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Afropop producer Sean Barlow went to the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) to talk with the legendary Chuck Davis, dancer, choreographer, teacher as well as founder and artistic director of DanceAfrica that comes to BAM for its 32^nd
annual edition this Friday the 22^nd through Monday the 25^th. DanceAfrica is a multi-day celebration of African dance. It also features music, film, art and a very popular outdoor bazaar. Dr. Davis has traveled extensively in Africa for study and inspiration and has earned numerous honorary degrees. He is indeed the godfather of the creation, presentation and appreciation of African dance in America.

See below for Part 2 of Afropop’s interview where Chuck Davis vividly tells his own amazing story including his growing up in North Carolina, his first travels in Africa, his work with maestro Babatunde Olatunje and encounters with Malcolm X and others.

SB: Before you go on, give us a word picture of what SeèWè looks like.

CD: Their Artistic Director is Mouminatou Camara. She is from Guinea and she danced with the Guinea National Ballet. And wait until you see her, she has more energy than the Hoover dam, she has about that much energy. And she has been able—because she is such a dynamic teacher—she has this ability to impart what’s happening in her head to her dancers in such a way that we, the audience, can only be uplifted when watching them. And we get involved in what is coming across the footlight. We forget about the footlights and we are in a village, we are in that setting. And the dancers and the musicians especially, the musicians are from the Asa Yaa troupe and they have dedicated their lives to the traditional music, so they all play five or six different instruments with origins in Africa, they all study traditions from Ghana, from Burkina Faso, from Nigeria, from Senegal, from Guinea, from Sierra Leone. They have all of this knowledge and they’re able to—when it comes down to working with youth—they’re able to teach, and to share it. So the attire and the regalia, and the masquerade that you will see are all authentic. The traditional attire is designed by Sister Camara. It is absolutely fabulous. So there’s an excitement that you will get when SeèWè is onstage.

And Farafina Kan, I used them in Washington DC, because DC’s DanceAfrica is always two weeks after NY—Friday, Saturday and Sunday. But they have three weeks prior to their big festival, and they have master classes and they have local groups going into the different schools and DC—like BAM, the Brooklyn Academy of Music where we are now—closes off the streets all around and sets up the marketplace. DC does the same thing, only they have all of this space on the side and in the back of their building and that’s where it’s like a huge transformation. The minute you turn the corner, all you see is all of these African tents and they’re making Senegalese food that will make you jump across the tracks, and Moroccan food and everything and DC has an afternoon matinee and an evening performance everyday—Friday, Saturday and Sunday. And they have master classes early in the morning, and master performances. So Farafina Kan has been featured at several of the DanceAfricas, mainly because all of the members of Farafina Kan grew up in DanceAfrica so to speak. Their parents were a part of DanceAfrica. I was there when some of them were born, and I know the education they have received in order to maintain the tradition that they’re responsible for. So they’ve come up and he’s a devotee and protégée of Guinean drummer Mamady Keita so as a result, it’s that energy that has been imparted. So you will get traditional attire, and they will bring forth the masquerade from Côte d'Ivoire, the Zaouli, and that’s where the men pay homage to the women.

Next is Ron Brown’s Evidence. And Ron Brown has made his contribution, his creative contribution, by taking music from Nigeria and the Congo, and from Senegal, and Gambia, and he’s created his own style of dance, in order to tell whatever story he wished to tell. His work is incredible. And then Artistic Director/Choreographer Abdel Salaam from Forces of Nature Dance Theatre was selected to work with the young dancers from the BAM/Restoration DanceAfrica Ensemble (performing in DanceAfrica for the thirteenth year in a row), since Farafina Kan is in DC, Ron is on tour, SeèWè is touring, and the troupe from Ghana wasn’t here, Abdel was asked to step in and continue that connection between “professional troupe” and student. And then we have our counsel of elders. I cannot stand here and tell you about the program without mentioning our counsel of elders. There’s about ten of them that have been with us from the beginning, and also the candle bearers, because we pay homage to those who have passed on to their ancestral grounds and that’s an entire ritual onto itself. The pouring of the libation happens right in front of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and you have so many people, on opening night we’ll make sure they’re in place at 6:00, because they’ll know that Chuck Davis is going to start on time. And now we have—and have had since the beginning—the memorial room. It is dedicated to the ancestors. Your ancestor, your ancestor, your ancestor, it doesn’t matter. You go in to pay homage to your ancestors there.

