a musical form they call joik. In joik they do not joik about a person, they joik the person. It is not a performance of the thing/person, in the joik perspective it is the person. This perspective is also held in much Africana art practice. We do not dance about the spirit or perform the spirit, we become the spirit itself (when done fully and not for tourism or for EuroWestern representation). As such, we can say that our artform, in their decolonial iterations, are about becoming rather than about performing. It is the process of becoming and of becoming together, forward and back (Sankofa) in order to infuse ashé (the power to act on the world) through ubuntu (being what we are together) that is at the core of Africana aesthesis.

Africana Aesthetics and Aesthesis has, through colonising processes, been denied validity. Ironically, these very same aesthetics and aesthesis are arrogated and appropriated, only to be rebranded with a different owner and given a false “starting point” catering to western commerciality and packaging.

The study of aesthetics is therefore often treated in the same patronising way as anthropological studies had a history of doing. The EuroWestern hegemony believes that it is they, with their standards and templates, who should judge and define what something is for the indigenous.

Through this lens it is believed that the “Other” is not aware of what they are doing, creating, practicing. An African dancing barefoot in a A Wise Monkey Knows Which Tree to Climb: Perspectives on Decolonising Black Dance

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circle is supposedly not aware of their relation to space, shape, distance, audience, costuming, scenography. This is in spite of the elaborate mask traditions and cultural theatre, with complex and dynamic scenographic elements. The claim is that the contemporary EuroWestern artist is reflected. That there is thought work that goes into the production of the performance and that it is this thought work that in many ways creates the value. For that reason, a dance production with lots of movement vocabulary and high-level technique is valued the same as one where the performer predominantly stands still for more than 60% of the performance. The idea is that the concept of standing still requires as much thought and intention as the production of the movements and their semiology. Some advocates of EuroWestern contemporary dance would claim it has more value.

Jazz dance even when performed by white dancers is also caught in this hierarchical value system. The claim is often that jazz dance is a regurgitation of steps and with less thought. This is in spite of the rhythmic complexity, the marriage and relationship to music, the syncopation and restructuring of the sonic and kinetic elements and their relation to each other, which even a rudimentary jazz dance practitioner is expected to master. Jazz dance suffers from the same stigma and declassification as Black performers and Black bodies themselves are victims of. Rhythm, physicality, propulsion, improvisation, musical play and syncopated challenges are perceived to be natural and inborn and not part of a reflected craft. The contemporary perspective has more often than not sought to elevate itself by devaluing other perspectives, this all at the same time as it claims mindfulness, flat non-hierarchical structures, liberalness and body positivity. EuroWestern contemporary dance follows the logic of rupture, where modern dance ruptures and breaks away from ballet, post-modern from modern, and contemporary from either postmodern or from jazz, and the contemporary usually from a studied and virtuoso expression of aesthetic mastery. It is seldom acknowledged that the result itself becomes a set of aesthetic markers, markers which are only relevant in a discourse with ballet derived and Eurocentric discourse, but which lose their meaning if placed on an African timeline.

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― Decolonial High Standards Decolonial dance is not open source, nor is it necessarily flat structured.

Most indigenous dance has strong aesthetics, has initiation as a criteria for participation and has a master teacher or a community as teacher perspective. Many claim to be decolonising their practice in what is almost to be perceived as a neo-70s approach to freedom and yoga practice for all. The idea is to discard rules, and to engage in play and freedom. For the Westerner, however, it is important to point out the neo-colonial aspect of this, where the practices of the “other” yet again is positioned as a sensual bodily experience in order to liberate the Westerner from the drudgery of their lives, be transcendental and spiritual, and provide a different sensory experience. Sometimes dance, often times really, is just hard work and sweat. It is this for any professional. In Africana dance, where the entire community know how to dance and might even know the steps, criteria for virtuosity and to perform well might actually be higher than when the audience are predominantly lay folk.

The fact that the community for which one performs are usually erudite and at least mid-level of practitioners themselves also translates over into the aesthetics of our performances. The art is created for a knowledgeable audience and is often about the deepening or the layering of elements, rhythms, movement etc. Complexity and repetition as intensifying material can be explored due to the audience’s deep knowledge. What to an outsider can seem, sound, look and maybe even feel like repetitive elements are actually nuanced discourses and raising of artistic statements to be accepted or rejected by the participating discursive community, which includes the audience through call and response.

When the audience are not knowledgeable and are out of context, the material is often simplified, sensationalised, or relegated to the more superficial easier elements to grasp within a limited ken. The audience, in other words, are part of the process which decides the depth of rhythmic discourse. Said with brutal clarity, Africana art can to EuroWestern eyes sometimes seem simplistic because their understanding of the form is at A Wise Monkey Knows Which Tree to Climb: Perspectives on Decolonising Black Dance

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best simple. This way of making the audience accountable for the artistic product is often foreign to the Western perspective of art, which favours the artist as an isolated producer of art. This layered accountability can also be uncomfortable and therefore avoided by many of those that believe decoloniality to be a purely feel good and liberating thing.

Tabanka Dance Ensemble.

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Repetition and deepening. African aesthetics in its polyphonic and polyrhythmic foundations is complex and layered. Repetition or “starting again” is used in order to create a deepening and a propulsion which can double in on itself. There is an understanding that nothing can ever repeat, relations are always negotiated and re-negotiated. For this reason, swing quality enters, and ultimately also groove and “jamming” are the direct result of these constant re-negotiations of our positions to each other and from moment to moment. In EuroWestern fiction the concept of cloning is often brought up. In reality it is not cloning that is in reality investigated but rather a EuroWestern concern with replication. Often what is sought is the ability to replicate oneself. Cloning is usually being able to create another version of you, usually of a similar age, and with your own memories. This is not cloning. It is replicating. Similarly, reptation within the aesthetics of structured EuroWestern dance, music, etc. is concerned with replication, with similarity, not with the investigation of the moment and with the various poly-parts which are in flux as we share the moment and ourselves with each other by communication. Even if all the same elements are present (cloning) what is produced is not a replica but rather a re-negotiation after having learned from the last encounter. It is the concern with replication which also so often leads to injuries, because the concern is replication, which does not take into account the forces and variables that are ever-changing. As such results are forced, and force can cause trauma or injury.

In much Africana practice the purpose of the reptation is to transcend the being and the society that participates in the ritual of music and or dance, because music and dance are a ritual from the building of the instruments, to the donning of the clothing, to the performance and the participation in call and response. These are mixes of sacred and secular rituals, micro and macro. Viewing the art and dance this way resists the “happy go lucky and neo pagan spiritual” appropriation of Africana dance and form.

By focusing on what we actually do, what we produce, what the criteria are and so forth, we are in actuality not adding to coloniality. Specificity, structure, rules, exclusivity and decorum could actually be resisting coloniality. Authority is not a colonial concept. The violent abuse of it is.

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― Ubuntu and Collective Individuality In the Ivory Coast many ethnic groups do not carry the baby attached to the front of the mother or father. This is because the baby should be raised as an independent spirit. So, they can discover the world from their own perspective and their own perch. When carried in front the mother becomes all encompassing. They cannot take in the surrounding world. When carried on the back, even when still communally attached to the mother, they experience and perceive independently and extrovertly with and through the mother or father or extended family. Being independent at the same time. Ubuntu. This perspective of course carries over into aesthetic and aesthesis expressions and is part of the reason for the focus on groove, individuality, style, feeling that you find in African-based dance styles even when they are performed in groups. Collaborative Competition and Collective Individuality are two terms which are useful in order to describe this. Much colonised dance favours an ability to replicate and “sameness”.

Group dancing often erases the individual, and one would have to solo in order to stand out. As such a hierarchy is firmly established. A break away from hierarchy could therefore be a way to deal with colonial retentions, however not all hierarchies are problematic or violent, and position is often earned not just randomly given. As mentioned before, the Africana way is often acknowledgment through initiation and rites of passage, which in turn points to a progression, effort, standards, examination, evaluation and acceptance.

Collaborative Competition Competing against each other to “one up” yet in perfect collaboration rhythmically and in relation to the call and response and experience of the audience.

Collective Individuality Practices which affirm membership to a community at the same time as it differentiates and affirms the individual.

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― Working with Centrality and Semiotics As our signifiers are emptied our expressions of identity no longer have the same value to us. They are no longer coordinates to our own core.

To those who know they still unlock the library of cultural knowledge, but to the upcoming generation it will be increasingly hard to separate “false news” and real sources from fabricated ones. Dance and dance moves can be a roadmap of Black corporeality. It is an archive, and when we engage with it, we engage in this archive. In the deeply rooted sphere, this is even more profound. Dances of memory become dances of stolen memory. When the memories are overwritten the library is burned.

This is a violent action. Many of our real libraries have been burned.

The African Diaspora persons have not been allowed to document their stories, nor leave monuments behind. Therefore, we are the monuments.

Our monuments and our libraries are stored, produced, engraved and sounded from our bodies. We must protect these archives and forward an understanding that for us, engaging with tradition and ancestral practice is a highly contemporary action. We now are the first generation in over 450 years with enough freedom to do so openly. Not without attack or resistance, but without annihilation. I posit firmly that there is no action more contemporary than an African Diasporan openly making use of their ancestral practices in the production of contemporary art. What is produced could only be produced now.

I have mentioned before how rhythm is both code, archive, and language.

Rhythms, especially on the drum, can even be codified to body parts.

