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The instructor, Déjà Mitchell is dance school director and company member of Valley Dance Ensemble in Logan. She has a B.S. in modern dance from Utah State University and has studied African dance with many different teachers. Her major influences and teachers for African dance: Kim Strunk, Mabiba Baegne, Babatunde Olatunji. Other teachers studied with: Chuck Davis, Youssouf Koumbassa, Fred Simpson. Styles studied: West African: Congolese, Senegalese, Guinean, Afro-Carribean (Afro-Haitian, Afro-Cuban), Katherine Dunham.

Some of the specific dances we will learn in this class: Doundounba, Yankadi, Focodaba.

Background to African dance:

Dance, music, and story are all an integral part of African tradition and culture.

Traditionally, all ages of people would take part in dance and song. The griots, or storytellers were an important and revered part of the society. In this way, history, mythology, tradition, and social knowledge have been shared and passed on since ancient time.

The dances are as diverse as the land and people they come from. There are dances for the seasons, to help the crops grow and to bring rain, to tell the story of a peoples journeys to new land. There are dances to protect the people by appealing to divine power, dances to demonstrate strength and warrior skill. There are dances for weddings, funerals, coming of age, for royalty, for when important people come to the village, and just to take a break from work and celebrate.

Infused within the dances and movements are the experiences of the land and animals, the values of respect for the earth and ancestors, connection to higher power, routine duties of living, and acknowledging and celebrating a person’s community.