And then of course the DanceAfrica Bazaar, and BAM goes all out and we ask vendors to keep the price down. So people come in and spend money, you see. So also we are entertainers, we want to educate you at the same point that we are entertaining you. And I’ve got into a physical altercation with one of the men in the back of the theater when we had the troupe from Ethiopia. He was insisting that we had, “Oh look them white people with their long hair, dancing over there on the African stage.” And I said, “Ethiopia is in Africa sir.” “Well why you got…”and it went on from there and we got into a little shouting match.

SB: He called them white when they’re just light skinned?

CD: Because their hair is long and silky or whatever, he didn’t like it because they had long hair. To them it looked like white folks’ hair. So and I was trying to educate him and he wouldn’t listen. I’m from North Carolina, you don’t mess with me.

And that’s why we say, we are entertainers, we want to educate you. We had the troupe come in from Zimbabwe, which is a whole different style of dance from the West. So we want people to know that as you travel across the continent of Africa, you will run into cultures that cover the spectrum. There isn’t any one dance style indigenous to the continent of Africa, there isn’t one language, and there isn’t one anything that’s indigenous, except that they’re all on the continent of Africa.

SB: You’re in your 32^nd year now; besides your growth in size, what has changed in terms of presentation, the dynamic of doing it, or maybe the awareness of your audience?

CD: I would not say changed, rather, I would say expanded. Everything has expanded, because each time we do a performance we look to the fact that half the people sitting in that audience were here for the last ten years. And the new ones coming in come in saying, “Okay I will pick up the mantel and keep going, going, going.” So we just try to expand the presentation, mainly. Also, it happens automatically because each country is different, which means the dance styles are different, and the way we present them, we try to do a storyline. There was a year we married a couple on the stage in front of the whole DanceAfrica family. There was the year we did a baby naming ceremony. You know there was the year we did initiation rites. So we keep that entertainment always in focus and to the front, and it has expanded in that the marketplace has gotten larger. More and more people are returning and saying, “Yeah, this is my reunion time.” And you will hear screams: “I haven’t seen you in a whole year!” You will hear it all over the place.

There was the time we had the local motorcycle gang, we started in Harlem at 2^nd avenue and 125^th Street. Each one of them had a flag from one of the African countries and cut all the way down Broadway, and as they were crossing 42^nd street, there was a tour bus with some Japanese visitors. They jumped off the bus and ran over and were snapping photos and everything. The cyclists got to the Brooklyn Bridge, and they tried to keep them to go two abreast so the traffic could continue to flow, and they were these big rough guys, so they commanded and came across the Brooklyn Bridge, one, two, three, four, five abreast. And when they got to here in front of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, there were about 2,000 dancers waiting. We had cake in the shape of Africa, and everybody got a piece of cake. That was one of the really successful times. So it’s expanded and our respect for our audience has also expanded. And I think that many of the people coming in who at one point looked at BAM as being just this building sitting in the middle of the neighborhood, have come to realize that BAM is very aware of the community, and does a lot to reach out to what is happening in the community.

SB: Would you say you have a target market, for who you’re reaching out to, and who you want to come to DanceAfrica?

CD: I want to target anybody who comes through the door. Anyone who comes through that door, I want them to become a DanceAfrica devotee, and by becoming a DanceAfrica devotee it automatically means you are a disciple for peace. And when you come in, that’s my mantra. Peace, love and respect for everybody. And we want people to use this as a way of understanding, so you see how we go about preserving the traditions from our heritage. And if you are from another culture, use the same mechanism, the same format so that you can better understand your heritage and your culture, and then see where they all connect, because none of us are here alone. We want to especially reach out to many of the black folks who recognize the fact that yes I’m from Africa, but they don’t know from where. And then there are still those who don’t wish to be associated with Africa at all.

SB: Why is that?

CD: I don’t know. Because of the Tarzan syndrome. And once again we get back to, ‘ooga, booga, booga, booga’ as Hugh Masakela called it. And none of that ooga booga stuff, I don’t want to be bothered with that. So it is up to us to teach and to educate, and not only the African Americans, but even to teach the Africans because many Africans will know everything about their culture, their heritage as you well know, but they don’t know a thing about what’s happening in the country right next to them. Whomever comes through that door, that’s who I’m reaching out to. And I want to reach as far a field as I possibly can with these long arms of mine opened, reach out and engulf you and pull you in, and as you come in you will recognize just how powerful you as an individual are as an arts supporter.