It is therefore possible through rhythm to know how our grandfather’s generation moved. It is there in their rhythms. When I engage in Caribbean drummed dance I feel which sounds are linked to specific steps. I can sense through my body how their body moved. I can negotiate this movement through my own personality. Embracing and rejecting propositions and suggestions. As such dancing “traditional dance” becomes dancing dances of memory where we enter a multigenerational dialogue, played out on or own bodies as the body becomes what deciphers the generational archive, which is rhythm.

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Dances of memory are not static forms, simply passed down by the ancestors. Dances of memory are traditional practices and methods that have been passed down and developed over time. Each generation learns it from the previous ones but applies it with the sensibilities of their own existence. As such dances of memory are not regurgitation of steps but rather discourse, navigation, influence and subjectivity. The passed down practices would, through each generation’s unique corporeality, culture, bodily politics and influences, produce expressions which are quite different from the previous generation’s contribution. As such dances of tradition would always be current and contemporary, as the result could not have been produced by the previous generation. This is an element often misconstrued, as westernised approaches often see tradition as a static quality and an enemy of progress. Africana approaches, however, see tradition as the very vehicle of the future.

“You have to interpret the dance with your personality” Bart Niava master African dance and theatre lecturer and the founder of CaK.no

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“Dance for All” Photograph by Per-Anders Pettersson / Getty Images

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“Once you carry your own water, you’ll remember every drop.”

Africana Proverb ― Dance will not be denied!

Africana dance and all the dances that spring from this, like hip-hop, vogueing, waacking, hoofing, tap, vernacular or authentic jazz, salsa, lindy hop, afrobeats, dancehall, soca, samba, rumba, disco and so many more, have been egregiously under-theorised. In my opinion this is due to a desperate need to undermine these dances. If they are seen for what they are, as art, as activism, as changing the very fabric of society, it would be hard for any post-modern, modern or contemporary EuroWestern dance to compete with them. Because the restraint of movement was germane to both colonialism segregation and apartheid, movement holds the potential to liberate Black bodies from colonial constraints.

As many of us now know or are soon to discover, one is not to speak of audience when speaking about EuroWestern contemporary dance, at the same time as one does this all the time. Similarly, one is not to speak about economy and art, unless one is asking for more funding of course.

Most contemporary EuroWestern artistic dance has what is referred to as a “narrow audience”, meaning that the audience that come to see it, are usually of a certain social class, ethnic group and enjoy a certain income (upper middle class). Claims are also made to the fact that one needs to be educated to understand the dance. The political argument is art for art’s sake and the implicit value of art on its own. It is also that these “narrow” art forms must have special support and special protection to exist. ― Moving Goalposts This is all very well if these arguments were consistent. When the artists are minorities, these arguments are quickly somehow morphed. Then enter questions on the potential audience, concerns about whether one will fill the amphitheatre and even concerns about whether the audience A Wise Monkey Knows Which Tree to Climb: Perspectives on Decolonising Black Dance

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will understand the work. Minorities often experience the goalposts being moved and practices shifting when it is time for them to seek subsidies for their artistic productions. At it is now, in most EuroWestern based countries art funding is organised in such a way that everybody’s tax money goes to support the artistic practice of a small elite social group, with some variations to this claim.

Historically, much evidence supports the conclusion that the Black person moving, and as an extension our multiple expressions, do not receive funding or investment unless appropriated and/or designed to “cross over” to serve white audiences. Often these expressions receive finance or investment through commodification rather than validation. What I mean with this is that ballet, for example, is seen to be of high value. Therefore, in most countries, even if a ballet performance is often commercially more expensive than the ticket sales can accommodate, the government and/or philanthropist would opt for subsidising the tickets or the art to ensure its continued existence and value within the cultural ecosystem.

Black expressions like jazz dance would need to be a commercial success to be staged and exist on a stage. Hip-hop similarly is most often staged for its ability to generate a profit, rather than for perceived cultural value.

In shows like So You Think You Can Dance it is interesting to observe how hip-hop on a Black person is not seen to be technical. The performer is described as having no specialised training nor technique, while a white ballet technically trained performer can be applauded for managing to somewhat engage with the “difficult grounded technique of hip-hop”. Here we see that technique is somehow intrinsically related to histories and perspectives of ethnicity and that we are not accountable in the way we describe, engage with and contextualise them.

Africana expressions or technique on a Black person is often viewed as merely an expression of nature (innate ability) and would first be framed as technique, as an expression of discipline, work and intelligence, if displayed on a white body. This continues a structural gap in funding, investment, perceived value and continued commodification as opposed to the

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validation of cultural significance for the Black ‘body’ and the multiple art forms in which this particular experience is manifested.

With examples like ballet or opera, we see how “high art” is often associated directly with effort, discipline and a learnt skill. Therefore, when the focus is on the Black bodies’ perceived inherent abilities, it is not considered a compliment, but rather a way to exclude Black people from activities which are well funded, subsidised and which can claim space on the more significant stages.

Validating our techniques, structuring them and framing them in such a way as to communicate discipline, effort and training, therefore becomes of importance when situating ourselves and as a decolonising act, in a competition not only for funds, but also to have our expressions valued as culturally significant and worthy of subsidy. Africana and Black expressions should be invested in for what they have to offer the art world. These are art forms rendered explicitly to serve the community.

Our genres are worthy of subsidy even when rendered in such a way as to not be commercially and economically profitable. Most “high art” expressions are not profitable. Discrediting the efforts and results produced by Africana peoples is a continuation of a problematic colonial legacy from the plantations. In this narrative the Black bodies’ (literally reduced to just being bodies) ability to work hard, endure inhuman conditions, and produce impressive results were viewed as an innate ability, and not a result of discipline, skill or intelligence. In this way, their contributions were negated, and the fruits of their labour were considered free for the taking, or at the very least, nothing to be compensated for.

Similarly, the discourse on cultural appropriation continues these histories, as most Africana expressions are considered free to appropriate while similar white innovations are copyrighted and credited with an originator. Most copyright laws are specially designed with a certain normativity which many Africana expressions would not fit.

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“Riddim riding” would be one such example. This is when one ‘riddim’ as in beat/melody would be produced, and multiple Dancehall artists would jump on it and create various songs. In a copyright case, the fact that numerous artists have used the same beat could be used as an argument against the originality or exclusivity of the “riddim” making it vulnerable regarding rights.

Caribbean copyright law has not adequately addressed these local issues. They have, in no small degree, been created by using formulations designed for a British context. Historically, many African and Caribbean musical innovations have been categorised as “traditional” and or “folk” thus rendering them public domain and up for grabs. This process disavows, as well as losing the innovators vast amounts of money.

Lord Invader (Rupert Grant) sang the song Rum and Coca-Cola in 1943. The song is a protest song about the American presence and the prostitution on the island of Trinidad. Morrey Amsterdam, a GI soldier stationed on the American base in Trinidad, took the song and went back to America and gave it to the Andrew Sisters in 1945; it sold like hot bread. It was the first song in the recording industry to sell over one million singles. It was the first song to grace the Billboard magazine which was later morphed into the Billboard chart. Lord Invader was then informed that he had a number one hit in America. Various calypsonians fundraised to send him to America to challenge the copyright claim of Mr Amsterdam.

The song was published in 1943, so it was possible to prove that the song did belong to him. This publication showed that the song was written in 1943 while Amsterdam claimed he had dreamed the song in 1945. This proves that attention to technicalities and technique is of the utmost importance to us.

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Similarly, structuring our dance and technique into codified systems will allow us to protect it from piracy and vulturism. The “calypso on trial” case has become a standard in American copyright law. This shows how Africana expressions continue to challenge Europeanist conventions and normativity and therefore need to be structured within systems that also validate their logic.

“Again, and again, we notice that performers who claim Relationship to an African diaspora dance differently than others.

There may be more of a sense of rhythmic attack; a stronger sense of release in the lower back and the hips. There may be a willingness to kick higher or bounce lower throughout a movement sequence. There may seem to be something ‘extra’ in the execution of the phrases; some authoritative panache that makes the dancing seem to be of the dancer herself, right now, in immediate gestural relief.”

DeFrantz, (2019)8 ― The Politics of Technique I am aware that many choreographers create techniques to serve their own choreographic needs. I created the Talawa Technique™ to serve a wider community. Systemised techniques have a political purpose.

A technique that is structured and accessible can contribute to filter research. We know that, when institutionalised, techniques provide education, help in allocating space, releases funding, ensures quality and is used to say what is and is not quality and/or art. Those who can point to, for example, Horton or Graham technique training, are instantly deemed artists, professionals and qualify for funding and work. They will be sought after to teach. There are studios, rehearsal space and stages allocated to serve their needs specifically. In this way, we can say that established techniques become validating institutions.

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There are now some studies which claim to include African Diaspora dance or to have these as equal parts of the education. Most times when going through the curriculum Africana dance is not approached from a technical perspective, but rather 1-5 dances of Africa or the African Diaspora are chosen and students get to learn them. The result is that they might be able to execute some dances but seldom gain deep enough knowledge and access to be able to deconstruct, repurpose or create new vocabulary using the principles found in the aesthetics and aesthesis of each dance and culture.

Creating, systemising and validating our techniques is a decolonial action as it centres other sensibilities and ways of knowing through dance. Mobility and unpoliced movement on and from Black bodies decolonises space, stage, society and even movement itself. Ancestral dance has rules and technique, examination and roads to validation. It is strict and often based on mastery. The institutionalisation of our dances is not necessarily a colonial action because indigenous knowledge systems also have schools and rules.

We who work within Africana and Caribbean dance forms need to structure and institutionalise our techniques so that they may function within global, institutional, and contemporary settings. This is the key to more than just training; it is a receptacle for, and what releases privilege.

