Special Studies in Dance DANC 301-02/ Small Ensemble MUSC 307-12
Topic: Amadou Kouyate & the Manding Tradition
1 credit
Open enrollment, permission required. Prior experience in Dance and Music is not a requirement.
Please contact Carol Hess hessvait@umbc.edu or Lisa Cella cella@umbc.edu with questions and to obtain permission.
Unique interdisciplinary course opportunity for Spring 2022. MD Traditions Artist in Residence Amadou Kouyate will lead this collaborative music and dance course centered on student and community engagement through African diasporic culture. The course will end with a public performance.
In the Manding tradition of West Africa, there are those who are charged with the responsibility of being historian, counsel, lyric, and custodian of the sacred to their community. This is the legacy of the Djeliya, which has been carried intergenerationally for more than one hundred generations. Those of this lineage have heeded the calling, adapting in order to remain vigilant to the communities they serve. One such adaptation that has become synonymous with the Djeli are the music that they have created. The griots of West Africa have used music to inform and imbue the community with the knowledge of their past so that they may use it to awaken the potential in future generations. These Djeli have also served as liaison in bridging communities through music, dance, and other expressive arts in order to ensure that we are bonded in the strengths of our common humanity.