SB: I know the main stage performances, of course, but do you also do after hours dance bands?

CD: Anything that is connected with Africa is featured. We have all films, films about Africa, whether it’s about Africa or it has an African theme. We have the African Marketplace— there’s African music in the performance space there.

SB: You mean pop bands?

CD: Right, we have bands, and we have poetry sessions and we have master dance classes, and everything, you name it. If it’s based on African tradition, during DanceAfrica, we bring it to the surface.

SB: Congratulations and thank you, it’s not easy to keep things alive.

CD: But when you are doing what is correct, people will come forth out of the woodwork to help you. So it’s a labor of love, but I have some strong support. Like BAM Executive Producer Joe Mellilo and BAM President Karen Brooks Hopkins, here, and General Manager Patrick Scully and Artist Services Director Mary Reilly and BAM Community Affairs and DanceAfrica Bazaar Coordinator Dewonnie Frederick, all of these people who have been involved with DanceAfrica for years and years and years. And my stage crew— I’ve got seven guys downstairs on my stage crew who have been on the stage crew since the inception. And some of them have retired, and come in to work when DanceAfrica happens. So that kind of image coming in, you know it just makes your heart bubble up.

They also have the satisfaction of knowing what they’re doing, which means they have discovered that niche, which is theirs because as you well know, there are people who will go years involved with something they absolutely hate, because they have not discovered where they’re supposed to be. Each one of us are placed on this earth to do what we’re supposed to do. This is what I’m supposed to do. I don’t have a house, I could have, but I chose to take what extra money I had to put kids through school in Africa. Right now, I’m upset because I don’t have enough money to send the bags of rice necessary to that area where I usually visit because the old people are hungry. Much of the tourism that they used to get leading up to this point, because of this economic thing, you know the flights have been canceled into the area. The price of beans and of rice has gone up. By the grace of God, I’m going to get five or six hundred dollars so that I can send the money to buy bags of rice so that the elders can come to the mosque and get rice to take it to their compound. That’s the type of thing you get involved in. My little car is twelve years old, but it’s still running!

SB: So here we are, it’s 2009 last time I checked; what would you like to see at DanceAfrica ten years from now?

CD: Ten years from now, I would love my dream (and it will happen,) to have DanceAfrica somewhere in the world every weekend. Somewhere in the world, a DanceAfrica is being presented, and being presented still using the basic premise of being true to the authenticity of the culture, respectful of whatever ethnic group you’re presenting, respectful of how you use it in a contemporary form. If you’re doing hip hop, explain that it came out of Africa with the Fulas and their acrobatic dancing; the hip hop poetry, based on the role of the Griots, since the dawn of time. Tell the truth and then see how all of this emerges, or rather, merges together. When it comes together, then you have a fountain of knowledge that flows up and spreads out all over the place. So I want to see DanceAfrica not only in America, but in Africa because people in South Africa are not aware of the dance from Burkina Faso and the role it plays. Zambia is where I really want to get dance coming for DanceAfrica. The dance is so exciting from there.

SB: That’s a great project, and you’d get to go there to do it!

CD: Yes, because wherever DanceAfrica is, any troupe that performs in DanceAfrica, I have to see them on their soil. So yes, say that again! I get a chance to go there. I will do everything except bungee jump off of the bridge.

SB: What’s your perception on the shift in understanding about Africa amongst the common general American population since Barack Obama, who is half African, came to the campaign and then the presidency? How is Africa perceived differently?

CD: I really believe as we travel back and forth, more people are into Google and Ask Me, to learn about Africa and the contributions many Africans have made to new world culture, to politics, to this and that and the other. They have put Africa in such a fishbowl that many of those politicians are having to get themselves together, many of them because there were so many who have ripped off not only our government, but their government. Now there are so many eyes watching that some can’t readily do as they used to do. So I think more and more people are really searching to get a true picture as to what is happening in Africa. What other contribution, what minerals come from Africa, what styles come from Africa? Okay this, that and the other. How many others in public life are like Obama, with an African father or mother. So yeah, I think more and more people are seeking to become aware of what is going on.