I use the term privilege here because this can close the gap between practitioners who have trained twenty years within African dance forms, and a student of Europeanist technique who can point to a three-year bachelor’s degree and receive more significant accolades, funding and security than the Africana practitioner.

Systemising our techniques allow us the same level of protection, while never compromising our centrality. It is also for this purpose that I am sharing the technique freely rather than reserving it for the company alone. In Norway, we have succeeded in establishing the Talawa Technique™ as an emerging validating institution that professionalises Africana talent and qualifies them for funding from the arts councils, for

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space on the stages and in the training institutions. Since 2020 we have also started certifying international instructors. More information about certification can be had by contacting Serendipity or Tabanka Dance Ensemble directly. A structured and codified technique also allows for the training of beginners and or advanced dancers with varying degree of references because it provides points of comparison, multiple modes of learning, teaching and provides a clear standard from which to draw inspiration.

Codified techniques and systems of analysis beg specificity, something that is often sorely lacking when our dance styles are referenced in contemporary diasporic contexts. I here refer to modern practitioners who would say something like “I mix contemporary with my Caribbean flavour”. I find such statements somewhat problematic, at least when they cannot be elaborated upon. This sets up a binary between what I would assume is an unspecified Europeanist contemporary technique with whatever “Caribbean flavour” can be deemed to be. It also separates Caribbean flavour from contemporaneity.

Indigenous knowledge systems and contextualisation, however, have a higher degree of specificity when it comes to referencing and categorising retentions and contexts. We must use this to study the logic of our movement practices, from their centrality and interrogate what this can offer us within contemporary settings. The hegemony of Europeanist logics also in relation to Africana dance and the “Black dancing body” leads to a continued epistemicide. Episteme is the production of knowledge. Epistemicide is the killing of other systems of knowledge production. European colonial activities have sought to kill indigenous knowledge systems. This includes indigenous and ancestral dance as a system of knowledge.

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Mango the Mambo (1954). Graphic House / Getty Images.

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― Technique As a Mode of Exclusion The success of modern dance techniques and especially jazz dance techniques could be viewed from different perspectives. If they were designed to exclude Black people from dances that they even originated and change ownership over to EuroWestern representation, ensuring the domination of that perspective, we must say that they have been successful enterprises. If we also acknowledge how they are inspired

by African American, Caribbean, Latinx, Indigenous and Asian dances we must also interrogate if they, and maybe especially dance was able to be put into a conditioning and training system, the ability to train and execute the qualities and aesthetics, rhythm and polycentric movement of for example Caribbean, Latinx and African American dance, the conclusion would be that they are insufficient and lacking in that regard.

It is in this aspect especially that these techniques become even more violent as they claim and expropriate spaces and make claims where they do not deliver.

My naming and wording of concepts such as violent and non-violent jazz, Africana dance, cosmocentric dance, ancestral dance and more, is among other things to bridge the gap between our embodied knowledge and that which could also be made to be more explicit knowledge. In this way more people can access it, and the hegemony of the EuroWestern’s poor ability to conceptualise and theorise practices, to which they do not have embodied nor implicit knowledge or experience with, is mediated.

The result is, for example, that many things become a misnomer.

Continuing with the example of jazz, the claim is often that jazz comes from African American culture. However, much of the jazz we see, for example in musicals and Broadway, are in fact Westernised and balletic dance techniques mixed with elements of minstrelsy, and not African American deep culture.

Minstrelsy was the most popular form of entertainment in North America and is a practice based on ridiculing and debasing African American A Wise Monkey Knows Which Tree to Climb: Perspectives on Decolonising Black Dance

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life at the plantation. Basically, it is the violent act of making fun of oppressed people and forcing them to make fun of themselves. The exaggerated smiles, “jazz hands” displaying the contrast between the white and the black side of the hands, etc. are all based on this harmful practice and not an African American cultural element. Mixing minstrelsy with balletic elements leaves very little retention that is a representation of Black dance, life, virtuosity aesthetics and culture.

We must be careful when we add jazz to a curriculum thinking that we are being inclusive of Black people when we do so. Misrepresenting a culture can be as harmful as excluding it. I have in my theory classes started to separate what I call violent jazz from what I refer to as nonviolent jazz. At times I must use the term less violent jazz because any dance practice which is born out of oppression will also have histories and elements in it that will point towards the subjugation, trauma, oppression and or marginalisation which provided context and situation for its practice.

Violent Jazz Jazz practices that are based on minstrelsy and other oppressive representations of Black dance, the Black body and the segregation/ oppression/exclusion of Black personhood.

Non-Violent Jazz Jazz practices which were upheld by Black people in Black spaces where the goal of the practice was Black joy, Black catharsis, and Black social life and community. There are also more non-violent representations of jazz which have and can be executed by white people and others. The reference to Black life and culture deals with the origins.

Africana embodied jazz Are non-violent jazz practices as they are when they continue to have agency and autonomy on Black bodies and personhoods and are used as an active agent for the continuation of Black artistic existence.

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Question, is the search for decoloniality the same as the pursuit of joy, of playfulness, of the return to something completely non-triggering, a utopia where everything has a flat structure? Or is this a form of neohippieism which does as much to hinder decoloniality as it does to work towards it? To simply stop doing injustice or racism is not decolonial.

This is simple inclusion and antiracism. Decoloniality has to address the issue and redistribute power of definition.

Movement, specifically dance making, is a mobilisation of the mind as well as bodies. It is body politics in motion, it is citizenship and subversive power. It is an embodied practice. This is particularly relevant as colonialisation has displaced bodies, put upon them forced constraints. To dance, with your own voice, in your own power, with your own story, to your own music, is hence a radical act against coloniality and towards something else. We talk a lot in the Diaspora about rhythm, music, song, poetry and dance, because in these expressions we have claimed space, and try as one might, the realm of rhythm and dance has never truly been colonised, as it has never truly been “captured”.

Avoiding capture has been an Africana practice since the beginning of colonialism and enslavement, in more ways than the obvious. I offer a concept developed by Tia-Monique Uzor that she calls “Avoiding Capture”. Her concept relates to African and African Diasporic artists, to describe artists who: “[…] despite the hostility of the environment that they exist and create within, carve out their own spaces, use their language and dance on their terms, with or without support from institutions. The artist who avoids capture, will not be a token or compromised, but instead asserts themselves through developing practices and producing creative expressions. Expressions which are unashamedly reflective of their experiences” (Uzor, 2018a)9.

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We decolonise dance in many ways. One of them is to renegotiate political power by naming colonial subjugation and offering a decolonial alternative by reconfiguring aesthetics and aesthesis.

“Just because the lizard nods his head, doesn’t mean he’s in agreement.”

Africana proverb Like Tony Morrison’s books were written with an intention to “neither be consumed nor concerned by the white gaze”, I too write this decolonial discussion document seeking to neither be consumed nor concerned by the EuroWestern perspective on Africana dance and Black body politics as it pertains to dance making. This brings forth the question that is in the back of many of our minds concerning decoloniality, and why so many, I believe, resist it. The central question that is inevitable to ask, in the end is: in the decolonised world, is the coloniser relevant?

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THOMAS TALAWA PRESTØ

UNDERSTANDING RACISM AS A PREREQUISITE FOR DECOLONIALITY A Wise Monkey Knows Which Tree to Climb: Perspectives on Decolonising Black Dance

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62 Understanding Racism as a Prerequisite for Decoloniality

that minorities (white) have oppressed larger Black populations. This is usually through violence. For this reason, violent power or military power could maybe be a special brand of power, although one could also argue that it is covered by a combination of the four levels mentioned above. ― Racism is the promise of violence We tend to forget that racism, at its core, is violent. This is also in social interactions. This is because for example law is upheld unevenly and often according to concepts of race. Here in Norway studies has shown that Black young men have access to about one out of every five discos and bars in the city. This means that when the police ran tests the young men were turned away at four out of five bars/discos.

The claim in such situations would usually be that one is not wearing the correct shoes or something similar. If one should disagree with the security guard and point out that white patrons are wearing the same or worse, one is at risk of the guard using force. Furthermore, if you end up with a strong disagreement with the security because they are discriminating against you, if the police are called, it is still the Black young man that is the most likely to experience force from the police. This type of interaction and implicit promise of violence is present in a lot of interactions.

The reason that Black people do not directly and overtly resist or speak out about racism more is because of the promise of a violent or economic consequence. This combined with the beforementioned point about never having directly experienced the absence of racism (as context), means to many people also claiming they have not experienced racism. What is meant by this claim, is usually that one has not experienced someone being a direct and personal action towards you. Similarly, one could say that all women are affected by misogyny and economic discrimination against women, even when one has not experienced a directly traumatising action against one’s own person.

This is because it is something that has become normativity and is A Wise Monkey Knows Which Tree to Climb: Perspectives on Decolonising Black Dance

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something which one must navigate directly or indirectly. Having more personal or social power can mediate the consequences of this, meaning that one does not feel the immediate personal sting. ― Class and Racism Racism and its consequences are naturally felt more for people who have less money or who could be said to belong to lower social classes.

This does not however mean that racism is absent for millionaires or for Black people with power. Obama is an example of someone who was at one point one of the world’s most powerful men. He still had to accept newspapers portraying him and his family as monkeys, people throwing banana peels at him and political opponents getting away with questioning his character and even citizenship, based on race. Similarly, Oprah Winfrey has experienced racism and many other Black politicians, celebrities and more. The personal consequence of the racism is mediated by their power, or their money, but it is still not absent. Having experienced the hardships of being of low socio-economic means or having been discriminated against does not mean one has experienced racism. Racism could lead to discrimination; discrimination is on the other hand not necessarily racism.

