Dancers bring African flair

STACEY TURNBULL STAFF WRITER STT722@CABRINI EDU

Vibrations were pulsing though the floor of the Dixon Center at the Universal African Dance and Drum Ensemble performance on Saturday, Oct. 1, during Cabrini’s Homecoming Family weekend. The ensemble showed impressive African dances accompanied by the beats oF many African drums.

During their introduction, the performers were described as exciting, electrifying, sensational and amazing. These are the qualities the performers strive for during every performance.

“I could feel the energy from the performers,” said Kristine Jennings, a junior special education major. The children and adults in the ensemble looked very energetic and like they were enjoying what they were doing. The colorful costumes also made the event appealing to Jennings. There were colors of orange, blue, yellow and red that the ensemble members were wearing.

During the show, experience could be seen in every performer. Everyone from the youngest, who was one-year-old, to the older more skilled performers each had something special to bring to the performance.

The young ones were dancing and playing drums just like their older, more experienced group members. There were acrobatics done by the men and boys of the group. The women and young girls formed a drum line and also showed an African style dance.

The music complemented the dancing. When the musicians wanted to slow it down, there was only one drummer banging on his drum. Slowly the music would become more upbeat and the dancers would come in and dance to the music. It seemed that when one dancer would enter, another musician would start playing an instrument. The dancers were reflecting the feeling of the drum beats.

One of the high points of the performance was when a member of the ensemble did an entire African dance on stilts. He was

Brakes

CHRISTINE ERNEST A&E EDITOR CME722@CABRINI EDU

The Brakes formed in 2002 and are comprised of members of the bands British Sea Power, Electric Soft Parade and The Tenderfoot. British Sea Power is currently touring in support of Las Vegas rockers, The Killers. The following is a phone interview conducted with Brakes bassist Marc Beatty and A&E editor Christine Ernest. The bolded text were the interviewer’s questions, and Beatty’s responses are below them in plain text.

Would you ratherbe in support of anotherBritish band oran American band? Do you have a preference?

“I wouldn’t mind. I actually prefer American bands to British bands myself. I wouldn’t mind.”

Why do you preferthe American bands?

“I just prefer American music. There are a lot of bad Indie English music at the moment. It’s all pretty bad. It’s just my personal preference, I prefer American bands to English bands.” joined by the children and the children were dancing under his long legs.

It’s like there’s this cycle of British bands and saying that they are influenced by American bands and then on the flipside there are American bands saying they are influenced by all these British bands. Do you feel the same way?

The Universal African Dance and Drum Ensemble came from their headquarters in Camden, N.J. The members of the ensemble come from Camden and the Philadelphia areas. The ensemble was founded in 1984 by Robert and Wanda Dickerson. They are known as one of the largest professional African dance and drum ensembles in the United States.

Their African dance derives from the cultures mainly in West Africa, and that is what they are most popularly known for. But, they also perform songs and dances from many other sections and cultures of Africa.

Their performances could include two members or up to 44 members that could participate in a dance and drum ensemble.

All members of the dance and drum ensemble are also a part of the Universal Pasha Karate school. According to their website, www.unitycommunity.com, they want the members to study karate because they believe that “this proves through the understanding of love and discipline, while practicing, working, and training together, that unity can exist in the inner cities of America and other communities.”

If you would like to learn more information about the Universal African Dance and Drum Ensemble, you can go to their website, www.unitycommunity.com to look up future events they will be having.

Loquitur welcomes your comments on this story Please send your comments to: Loquitur@yahoogr oups.com. The editors will review your points each week and make corrections if warranted.

“Yes it just goes round and round and round. It kind of started with the Beatles covering all blues records…Rock and roll was introduced to England by the Beatles. America’s got far more root, it invented Rock and roll. I’m a big fan of old rock and roll…and country stuff.”

Are there any aspects of touring in Europe and the UK that you preferovertouring in America? And vice versa?

“The one thing I’m not yet used to over here is that you can’t smoke in the venues…it’s quite strange for me, not being in a smoky atmosphere...usually the place is filled with smoke and people are having trouble breathing. It makes the atmosphere a whole lot more unpleasant, but not unpleasant in a bad way. Unpleasant in a good, kind of grimy way…other than that I don’t know, I’ve only done one gig here so far so I can’t really compare…I’ve heard from British Sea Power that have toured over here a lot that generally the venues are better equipped and are a better standard of PAsystems and stuff like that. England there’s a lot of bad venues a lot of dives.”

As faras the crowds go, how was the crowd last night as compared as to what you’re used to?

“Pretty good, it was pretty full I think it was at maximum capacity We had some people down in front singing along which was nice, which I wasn’t expecting. It was really good especially since I heard New York crowds are really difficult and they never really give anything away….if they don’t like you they won’t clap and stuff, they’re kind of cold like that. From what I could tell, people were having a good time and getting down to it.”

What’s up next forThe Brakes?

“We’re flying home tomorrow night and we’ve got a UK tour starting on the 15 of Oct. and it’s about 13 dates around the UK and it’s a headline tour, so that’s pretty cool because we haven’t done a headline tour since last September And that was quite small, that was only a week. And this is two weeks, this one is double the length. And now the albums out and we’re really interested to see what the direction will be and what the turnout will be like. Having an album out and a single out just changes so much. People that bought your album now want to see you live… “

Do you guys find it hard to tourwith The Brakes because I know The Brakes are a supergroup since it’s part British Sea Powerand part Electric Soft Parade and part Tenderfoot?

“Well for me, my band Tenderfoot we’re kind of taking a bit of time off at the moment anyway. So I’m mainly focusing on Brakes at the moment. It’s hardest for Eamon. He’s doing this week of shows and press and like in the middle of a British Sea Power tour...with The Killers.”