Chuck Davis Interview for DanceAfrica 2009

Interview by Sean Barlow

SB: I’ve always said: he is not going to want to appear to be favoring Africa because he is African. So he’ll go to Europe first, then Asia and he’ll go to the Caribbean, but when he gets to Ghana, a million people will be there…

CD: I would not want to be anywhere near because the plane will be mobbed. They will probably climb onto each other’s shoulders. To me the man is a brilliant soul, and I’m really dismayed and disturbed at so many people who are expecting so much—he hasn’t even been there three months yet. So give the man a chance to do what he wants. Everybody’s looking at Aladdin’s lamp. They’re thinking you rubbed the lamp and out he came, he’s a genie so let me just push this and he will do that and he will do the other. Everything right now is speculation, and if everything was so great and so grand and you knew what you were supposed to do, why the hell didn’t you do it before he got there?

SB: Everyone is projecting so much on him, he’s one man. Well Chuck, thank you very much for your great work! I look forward to seeing the performances and soaking up the scene this weekend.
______________________________________________________________

Chuck Davis Interview Part 2

SB: Congratulations on all your achievements and awards. I’m curious about your experience of growing up and the moment when Africa entranced you. And regarding dance, how did you become so captivated to want to devote your life to this?

CD: I am brother Chuck Davis, Artistic Director of the African American Dance Ensemble based in Durham, North Carolina. Before, as a result of the Chuck Davis Dance Company which was founded in 1967 in Harlem and the Bronx, came DanceAfrica. Because we were scheduled to be here and we were surrounded by some of the most fantastic artists in the world, we just decided to unite and DanceAfrica was born.

I come from Raleigh, North Carolina. And to make a very long story short, I came through, born and bred in what some might call a poor neighborhood in the city. They said we were poor, but we never knew because we had nothing to compare it too; it’s not like you had oodles of money and all of a sudden you had none. We were making due with the land, I raised chickens and ducks and we had our own garden. I was in the Baptist church, and we had a dynamic minister who encouraged the youth to get involved in their school studies, Because we loved him, I think every teenager in the church graduated, none quit school. From then and when I was in school, I really got involved with the drama club. No dance; there were dance studios in Raleigh, but only for the white kids, black kids didn’t have dance in our school. We had the Jabberwock and cheerleading and things like that, but no formal dance classes. From there I went into the Navy, and while in the Navy my interest in dance, other than social dance, began to take shape.

SB: Because you were traveling and seeing the world?

CD: No, I was a dry land sailor, from Bainbridge to Bethesda, and it was just those two ports of call. And while in Bethesda, I used to go into DC and back in the 50’s we had segregation. So I would go up to U Street which was a black part of town, and that’s where I was at The Dunbar Hotel and experienced Latin American dance with Roland Kave and his Latin-American Allstars, featuring Maria Rodriguez. Mambo and Cha Cha Cha and all of those beautiful dances of that era moved from the Dunbar to the Casbah, and while at the Casbah we formed a small dance troupe, a dance company to perform. And it makes a wonderful story; I wasn’t a member of the troupe, but because I was off duty being a Hospital Corpsman and stationed at Bethesda, I would go in and watch the dancers rehearse and I got to know the artists. The night of the premiere all of the ambassadors from the different embassies had been invited, and most had accepted because the Casbah was really a wonderful nightclub featuring Latin American and Jazz. Then the director had a car accident en route, but the show had to go on because of all the publicity. I was there, so they said “Chuck, you were here, remember that section that Rudy did where Ernestine would leap through the air and he would spin her around and the Pas de Deux” I didn’t know what Pas de Deux meant at that time but I said “Oh yeah I remember that because I was sitting right here.” And they said “Well, you just stand there as a part of the scene, and as Ernestine leaps, you just hold her and just turn around and exit.” They needed the numbers on the stage. But they’re talking to a Capricorn, Ernestine came bounding over, leapt through the air, I caught her, I spun her around and I did a few movements with my shoulders and I set her down, and instead of casually walking off I did whatever I did, but it got applause and that was the wrong thing, or the right thing depending on how you look at it. And so afterwards when the show was over, everybody was talking about it, saying “You’ve got talent.” I felt very good but I returned to the base, and when I came back the next time they said, “We want you to join us.” And I said, “Me? Join you? You all have studied dance, I just went on blood and guts.” They said, “You have something.” And I’m the type, if I want to get involved I have to know what I’m doing. To make an even longer story short, I went and studied some at the Northeast Dance Academy; I studied jazz with Clara Harrington, and classical ballet at the Northeast Dance Academy.

SB: This is after you left the Navy?