Another factor to contemplate in relationship to class and racism is the fact that in terms of power race and class usually coincide. Meaning class should not just be viewed in relationship to what your bank account looks like, but more in relationship to the levels of power. Through this lens one could understand how a lower economical class white person could still wield more “racialised” power than a rich Black person.

Furthermore, let’s take Nigeria, Jamaica, South Africa, USA and Norway and divide the population first into Black and white people and then pull the statistics for what percent of the country’s millionaires are Black and how many are white. Then also see the percentage of each group and divide them according to economic and social class we would find that “race” and “class” very much overlap. Statistically, it is still hard to

64 Understanding Racism as a Prerequisite for Decoloniality

separate the two from each other, although many do when they try to prove that racism is not a factor.

The equation presented below also explains that racism is an -ism which means: a distinctive practice, system, or philosophy, typically a political ideology. And the need for access to power to turn your prejudice into actions of consequence. This power can be used wittingly or unknowingly. It is not if you know or not which determines if it is racism but rather whether it links to a global scale, and if there is consequence involved. This keeps us from making the mistake of trying to turn racism into a micro-scale occurrence and talk about interpersonal misunderstandings. We are all connected to larger social and judicial structures and as such cannot think of ourselves purely individually when speaking of global systems.

The equation of racism would look like thus: RC= (prejudice+power)*(willingness to abuse power)*(Global scale).

To elaborate on the global scale point. Many raise their eyebrows at this if they have not pondered it before. The fact of the matter is that if I travel to South Africa, I will not experience an absence of racism. If I travel to Indonesia, Nigeria, Jamaica, Colombia, Venezuela, Kenya, France, Russia, Sweden, I will not experience an absence of racism.

There is no known country on the face of the earth where I can travel and be able to experience the absence of racism. It exists on a global scale.

Racism will have local variants, differing degree of institutionalisation, various degree of consequence in different ways, but it is never fully absent. This is an important and mind-blowing element to really ponder.

This by extension also means that close to no Black person alive has experienced the absence of racism.

Systemic, Structural and Institutional Racism are terms often used interchangeably, but are in fact distinct with a nuanced difference which I will attempt to define clearly: A Wise Monkey Knows Which Tree to Climb: Perspectives on Decolonising Black Dance

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Systemic Racism Emphasises the involvement of whole systems, and often all systems—for example, political, legal, economic, health care, school, and criminal justice systems—including the structures that uphold the systems.

Structural racism Emphasises the role of the structures (laws, policies, institutional practices, and entrenched norms) that are the systems’ scaffolding.

Because systemic racism includes structural racism, for brevity we often use systemic racism to refer to both; at times we use both for emphasis.

Institutional racism Is sometimes used as a synonym for systemic or structural racism, as it captures the involvement of institutional systems and structures in race-based discrimination and oppression.

Racism is also almost impossible to truly understand at an interpersonal level. For the Black person it will never make sense. It should be treated like complex maths. Learn the equation and what to do when presented with a certain problem, but do not feel frustration over not understanding why the result is what it is.

Exemplifying what I mean with racism not being understandable to the Black person I will offer a story from my own life: I was walking on the street in one of Oslo’s most multicultural areas, Grønland. It is a vibrant multicultural part of Oslo maybe comparable to the UK’s version of Brixton. I see a man on the other side of the street walking parallel to me and staring intently. Being the arrogant artist that I am, I assume he has seen me on television or has been present at one of our dance productions. Out of respect for an engaged audience member I slow down, so that he does not have to push his step as much. He was a short man, and I have a fast and springy gait from before, causing people

66 Understanding Racism as a Prerequisite for Decoloniality

to struggle to keep up. I notice him start to cross the street, only to be almost run over by not only one car, but the bad lucky fellow was almost bounced down again in the next lane. He proceeds to skip to come up in front of me. I take my apple headset with Machel Montano playing out of my ears and arrange my professional audience greeting smile while revising our upcoming performances in my head so that I could relay to him where he could catch us next. As I opened my mouth to greet him, I am cut off by: “Stupid N*@*er, go back where you come from, we do not want you here, go back to Africa!”

I am caught off guard, but the shock of his words and having my arrogance so humbled allowed me to admit something that I had struggled to admit even after more than 20 years of lecturing about racism. I do not understand the racist. It dawned on me in that moment. The man was so upset, over the fact that someone with some African features (I am half Euro Norwegian) was walking, walking on the opposite side of the road as him. This upset him to such a degree that he would risk his life, twice (!), crossing the street. Because I am a 100kg Black man, and he was at best a 55kg and short guy, I would venture to say that if not directly risking his life a third time, let’s say that shouting those words at me at least qualifies as a health risk. All of this to tell me that, to him, I had organised myself into the wrong continent, and that he wishes me to organise myself back where I belong.

Did he expect me to open my eyes in surprise and thank him for clearing my confusion? Does he expect me to run to the airport post haste and jump on the next airplane? I realised that I could not for the life of me neither fathom his motivation for confronting me, nor his hopes for possible outcomes. I made a mental note for later lectures, to use this example to impress on those who do not experience racism, just how unjust and unfathomable it is to be forced to relate to something as irrational as racism in a possible 360-degree radius surrounding your life.

Everyday. It is not hard to understand how this would frustrate a Black A Wise Monkey Knows Which Tree to Climb: Perspectives on Decolonising Black Dance

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Kimberle Williams Crenshaw. Photography by Sheri Determan / Alamy

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teen and cause them to act out. They are dealing with irrationality every day at any given moment. One learns to accept this, predict it, counteract it and strategies around it for the least possible consequence to one’s life.

I sometimes wonder if being able to do this is victory or defeat.

However, I will offer the same advice that I was given by my mother, a woman that has no patience for foolishness and runs her life with discipline and according to her conviction and priorities. Growing up in Norway, 20 something years before me, gave her certain strategies for survival and mastery, this especially since Norway has such a short history with a Black population. Her sound advice is to apply the following list of criteria to a racist situation, to determine if the situation warrants your attention and energy or if you should expediently move on because “life is too short to drink bad tea”.

The racism priority list is as follows: 1.

2.

3.

4.

Are they family or close friends?

Are they in your social or professional circuit?

Do they have any central role in how you pay your bills?

Can they cause you physical harm?

If the answer is no to all four of these criteria the situation can be completely ignored. In such a case you should do just that, as part of what racism and coloniality does is to derail Black people and force us to constantly spend our time and resources on addressing and improving structure, situation and people, rather than what we could be doing for ourselves. Do not allow racism and coloniality to drain your resources.

And understand that for us it is not about freedom of expression but about freedom of existence, a concept I will return to later...

The psyco-social aftereffects of racist encounters: Professor in Psychology, Dr Amos Wilson in his writing describes some of the psychosocial after-effects of racism among Black teenagers. Some of them are the following: A Wise Monkey Knows Which Tree to Climb: Perspectives on Decolonising Black Dance

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• • • • • • • • • • • • •

Chronic anger Chronic frustration Conflict and ambivalence Displaced aggression Internalised racist prejudice Chronic experience of threat, unrest and anxiety Ego defensive orientation Compensatory efforts Relative powerlessness, fatalism and apathy Consumer mentality Limited and conflict riddled relations Stress Foreshortened future

People who work with Black youth will recognise many of the things on this list. Because of victim blaming, Black youth who are traumatised by experiences of racism are all too often just labelled as problematic, difficult or “challenging” when in reality it is not them, but the challenges they are facing which are the problem, especially when there are few people around to help them make sense of something as nonsensical as racism.

Micro Aggressions Is a term used to describe daily or commonplace verbal, behavioural or environmental slights, declassifications and or social control, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory or negative attitudes towards stigmatised or marginalised groups, especially when based on concepts of ethnicity, culture and race.

Microaggressions Is a term first coined (Chester M Pierce,1970) to describe a situation afflicting people of African descent, which has later opened up to encompass and describe the situation of other marginalised groups including for example queer persons.

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Intersectionality Intersectionality is a complex concept first coined by a Black woman, Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1980. It is a qualitative analytic framework developed to identify how interlocking and interdependent systems of power affect especially those most marginalised by society. This analysis system by extension also then maps systems of privilege and their impact. The methodology was first developed in relation to law and justice and to contextualise Black existence. Like so many other theories that start with this perspective, it is later appropriated and expanded to a “one size fit all”, often leaving many contexts behind.

There are some central elements to understand in relationship to intersectionality that are more readily understandable if we remember that it comes out of Black/Africana theorisation.

Intersectionality deals with complex discrimination and the cross of multiple identifiers such as gender, caste sex, race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, religion, disability, weight, physical appearance and height.

These intersecting and overlapping social identities may be both empowering and oppressing. Intersectionality is predominately used to pinpoint discrimination and or marginalisation. Assuming “we are all intersectional in some way” rhetoric is as dissonant as claiming “we are all Africans if we look far enough back” in a discussion about racism. We all have complex identities, which is not the same as claiming we all live in bodies that are placed at the intersection of varying body politics.

Often many assume that intersectionality has an additive approach to discrimination. Meaning that one would be doubly marginalised or discriminated against as both a woman and a lesbian for example. This is not necessarily so. Intersectionality analyses how these factors interact with each other. There are examples of how differing intersectionality could interact in unexpected ways. For example, there is what many call the Black tax. Ironically, the opposite of this we have what some refer to as the gay index, which describes how in liberal areas the presence of gay couples increases the property value. As you could be penalised for being A Wise Monkey Knows Which Tree to Climb: Perspectives on Decolonising Black Dance

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Black on the real-estate market, you could simultaneously be privileged as gay. Intersectionality deals with this complexity for example.

An aspect of intersectionality that many gloss over (as it is most relevant to multigenerational marginalised people) is that intersectionality deals with cumulative discrimination. Cumulative discrimination is the measurement of discriminatory effects over time and across domains.

Being raised in a Black family means that it would look at how your Black father has been discriminated and marginalised, and the same for your mother, sisters, brothers and other relations. It would then look at how this has affected income across generations, opportunity, salary, educational choices and so on. This way one can map how discrimination in one domain can adversely affect your actions or field of opportunity in another. Intersectionality was about understanding and situating the Black personhood with a complex set of cumulative and intersecting discriminatory factors and how this affects citizenship, justice, situation and choice for Black people. ― The Right to Opacity Caribbean writer and philosopher Édouard Glissant’s Poetics of Relation, wherein he proposes the right to opacity. Glissant observed the West’s hyper-fixation on a method of understanding based in “transparencies” - the reductive ways in which we classify others against existing dominant structures of worth. For Glissant, transparencies are limited and limiting. Transparencies disregard those countless unknowable things about a person that makes each of us who we are. As an antonym of transparency, this notion questions the possibilities of intercultural communication. In a multinational world, recognising difference does not mean understanding otherness by making it transparent, but accepting the unintelligibility, impenetrability and confusion that often characterise cross-cultural communication.

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Glissant looks at comprehension as an act of appropriation, questioning the way the EuroWestern seeks to understand the “Other” to define and control it. The right to opacity is in large part the understanding and pointing to Black people’s art, with the right to exist despite not being understood by the EuroWestern, to not have understanding, translation, transparency or “sameness” as a measure of worth or relevance. The terminology and concept are more and more often appropriated by white EuroWestern artists who quote it as a concept allowing them the right to be mysterious or to not wish for the audience to know or understand.

This is shifting the concept away from its core and from its attempt of defining and explaining that Black art and Black people exist outside of its relationship to whiteness. ― Myths about Racism There are many myths about racism. Racism is often not specified enough. When during lectures I ask people to define racism for me, many would raise their hand and give a definition sounding much like this: “To be wrongfully treated based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality….”.

Usually while they say this the rest would nod their head. To me this is interesting as this is a definition of discrimination, which is in actuality not the same as racism although the two often coincide or one might directly lead to the other. This leads me to one of the first myths about racism but before I go deeper into it, I will provide you with a short list of the most common myths about racism: 1.

2.

3.

4.

Racism is illegal It is about freedom of speech Racism is about skin colour Racism is a natural consequence of someone being a minority

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5.

6.

7.

Racism is based on evil intentions Racism is based on ignorance Racism is not profitable

Myth 1: Racism is illegal Many would be surprised to hear that racism in most western countries is legal. Hate is illegal, and discrimination is illegal. Debasing someone can be illegal. In most cases however racism is legal. It is usually only considered to be a factor aggravating the circumstances around the illegality which coincided with the racism. What do I mean by this? It means that racism is usually something which factors in and could lead to a harder sentence if other illegal actions have occurred. Meaning that a threat, violence, theft, debasing, or other illegal action must have occurred in combination with racism. Even in the declaration of human rights it is racial discrimination, which is focused in on, not racism itself.

Therefore, so many have been surprised with just how much blatant racism many are getting away with. It is because freedom of speech and other factors weigh in when racism has only been expressed without a direct threat, defamation, violence or other directly illegal action. As it stands today a person is allowed to be as racist as they want, and to a very real degree even express this as long as it is not directed at a specific person, does not coincide with other illegal expressions or actions and one would be hard pressed to prove that any act of discrimination is motivated by racism unless the person doing the action has expressed it in a manner which leaves credible evidence.

So, to summarise, discrimination is illegal differential treatment which could be based on a variation of factors, including race. Racism involves both overt and covert behaviours, intentions, sentiments, actions, microaggressions and more, many of which are considered legal, although unsavoury. For this very reason focusing on the consequence of racism at times is essential also because it is based on the coolly factual and consequential where one might receive justice. In the

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emotional aspect of racism there is now no coverage nor protection. For this very reason it is particularly interesting how the EuroWestern usually focuses in on the emotional side the few times a Black person is granted access to discuss racism. It is not unusual to have white specialists, and other white people discuss the issue on the news, to then have a Black person relay some personal experience which “validates” the topic but does not really bring the discussion further nor deeper, nor does it bring it to issues of law and protection, which in fact is where it should be.

Myth 2: It is about freedom of speech Often when racism is brought up, so is freedom of speech. Wokeness and cancel culture often follow close at hand. To explain the difference and to place things correctly I offer the term freedom of existence. This is a term I use to point towards the nature of the struggle. Black Lives Matter is about freedom of existence not freedom of speech. Similarly, the fight for trans recognition and rights are one of Freedom of existence. It is violent to call these things a “debate” when one side is asking to be allowed to exist peacefully, and the other side is arguing the devaluation of your life or wish you gone or dead. This should in no way be considered a debate or a valid discussion as there is already an extreme distance between the two parts when one considers what is at stake.

The attacks on Black and trans people are not attacks based on the fact that one has made an utterance, it is because one has the audacity to exist, being what one is, naturally. Those who are against the granting of these rights are against the concept that one can exist as that which one is.

This distinction is also important to remember as one advocates for change. What we do is not activism in the “liberal left” sense of the word. It is advocating for rights. For human rights. Black Lives Matter is a petition for the right to live. For human rights. Colonialism was a direct attack on Black Lives on African life and the life of many others.

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maybe the most central and the most profound act of decolonising one can engage with. Art is often an affirmation of life, and for that reason it is so important. Dance, even more than the other many other artforms is unfixed in time, or what some chose to call ephemeral. Dance is only possible through life in motion. Black dance is by its very nature a decolonial act as an affirmation of the life of the body that is moving.

Continuing the same line of interrogation, I will sketch the difference between preference and hate as this has become an increasingly heated discussion internationally due to social media and even more so on digital dating apps. On dating sites, especially queer ones, there has long been an ongoing debate about racism on the profiles. Texts like: No Asian No Black! are seen on many profiles and it has for years been debated if this should be allowed or not. To give the short answer, such statements are racist and it is communicating hate. Many have claimed that it should be allowed to communicate your preference. This of course is true. However, if you have such a neurotic and strained relationship to race that it is upsetting to you that someone perceived to be of another ethnic background simply writes to you, you may not still claim to have a neutral or healthy relationship to race and ethnicity.

But to provide an example of the difference between communicating preference and communicating hate: Preference

“I am most attracted to tall blond and blue-eyed men” or even “I am only attracted to men with northern European features”

Hate

“No Asians No Blacks” and also “We don’t rent to Blacks or Immigrants”. These are examples of exclusions and communicating hate as well as discriminating on the grounds of ethnicity. These are not only harmful and examples of bigotry, but they are also in actuality bordering on the illegal. They are not admissions of preference.

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Myth 3: Racism is about skin colour Racism is not in fact about skin colour, although this is what keeps getting repeated. I am of dual heritage and many a white person can match my skin colour after a good summer holiday or a tropical vacation. Many don a somewhat more orange shading of my complexion using self-tanning preparate. They can tan with confidence and without the worry that doing so will at some point cause them to experience racism. This is because racism is not triggered by skin colour but by phenotype. Phenotype refers to an individual’s observable traits, such as height, eye colour, skin colour, hair texture and even blood type. A person’s phenotype is determined by both their genomic makeup (genotype) and environmental factors. Rich brown skin, curly and textured hair and juicy lips, if naturally occurring would place me in an African phenotype and it is these coordinates which triggers hate and racism. So, I am specifically experiencing racism because I am identifiably of African heritage. For some reason this is tiptoed around, and as usual racism is spoken about in a blurred and roundabout manner.

It is for the reason of phenotype that so many Black people chemically straighten their hair, damaging their scalp and enduring chemical burns.

A Black woman wearing a wig causes less commotion than a Black woman wearing her own hair. Similarly, locks, afro, and braids, the only natural ways to wear Black hair are in both work and school settings, internationally and, especially in former colonies and/or colonial powers, considered to be unprofessional and are so unwanted that kids can experience expulsion from school for wearing their natural hair. This does not occur with any other phenotype. It is hate specifically directed at an African genotype. For east Asians it is often the eyelids and shape of eyes that is targeted and for this reason plastic surgery altering the shape of Asian phenotype eyes to more Euro-phenotype eyes is very popular. People are altering their phenotype to try to escape the negative effects of racism.

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The people who are the free to enjoy phenotypical alteration for other reasons are those who have a EuroWestern phenotype. When they appropriate other phenotypes such as skin colour, fillers for lips, fillers for buttock, it becomes an expression of privilege and of the ability to “consume” the Other. It does however, never come with the consequence of increased racism.

Phenotype has always and continues to be of severe consequence to Black people. The curves of the Black female body caused both North American and many South American laws to be created. These laws stated that Black women were lustful and by nature willing to have sex.

The argument (in law mind you), was that her body curves betrayed this fact. For this reason, it was legally impossible to rape a Black woman, as she was, by law, considered to be willing. These laws, of course, were there to protect white men who felt incapable of controlling their urges and allowed them the freedom to abuse their violent powers.