CD: I was still in, but I was a senior corpsman; senior corpsman pull duty once every 34 days from 8 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon, and once that’s over the remainder of the time you were free. So I would rush over to the barracks, change from my uniform, and then jump in my civilian clothes, jump on the bus and go in. I mustered out when I was in Bethesda and I decided to stay in DC. And it turns out; I was working in George Washington University Hospital and I said, “Maybe I would like to be involved in medicine.” So while I was there I was preparing to take classes at Howard in nursing and still working with the dancers, and that was probably my undoing because we formed a trio and we were making big bucks, we were making—back in the 50’s—two hundred, three hundred dollars between Friday and Saturday night. And it was while dancing with the troupe on the day of the march on Washington, we invited Babatunde Olatunji's after the march to come see us. He walked through the door and we danced out behind; it was the La Dalemo Trio—we didn’t know what to name ourselves so we used La to be exotic, and we took the first two letters of our last names, so DA for Davis, LE for Lewis, and MO for Moss; Dalemo Trio—and we had a beautiful reputation all over the city, one for being on time, and two for putting on an exciting show. We had Billy Stewart, God rest his soul, he’s passed on, we had Cool Hands, the drummer and we had Suicide, who was also a musician. On the extra activities, Suicide was a motorcycle racer, and he used to lean on his motorcycle and pick up a handkerchief and things like that, thus the name suicide. But they were our musicians and we did put on a very good show. But Tunji came in, saw us, and said “Okay, you come to New York, you’re hired.” Ronnie had just met a new partner he said he wasn’t going anywhere, and I’m glad he didn’t because he and his partner became real estate barons, and they owned 15-20 houses. Ernestine was a grade six in the government, and she said, I’m not losing my benefit.

So that left me, and I don’t know if you’re old enough to remember the Jewel Box Review, that was a female impersonator show that traveled all over the country. But I decided I was going to New York, and one of the stars of the Jewel Box Review was the best friend of one of the African dancers that I knew. So they met me at the Trailways terminal, everyone was helpful getting me setup in an apartment in Manhattan, and I went to rehearsal with Olatunji. And my first performance in New York with Olatunji Dance Company was in front of Malcolm X, because Olatunji used to open for the Nation of Islam’s rounds.

SB: What year was that?

CD: This was 1963? The same year as the march on Washington, either in October, November.

SB: How did Malcolm X react?

CD: He loved theater and dance and music, but I’ll tell you how he acted; I was in the dressing area getting ready to go on, and I broke out into hives. I was standing there and I was shaking, nervous. And there are other people in the area but I was shaking and an arm went around my shoulders and said “Okay my brother, everything’s going to be alright.” And it was him.

SB: Malcom X?

CD: Yes, and that was my introduction to the world of professional dance in New York. I was teaching as time went on at 117 Street, which is very near 117^th and Lenox, and very near the mosque. At PS 117 there, Malcom X and later Minister Farrakhan used to come by and watch the class.

I refreshed his memory and he laughed he said, something to the effect of “Between then and now you’ve blossomed and grown” or something like that.

I went on with Tunji and after I did the world’s fair and it was wonderful, fabulous. We used to go onstage out front, Dabarker was there and he was extolling people to come in and see the fierce warriors. I was dressed as the Ntore or the Watusi, and we had a Zulu, Spike Mafata was representing the Zulus and Marsha Allen was representing the mask from Côte d'Ivoire. We had these powerful warriors there, and one day we were onstage and he was telling everybody about the fierceness of these African warriors. We were standing there with our attitude and we noticed the audience took one step back—he was still talking— they took another step back and then we noticed they weren’t really paying attention to us. Something was happening behind us, which didn’t really phase us because occasionally the dancers would come out and they would be standing upstage or right behind us. Then they began to retreat a little bit faster, so I just casually turned around and as I’m turning to look it was as if a signal was given, all of us turned around and looked. There was a cage with a leopard, and that leopard was coming through the bars! He had gotten about half way through; when we panicked, everybody panicked. I had on my Ntore, that’s the royal Watusi, my headpiece was stuck straight out behind me; you come to see the mighty Zulu warrior, he was moving so fast his ostrich plume was behind him, he passed me as if I was standing still. And later we learned that a little old lady, a grandmotherly type had an umbrella, she went over and hit the leopard on the nose and it retreated back into the cage. But we did not wait, and we were there at the World’s Fair so I had a chance to meet so many artists, musicians, dancers and politicians and all from so many different countries and cultures.