Even if the law focuses in on women, Black men did not enjoy any protection from the law either. However, the union of Black men with white women was naturally illegal and for that reason white women did not enjoy the same protection from the law should they engage with enslaved African men. This does not mean that they did not.

Furthermore, men as we now know systematically raped enslaved African men and boys, both to emasculate them and break their spirits, as an abuse of power and surely also due to lust and gluttony. Sex between men is under most colonial law considered illegal. Jamaica has received much international defamation for their anti-gay laws, which in fact are British laws that were left behind by the colonisers.

Racism is triggered by phenotype not by skin colour is the grand conclusion and answer to this myth.

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Myth 4: Racism is a natural consequence of someone being a minority In Southern Africa and in many of the Caribbean islands and in most of South America, white people were in actuality a minority. A minority which subjugated the majority. In questions of racism, it is more usual for the minority to oppress the majority than vice versa. It is just that due to colonial language white people are usually referred to as majority and people of colour as a minority, to such a degree that people forget that these are contextual values that would change from geographical site to geographical site. Where white people are a minority, they do not actually experience racism due to this, although they can at times experience bullying or exclusion.

Myth 5: Racism is based on evil intentions To further understand racism please ponder the following. If we take two fictional persons. Henry Smith, white middle class man and Omar Sarr, a Gambian African man, both aged 45. If they buy the same apartment Henry Smith’s apartment will be worth more than Omar Sarr´s.

If many Africans or other immigrants or POC move into an area the price/value of apartments or houses in that area goes down. Similarly, gentrification is when the opposite occurs as more white people move into previously predominantly Black areas. This is due to the majority white buyers perceived devaluation of an area if many Blacks live there. It is a direct economical manifestation of racism without any one individual being evil or sinister. Often examples of systemic racism, structural racism and institutional racism will fall into this category, where they are upheld, with consequence, without there being a singular “evil” person responsible for the consequence of the racism in question.

This reverse gentrification effect is by some referred to as the Black tax, which is the process of property devaluation due to Black ownership or Black presence in the area.

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Myth 6: Racism is based on ignorance and misunderstandings Very often what we call assumptions of the good middle class is muddled in with knowledge about racism. The good middle class is a term for a certain normativity. It is assumed that is you are of a certain income, have a certain level of education, and come from the middle class or above you are also somehow inherently good. For this reason, racism is often argued to be perpetuated by those of lower class or lower income.

They are perceived to be the carriers, while this is not the case.

The ones who refuse to hire Black people, who discriminate in the workforce, who do not want to rent to Black people or who devalue the property in areas which has higher Black density are the middle class and up. They were also the “owners” of enslaved people and it is their profit and money which has kept the wheels of racism going.

Racism like the invisible hand of the marketplace, reproduces itself, and for that reason expressions of the middle class and up are often inherently racist, and perpetuate a normativity or a universality that both others and excludes. This in part also because, as much as we do not like to talk about it, membership of any class is prejudicated by exclusivity and privilege. For this reason, true membership of the upper classes is difficult to achieve, even if your bank account can match that of a white presenting person, as membership to these classes and their privileges are not truly based on neither social nor economic factors alone but are also based on perceived likeness.

In relation to art, it is pertinent to note that class is also performed, and certain artforms and styles of music communicate membership to specific class and can be used to achieve social mobility.

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Myth 7: Racism is not profitable Racism is a for profit endeavour. From its very initiation profit was the core motivation of racism. Even today internalised racism in combination with social and economic control ensures that Black labour and talents are recruited less and works more and harder for less pay. Most Black people have been raised hearing and knowing that they must work harder in order to achieve the same. Most often the saying goes that we have to work twice as hard. If we apply the cumulative effects of this, we end up working quite a bit more than twice as hard.

A decolonial perspective would not be to embrace a utopia thinking of an equal playing field. We are more than one hundred years away from that, due to the multigenerational accumulation of wealth achieved through racist actions. In the Americas it is upheld that even if racism was completely abolished the economic divide between Blacks and whites would take more than one hundred years to stabilise due to the economic divide. This does not mean that one should have a fatalist attitude. Black ingenuity has proven capable at covering insurmountable distances time and time again. What is important to remember however is that racism is profitable and to ensure that racism does not adversely affect your life, it is not about working harder but about working smarter.

We must work more than twice as smart to cover the gap. I am infinitely grateful that my Trinidadian grandfather taught me this principle already as a young person.

For this reason, I have always been adept at seeking information, finding templates, systemising, looking up in encyclopaedias, seeking knowledge. Ready access to knowledge allows me to work faster, more proficiently and precisely. It saves the wastage of time and frees me to pursue multiple avenues.

Life skills such as discipline, time management, prioritising, seeking mentorship and strategic alliances are skills that should be nurtured as much or more than just an acceptance of drudgery. Also, a focus on A Wise Monkey Knows Which Tree to Climb: Perspectives on Decolonising Black Dance

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Black creativity and innovation, the intelligence of Black existence is decolonial and central to decolonial survival. This means not moving away from the very real productive ability of the Black “body”, but to acknowledge the ingenuity of the Black mind and soul.

The white gaze Popularised by acclaimed writer and activist Toni Morrison, the terminology of the white gaze is the assumption that the default reader or observer is coming from a perspective of someone who identifies as white, or that people of colour sometimes feel the need to consider the white reader or observer’s reaction. I will posit that it is: White readers’ or the white audience members’ power to be able to force their rendered interpretation onto the subject or persons and/or culture which they are observing. I call this overwriting the archive with the white gaze.

Understanding the nature of racism and the impossibility of reverse racism We often hear speak of reverse racism, and equally many who claim that reverse racism is not possible. This is of course because racism is an -ism and is linked to both power and structure. A racist act from a Black person towards a white person, because it lacks the power of structural support, does not get the increased impact which comes from an -ism and is rather still an expression of personal and/or what is called direct power.

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Exercise Either on a whiteboard or on a piece of paper, divide it into two columns.

On top of one you write Black Racism. On top of the other you write white Racism. Then ask the people present to answer the following questions, organising the replies into the correct columns.

1.

In what ways does Black racism or racist acts from Black people towards white people affect white people as individuals in (insert country, institution or setting). Pay close attention to the fact that the question specifically calls for the effects of this on an individual basis.

2. In what ways does white racism or racist acts from white people towards Black people affect Black people as individuals in (insert country, institution or setting). Pay close attention to the fact that the question specifically calls for the effects of this on an individual basis.

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Usually the result looks something like this: Black against white racism individual consequence

White against Black racism individual consequence

Fear

Fear

Social exclusion

Social exclusion

Sense of insecurity or threat

Sense of insecurity or threat

Violence

Violence

Less freedom of speech

Exclusion from rental market Exclusion from real estate market Devaluation of property Inferior schooling Stunted career Difficulty encountering work Payment gap Stunted economy Judicial murder (less social justice) Less mobility in society Less freedom of speech Inferior health

As you will notice the list is usually a lot longer on the consequences for Black people on an individual bases, although it could be argued that on a solely personal level the list could be more similar.

Now, keep this list up, but repeat the exercise with the one difference, that you now ask the same questions but now from a group perspective, like thus:

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1.

In what ways does Black Racism or racist acts from Black people towards white people affect white people as a group (insert country, institution or setting). Pay close attention to the fact that the question specifically calls for the effects of this as group

2. In what ways does White Racism or racist acts from White people towards Black people affect Black people as individuals in (insert country, institution or setting). Pay close attention to the fact that the question specifically calls for the effects of this on an individual basis.

Black against white racism group consequence

White against black racism group individual consequence

Fear

Fear

Social exclusion

Social exclusion

Sense of insecurity or threat

Sense of insecurity or threat

Less freedom of speech

Violence Exclusion from rental market Exclusion from real estate market Devaluation of property Inferior schooling Stunted career Difficulty encountering work Payment gap Stunted economy Judicial murder (less social justice) Less mobility in society Less freedom of speech Inferior health

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Toni Morrison in 1997. Photograph Timothy Greenfield-Sanders

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Here it is important to notice that the list remains almost the same; but with one very real, not necessarily instantly identifiable, difference.

In the column identifying the consequence for Black people the list is economical, physical and real. On the consequence for white people, however, the list is predominantly emotional. This exercise both shows why racism as an -ism of consequence on a group level seldom occurs, but it also points to the fact that racism is a 360-degree factor in Black lives, and that is material in its consequence, not solely emotional. It is then interesting that the accusation against Blacks is that they are being overly emotional and they are sensitive. This exercise shows that being affected by racism is not an emotional matter but a very real physical and material situation with emotional consequences.

To conclude, dance dialogue is a means of opening discussion and refocusing so we can understand the complexity of what takes place when working in the dance sector. This paper is the first in a series of dance dialogues by Tabanka Dance Ensemble and Serendipity on decolonial decolonising perspectives on Black dance and the visible and invisible movement, validation and tolerance to push through, make change and reframe from a Eurocentric ideology.

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― Appendix 1 Defining professionalism within Africana dance Many make the mistake of believing that decoloniality is about the pursuit of freedom. Many white scholars and artists have started to engage in what they like to call Decoloniality. Often this is superficial antiracism, ways of reframing their anthropological studies, simple ethnochoreology, or legitimising appropriation and arrogation. I will not go as far as to say that the only ones that can decolonise are those who have been colonised, but I will maintain that, like with racism, the work of rectifying and balancing the situation must include giving a strong and central voice to the previously marginalised. Making ballet less patriarchal, more inclusive, etc. is not decolonising ballet. It is making it less patriarchal and more inclusive. Sometimes one must separate the issues. Colonialism is patriarchal by nature, this however does not make any and every feminist act a DeColonial one, just like Black Feminism and Womanism became necessary in part due to the racism of white feminism10.

The point is that there are criteria, strictness, hierarchy, levels, validation, certification, examination, judgement and exclusion also in dances that are pre-colonial and de-colonial. Whose criteria, which criteria and how they are applied is central. Decolonial dance does apply and require of us certain ethics, but it is neither flat structure, completely democratic, nor without rules. Indigenous cultures are usually quite strict on ritual and protocol, time, place, form and situation. Within these again is an enormous range of options for individualisation and autonomy, yes, but this comes from deep engagement and mastery, not from the lack of rules.

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Three Attributes Defining a Professional Dancer We define a professional dancer as someone who lives up to several or all of the following criteria: • • • • •

Masters the physical, kinaesthetic, and cognitive techniques/tools of his/her genre of dance Is on a level where their dance has emotional and cultural identity Can monetise their talent by way of funding, sponsorship, endorsements or paying audience A person who has dance as part of their main activity or source of income A professional attitude and ability to carry oneself as a professional.

These attributes are usually measured through: 1.

Seniority a.

How long one has studied b.

How long one has been working c.

Number of performances of merit d.

Width of professional experience

2. Visibility or notoriety of work a.

The status of the venue (i.e., The National Opera) b.

The status and range of the medium (National TV, YouTube etc.)

3. Privilege/opportunities a.

Access to people of privilege b.

Branding as an activity of privilege c.

Branding as a provider or an accessory to privilege d.

Connecting to, harnessing, and leveraging privilege

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18 Qualities of a Talawa Dancer These 18 p’s are based on a workshop with the dancers in the Tabanka Dance Ensemble around what they felt was the qualities of a professional within the Talawa Technique.

Exercise. Using these 18 p´s apply them to your own practice or your own self education. Write a minimum of one sentence per word on how it applies to your situation and what it would mean in the context of what you are trying to achieve professionally. It is a good exercise to get one reflecting on the standards of professionality that one is seeking.

1.

Positive

2. Presentable

3. Personal

4. Polite

5. Perceptive

6. Preventive

7.

8. Proficient

Persevering

9. Punctual

10. Precise

11. Patient

12. Performing

13. Proactive

14. Perfecting

15. Prepared

16. Powerful

17. Professional

18. Protective

The Talawa approach to capacity and talent development 1.

Competence • Learning – through knowledge • Exposure – learning by observation • Practical experience – learning by doing

2. Creativity • Self development - learning to use inborn resources • Cooporation – presenting oneself to and collaborating with others • Self enhancement – through culture, theme, style, genre

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3. Career • Insight into working with arts and culture • Knowledgeable about dance/music/entertainment industry and

avenues • Mentoring access to mentors who have successfully cleared

paths for others 4. Quality • Artistic integrity • Commercial appeal • Mastery and dissemination (internal and external pedagogy).

Professional criteria of an Africana trained dancer 1.

Knowledge • Technical • Cultural • Socio-historical • Socio-political understanding of African and African

diaspora dance

2. Execution • Ability to execute and disseminate a wide range of movement

vocabulary of Africa and the African diaspora.

• Alignment, posture and placement • Strength • Ability to display the qualities and range of Africana movement

foundation • Ability to execute poly-movement, polycentrism and poly rhythm, isolated and in tandem • Ability to navigate a wide range of poly-rhythmic approaches to

movement and music

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3. Empathy, mental and emotional capacity to internalise: • The history • Ontology, cosmology and episteme • Cultural context • Social position of African and African diaspora dance in both

colonial and de-colonial paradigms 4. Authenticity • A respect and knowledge of how to approach and navigate

cultural authenticity • Respecting and relating to historically marginalised and

oppressed people and their culture • Knowing how to ensure that one does not forward, support or

perpetuate injustice, or cultural appropriation as it relates to

African and African diaspora dance and its creators • Being able to translate the above experience as one relates to

other centrism’s • Learning to be creative, innovative and free through knowledge

and an understanding that tradition is not a petrified structure

but a foundation on which to build 5. Market and brand knowledge • An ability to translate all the above points into a marketable

skillset, and an artistic career • The ability to establish one’s practices as art, and lifting one’s

community of practice into contexts of value • Knowledge of the market and how to brand oneself, one’s

company and genre in this market • Ability to use knowledge in order to access social mobility, with

and through one’s art • Accessing, harnessing and leveraging multigenerational

privilege

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― Appendix 2 Talawa dance analysis and categorisation – A tool for non-misappropriation When analysing and looking at how dance could be decolonial and to avoid wrongful misappropriation, expropriation or cultural arrogation it is helpful to use the three C´s as a process.

• • •

Context Content Citation

Doing so provides us with useful information which allows us to position ourselves and the dance we are researching. I have developed a matrix to assist with this.

The Three C´s • • •

Context – The history Content – The Movement Citation – The Source “Studying the context helps cultivate substance within the content, that solidifies authentic citation” Duan Lee Hollard Jr.

This guide is a form with a set of questions/information through which the dance should be assessed, when trying to categorise dance from Africa and the Diaspora. It provides context and information that will help in assessing the nature and importance/function/significance of the dance, framing and cultural signifiers that go with it. This provides information that forms the foundation on which to dialogue and engage with the culture of origin, and can in some cases help with referencing, citing, and appropriating elements of the dance and culture in a way that

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does not lead to misappropriation and that is respectful of indigenous knowledge systems. Please categorise the dance/s in question by running it through these 22 points. Many dances tick multiple boxes. If you are unsure or do not know how it fits into one point this provides you with a guideline as to what should be investigated further.

This guideline was developed while researching for the Talawa Technique which forms the basis for Tabanka Dance Ensemble’s movement vocabulary and technical training.

The Talawa technique consists of: • • •

81 African dances 56 Trans-Atlantic Diaspora dances Chosen from 286 investigated dances.

Pre- categorisation: Definition of African dance: African dance can be defined as a collection of dances that are imbued meaning, infused purposely with rhythm, and connected to the ritual, events, occasions, and mythologies of a specific people. African dance is theatre in that it involves song, drama, masquerade traditions, and music. An understanding of traditions must be what provides a foundation for contemporary expressions. Generalisations about African dance as an absolute are inappropriate and inaccurate. It is useful for the purposes of this document to speak about African culture as an entity. This simply means that these dances originate in Africa and share cultures where traditionally dance is integral to and central to the society. This document acknowledges and appreciates the differences and contradictions that exist in and among the many cultures that are discussed throughout.

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African, African Diaspora, and Transatlantic African Diaspora dances are many and have a wide range of categorisations. Before one goes into the deeper analysis of the dances it can be helpful to pre-categorise them according to function and/or type.

Traditional techniques: Traditional: Dances are those that embody the cultural values of a particular society, are acknowledged as being of that society, and adhere to specific customs and ritual.

Neotraditional: Neotraditional dances are those dances that are created in the spirit or likeness of traditional dances but do not necessarily come from that society and, as a result, are not bound to all the aesthetic and cultural rules of that society; recognition of the dance by the masses; and formal or institutionalised instruction either in the courts, by private instruction, or communal learning vis-à-vis festivals. It is generational and time-honoured. Some examples of classical African dances are Lamban, Lindjen and Sabaar from Senegambia, Guinea, and Malian regions; and Fanga from Liberia, Adowa from Ghana.

Stylised: Dances that are stylised for stage and artistic performance and or that are for presentation for outsiders more so than for people that come from within the culture. Here even more than in the neotraditional cultural rules, authenticity, and other such frames are more loosely referenced.

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African dance generally falls under one or more of the following categories: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Stilt Mask Military War Martial arts Rites-of-Passage Middle passage Resistance to enslavement Nation building dances (post slavery) Harvest Story and Myth Social Recreational Ceremonial Funeral Ancient court Work Healing Religious Spiritual Ritual National and ethnic identity Carnivalesque

Once you have placed the dance in question into one or more of the previously mentioned categories (or made others to suit your purposes) you can continue working down the following checklist. The previous categorisation will help you do this and will make it easier to compare your findings and to see overall trends or distinguishing factors.

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Sacred Does it fit into one or more of the following classifications?

• • •

Embodying the supernatural Inner transformation External transformation (mask/costume) Representation of divinity Initiation - transition - rites of passage

Secular Does it fit into one or more of the following classifications?

• • • • • • • • • • •

Representation of deities and spirits as entertainment Celebration of an event; birth, death, marriage, harvest, war Education-initiation Courtship (semba) Recreation Political action Social commentary Health and healing Work A special group dances Western theatre setting

Participation recruitment pattern Ascription (what an individual is in terms of some attribution by others) Please fill out how it relates to the following. Only where applicable.

Age, gender, ethnic group of participating dancers often provide much information about the function of the dance and the symbolism of the adhering costume.

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1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Age Gender Ethnic group Family Marital status Socio-economic class Political affiliations

Achievement (what an individual is on the basis of self-effort) a. Dance b. Non-dance (e.g., earning the right to enter a society) Agency a. b. c. d.

Group Pair Individual Turn taking

Economics a. b. c. d.

Amateur Professional Sponsored Gratitude (tipping from satisfied audience)

Participation motivation a. b. c. d.

Required Expected Voluntary Paid

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Participation action a. Dance initiated (doing) b. Dance acted upon (becoming, as in possession) Consciousness 1.