My interest had already been peaked by dancing with Tunji, and it just got larger and larger. I left Tunji and began dancing with Eleo Pomare, God rest his soul, he passed this year. Also John Pogs—Alvin Ailey’s lead dancer—Miriam Greaves and Dolores Vanison-Blakely formed the dance company Movements Black, and we work in modern dance but with African influence. That moved on and then I began to teach at the South Bronx Community Action Theater, and while there I met Bess Pruett, who became my manager and confidant. Momma Bess— as we used to call her—was insistent on me starting a dance company. I said I did not want the headaches, because I knew what headaches we as dancers had given Tunji and Eleo and everybody else. It was that one Sunday that we had finished a performance; I went home and sat watching TV and that movie on Tarzan came on, the one where the cast was saying “Ooga booga.” You could see the white in the eye because they had put on Negro Number 3 makeup, and that’s when I decided. It was time to tell the truth about dance and about life and Africa and that it was not “Ooga booga,” and the history of the various dance cultures and cultures and music and on and on.

That’s when the Chuck Davis Dance Company was founded at the South Bronx Community Action Theater and we moved from there to the Church of the Master, all in Manhattan and Harlem. And regarding the Church of the Master, Arthur Mitchell had been there first, with Dance Theater of Harlem. He moved up to Saint Marks, and we moved there right after him because the Church of the Master space became too small, and then Saint Marks became too small! Finally we were into The Minisink Townhouse at 142^nd and Lenox, and from there it just mushroomed. Then Bronx Community College picked us up and Dr. Roscoe Brown gave us space, and that’s where we were when we were selected to represent the United States at FESTAC, which was held in Nigeria (in 1977.) We were all prepared to go and at the victory party, instead of us celebrating the fact that we leave the next morning, the telegram came that they had messed up the scheduling and we would not be leaving until the following week. If we left the following week—which the company did—I could not go, because we had signed a contract saying as soon as the company returned, we would go to Texas. They said “No, because we have you on the calendar,” so I took the 2^nd unit of the dance company to Texas while the first unit was in FESTAC. Andrew Young used my dancers to accompany him as he went around to various venues, and something there happened because one the United States was accused of cheating, by getting a company from Nigeria to represent them and saying they were Americans. So he and the elders came backstage and had all of my dancers talk so he could make sure we’re Americans, and they were so surprised because everything was authentic, the singing and so forth. We were doing a tribute to Nigeria and they could not believe that we were as authentic as we were; so as a result they gave us the 16 Kola nuts.

Every morning while they were in FESTAC I was in Texas crying. But they say, when one door closes, another will open. So that was in January and February; in October I made my first trip to Africa because of Hazel Bryant who danced with the International African American Ballet. Hazel’s mother worked at an office building. In this office they had a reception for tourists. Senegal was opening its doors and inviting tourists to come in, so they had this big reception, and two operators were given the chance to come to Senegal. So her mom gave us the flyer, we found the contact and we decided that we were going to Africa. We went to Africa.

SB: We meaning your company?

CD: No, just Hazel and I, one of the dancers. And I went to Africa for one whole week; we had breakfast, lunch and dinner, we stayed at a tourist encampment where all the dwellings were like huts, but inside they had hot and cold running water, and air conditioning designed for the tourists. We were there for a whole week, roundtrip airfare for 345 dollars.

And with my feet touching the soil, I made a pact: every year I’m coming back. Every year since then, thanks be to the All Merciful Creator, I have been to Africa two or three times every year since then. Because I began working with Jim Gross—and his was the Art Safari—when Jim decided to just work with the government and be a tour guide for politicians, I continued and said “It’s going to be the Cultural Art Safari.” I took dancers, musicians, teachers and everybody to Africa to study dance and music, and to find out the origins of many of the rhythms and dance styles that were so popular here.

Time went on and on, and its 1977, the time when Chuck Davis Dance Company founded Dance Africa. Everything shifted and worked and we went on celebrating; the original DanceAfricas were to celebrate the fact that we have dance companies, musicians, artists, administrators and everyone here, who were dedicated to maintaining and preserving the traditions born on Africa and spread throughout the world. So we would come together, and (Former Bam President) Harvey Lichtenstein gave us permission to carry it forth here with BAM and it’s been an institution ever since. We have people now who plan their vacation around DanceAfrica. I think it was 1987, ‘88 when we brought in the first dance company from Africa, because up until that point it was all Americans.