Transcendental altered states of consciousness • Secular (achieve extraordinary metaphysical-physical

experience associated with self-extension and exploration) • Religious (associated with deities, spirits, essence)

2. Temporal-cognitive • Exploratory (example: as in how to be a proper parent) • Control (maintaining cultural patterns and managing tensions,

attaining goals, adaptations and integration; initiating) • Physical preparation (for work, war, sex, etc.)

3. Temporal/transcendental (one form leading to another, intermeshing, alternating) Relation to the status quo Tradition is never stagnant and is always in movement. Not projecting negative western imperial attitudes on to indigenous traditions is important. Traditions, however old, are an active part of the tapestry that forms both what we deem modern, and contemporary. All cultures have a claim to modernity, and to contemporaneity, values which must be seen through the lens of cultural context. Make a point of analysing in what way the tradition in question relates to itself, other traditions, preservation and status quo. Is the function to: 1.

2.

Preserve for example traditions?

Challenge for example traditions?

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3.

4.

Transform?

Be avenue of social mobility?

Place (home, compound, market, forest, riverside, beach, city, stage) a. b. c.

Rural Urban Foreign country

Time a. b. c. d. e.

Regularly occurring Occasional Seasonal Celestial Special celebration

Origin (diaspora and African retention) This relates especially to African and African Diaspora dance. If not applicable use this as a template to make new categories that are.

Is the dance being performed fitting into one or more of the following categories? (Own ethnic group relates to the performer’s perspective, not your own).

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Own ethnic group Other African ethnic group Non-African African Diaspora Other African Diaspora fusion (two or more African Diaspora dances mixing/fusioning) African and non-African fusion

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7.

8.

9.

Diaspora and African fusion African and other non-white Diaspora and other non-white

Note: sometimes makes sense to separate African continental diaspora from colony/transatlantic diaspora, additional categories will then be; 10. Transatlantic Diaspora and African fusion 11. Transatlantic African Diaspora 12. Other Transatlantic African Diaspora Fusion (two or more Transatlantic African Diaspora dances mixing/fusioning) 13. Transatlantic Diaspora and other non-white Development a. b. c. d.

Independently invented Imposed Borrowed voluntarily Elaborated creation

Transformation • •

Syncretism (blend of cultures - ethnic groups, traditional/modern) Change over time

Acquisition of dance Pedagogic/Didactic approach: • • • • • •

Direction Modelling Supervised practice and coaching Enabling discovery Individual creativity Communal creativity

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Existence influence • • • • • • •

Agriculturalists Fishing Pastoralist Plantation Colonial Nation building Urban

Pattern of motion, pose and exhibition of intention of move A) body parts and movement emphasised 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

Hips: pelvis rotation (5,6,7), swing, thrust, tremble Shoulders; shimmy, placing, extraction/subtraction, alternate punch, rotation Elbow and forearm; hinge, stretch, slash, flap Arms: brandish, slash, swing, rotate, stretch Knees: bend and straighten Torso (1,2,3,4) flatback, arches, erect, rotate Chest: pop, swing, rotate, lift, contract Feet Legs

B) Locomotion (moving from one place to another) 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Walk Step Shuffle Run Skip Hop Jump

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8.

9.

Slide Sweep

C) Movement transformation • •

Change spatial ground pattern through location (doing) Change in body space/state through swelling, spreading, undulating (becoming)

D) Gesture (Movement of part of body not supported through the whole body) Examples: rotate hand (e.g., twirl cloth), hand signs etc Time 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Pace (slow/fast) Length of movement (extended, shortened) Accent Meter (single/multimeter) Polyrhythm

Space 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Size (big/small) Focus of eyes Focus of body Focus of attention Free form Physical link Circles Lines Levels; High, middle, low, floor level Organised

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Effort 1.

2.

3.

Strong/weak Bound/free Shape/flow

Structure of dance 1.

2.

3.

4.

Set choreographic pattern Improvisation Repetition Alteration of components

Performer-audience interaction 1.

2.

3.

Separation Merge Call and response

Aural setting 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Musical accompaniment Dancer self-accompaniment Dancer follows musician/independent musician follows dancer Spoken word Body instruments Vocal sounds Body percussion

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Visual setting Costume 1. Representational 2. Utilitarian 3. Relation to the body • Reveals • Conforms • Conceals • Reproportions • Extends • Restricts Devices of encoding/decoding movement • Concretisation • Icon • Stylisation • Metaphor • Metronomy • Actualisation Spheres of encoding/decoding movement emphasised 1. Event 2. Body 3. Whole performance 4. Discursive performance 5. Specific movement 6. Intermesh with other medium 7. Presence (charisma) Culture’s perception of dance • Differentiation into institutionally bounded genres (types of dances) • Prestige (hierarchy of dances) • Aesthetic criteria

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FOOTNOTES

1.

Daniel, Y. (2005). Dancing Wisdom: Embodied Knowledge in Haitian Vodou, Cuban Yoruba, and Bahian Candomblé.

Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

2.

McCall, J.C. (2000). Dancing Histories: Heuristic Ethnography with the Ohafia Igbo. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

3.

Gearhart, R. (2005) Ngoma Memories: How Ritual Music and Dance Shaped the Northern Kenya Coast, African Studies Review. Cambridge University Press, 48(3), pp. 21–47.

4.

Having multiple diaspora coordinates.

A term coined by Thomas Talawa Prestø in 2007.

5.

Theocorporhythmic (theoretical corporal rhythmic) a term coined by Thomas Talawa Prestø 2018.

6.

At the Guy Butler Theatre, July 2018.

7.

Wrongfully referred to as “Lapp” for many years. Also, a great inspiration for the people of Arendal in Disney’s Frozen.

8.

DeFrantz, T. (2019). What Is Black Dance?

What Can It Do? In: M. Bleeker, A. Kear, J. Kelleher and H. Roms, ed., Thinking Through Theatre and Performance, first ed. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, pp.87 - 99.

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9.

Uzor, T. (2018). A Liberation of the Soul: [Blog] I: Object Tabanka Dance Ensemble, Available at: https://tiamoniqueuzor. wordpress.com/2018/11/21/a-liberationof-the-soul-iobject-tabanka-danceensemble/ [Accessed 10 March 2019].

10.

White feminism insisting that white women should get to vote before Black men, hence never really fighting for Black women at all.

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BIOGRAPHIES

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THOMAS TALAWA PRESTØ In spite of his young age, Prestø has codified a system of body movement which is rooted in the traditional African and Caribbean movement aesthetic, yet relevant in the Contemporary. Prestø has been adopted into Yoruba and Ewe people by elders and has received names respectively. Some examples of these are the Yoruba name Ajamu (he who fights for what he believes in) and the Ewe name Eelike (who stands on solid ground). By his elders in the Caribbean his style was described as Talawa (strong, resilient, rooted). Talawa has stuck with Prestø as a nickname and is also what he chose to call his dance technique, respecting the roots and that the technique is systemised by him, but created by a people!

Since 1998 Prestø has spent his time actively carving a place for the black dancing body in Scandinavia. He is the founder and artistic director of Tabanka Dance Ensemble, which as performed Caribbean and African dance for more than a quarter of Norway’s population. It reached the semi-finals on Norway’s Got Talent, being the first time a full black group has ever advanced on Norwegian TV Shows and performed traditional dance live. His technique is taught on five continents and is continuing to strive to show the relevance of ancient power with a modern use.

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PAWLET BROOKES MBE Pawlet Brookes MBE is the founder, CEO and artistic director of Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage. An experienced and highly respected senior leader and producer, Brookes has been at the forefront of the development of Black arts in the UK. Brookes pioneered the establishment of an annual dance festival in Leicester since 2011, Let’s Dance International Frontiers, and coordinates the high profile annual Black History Month Leicester. With Serendipity she has produced two National Lottery Heritage Funded initiatives and recently launched Unearthed: Forgotten Histories. Brookes has edited over 18 publications focusing on Black arts and heritage including Serious About Dance – Let’s Talk (2005), Hidden Movement: Contemporary Voices of Black British Dance (2013), Reflections: Irrepressible Voices of Black British Cultural Resilience (2020), Creating Socially Engaged Art: Can Dance Change the World? (2021) and BlackInk: Arts, Heritage and Cultural Politics, a magazine published annually for Black History Month.

Brookes is currently a member of Arts Council England’s Midlands Area Council and an associate lecturer at Falmouth University; she has been a speaker at a number of international conferences, including being the UK representative at a UNESCO conference in Stockholm. Brookes was a finalist for the 2009 National Regeneration and Renewals Award for Cultural Leadership and recipient of BME Leader of the year at the East Midlands Women’s Awards 2018 and One Dance UK’s Outstanding Programme Award 2018 for Let’s Dance International Frontiers. Brookes was awarded an MBE for services to the arts and cultural diversity in the 2022 New Year Honours.

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SERENDIPITY INSTITUTE FOR BLACK ARTS AND HERITAGE Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage, Leicester. Serendipity’s mission is to centre perspectives from the African and African Caribbean Diaspora, embedded as part of cultural experiences for all. Serendipity’s programmes include the flagship dance festival, Let’s Dance International Frontiers, Black History Month Leicester and the Annual Windrush Day Lecture. Serendipity has established a legacy; hosting a growing Living Archive documenting Black arts, heritage and culture, publishing the voices of Black arts practitioners and community activists, nurturing artists to create high quality new work, and mentoring young people.

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A Wise Monkey Knows Which Tree to Climb is a reflective analysis of decoloniality and steps that can be taken to apply this to arts practice and specifically dance. Thomas Talawa Prestø takes a considered approach, drawing on his own experiences and practice, Talawa TechniqueTM. Particularly paying attention to unpacking language and contemporary discourse around race.