SB: Which company was that?

CD: If I recall correctly it was Rose Marie Giraud from Coite D’Ivoire, then out of that we just went berserk. We’ve had companies from Togo, from Ghana, from Guinea, from Sierra Leone, from Zimbabwe, from Uganda, from South Africa, from Senegal, from Gambia, from Benin, and it has been absolutely fantastic because naturally, when they come in they bring in their culture. We always did the best we could to make sure they were not Paris orientated, wherein they had the Parisian slickness— we wanted a bit of the rawness. They were professional in their attire, the different dances, the history, and they were able to articulate their culture. And then about 12 years ago as a visiting artist came in, we developed a relationship with the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Theater and their youth program. Every company coming from a foreign soil worked with the youth, and the youth would perform with them in DanceAfrica—it was a fantastic union! Sister Peggy, Aunt Karen, and Pat Dye and all of them had maintained that energy and that tradition. Also I left out, not only were we bringing in troupes from Africa, but we brought in a company from Brazil, from Cuba, from Haiti; those were the main three. And in Chicago we had companies from Puerto Rico, and it was just absolutely wonderful.

SB: Every year?

CD: Every year. And now we are into this economic crisis, so this year here at BAM, instead of bringing in a company from Africa, we are dealing with companies who are extremely authentic, but based here. We have Seéwé, they could walk into any town in Guinea and be accepted, that’s just how strong they are. Farafina Kan has chosen Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Guinea, Conakry, as their field of study and research and preservation. We have Ron Brown, ‘Evidence’ to show the contemporary side of traditional dance and of course the kids of Bam/Restoration Danceafrica Ensemble are learning from Abdel Salaam who is the Artistic Director of Forces of Nature Dance Theatre. Abdel took over for me when Duke University in Durham, North Carolina made me— back in 1980—an offer I couldn’t refuse; I moved to Durham to start the second unit of the Chuck Davis Dance Company. Sandy Burton, who is now the director of dance at William’s college, Abdel Salaam, and Normadien Gibson-Woolbright, who since then moved to Durham and is now the assistant stage manager for DanceAfricas all over the country.

SB: So when you say DanceAfricas, you mean a festival like this? They’re all over the country?

CD: Right like this, they are in Chicago, Dallas, Texas, Washington DC, New York, and they have been in Hartford, Connecticut, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Newark New Jersey, Red Bank, New Jersey, and New Haven.

SB: Is it the same principle, where you have companies from all over the United States and sometimes from Africa, bringing them together for the weekend, and have an educational component?

CD: Oh we have to have them for at least a week. They always share parts of their tradition with a local troupe. My favorite is to pull a few from each group in the city, let them learn, return to their family or company units, and share, so its not one company receiving all of the knowledge. But it is about sharing, it is about recognizing that it takes more than one person to make the world go round, and that we all can benefit as long as we close our mouth and open our eyes and ears, open our hearts and move forward. And when we go into the villages in Africa or in Cuba or wherever, I go to learn or to audition companies, I don’t walk into a community unless I connect with the elders first.

SB: And make sure you greet them properly.

CD: Greet them properly, and the world is yours, from then on. And I learned this way back when I first got into it. I knew what to do, but when I got to Africa I made sure that I was always on the case. Because of this, at one point I received more than expected; I had taken the time to learn that this is the way you greet the elders when you come into this community, even though they had elders five miles away who did it differently. But in this community, this is the way it’s done. You need to make sure the elders are well aware of your presence and why you are there. The same thing happened when I was in Nigeria, we were in an area called Epitomodou, and I went in and I greeted the elders properly; I fell down on the ground and the dust—and I’m an American but I knew the traditions, I had no qualms about going because that’s the way you greeted the Oba in that area. When I got up from there, then I was invited to sit next to him. Because I was seated next to him, I had the benefit of his linguist, so everything that was happening, his linguist was explaining to me. I was sitting there wide eyed because I was getting knowledge that I hadn’t even expected to receive. And those type of things, and going there and having that hands on experience was just fantastic. We were in the Gambia; we went to Juffree, where Alex Haley (Roots) gathered all of his information. We were there with Bintu and the other members of the Kunta Kinte family, and from there we went to Theatre Daniel Serano in Dakar, and as you know, many of the famous musicians now, Youssou N’Dour, and Salif Keita came through there. So it’s wonderful.