Dance Class

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

I have my first Traditional African Dance Class today. Yes I am taking African Dance with Ghanians who have been dancing the choreography for the past three years. So needless to say, I am definitely not the best in the class. I always say people never change, well I am in Africa and I still can’t seem to take the back seat. Some people from the CIEE program are performing at the annual Durba. It is an event held every year for the international students to perform any talents they may have. However, our group is not talented in African dance, but we are performing anyway. The person who choreographed for us is not only a u-pal, but a forth year dance major. He is so talented; he can play two drums at the same time, sing, and dance. Yesterday he told me that if a drummer cannot do those three things, they are not truly a drummer! To revert back to my original point, in our group I pushed myself to learn the moves and attempted to practice in front of people that would help me master the moves in at least a decent way. The chirographer told his roommate that I was a leader and everyone in the group will listen to me. Hearing comments like this make me miss dance so much. Nutcracker was always that way for me, I felt like I was able to bring good things to the group. Every time the teacher’s assistants performed during our class I could picture being in the Galleria trying to perfect Disney Dances and Spring Shows. Although I have not learned much in the dance class yet far, I had a blast attending the class and the Durba practice that proceeded it.

At first I though I was the worst in the class because I feel like I got corrected more than most people. However, I would look around and there are some white people in the class that are so upside down I couldn’t imagine being worse than them. I remembered back to when I was younger and how Mrs. Evelyn always used to correct me, and I would go home upset because I felt like I was always messing up. After a while I realized that she didn’t correct me because I was the worse, but because she saw potential in me, making it worth her time to try and improve my skills. I would like to believe that is what is going on in the African Dance Class. Although I happen to be white they will still take their time to demonstrate to me my flaws, so I will improve. Although I have no proof that this is true at all, for the sake of my pride I will continue believing it. I know I mess up most of the steps because so far they haven’t been teaching us anything, they just do something on the stage that the sixty student in the class replicate. Many of the students have been performing these steps for years, so they know exactly how to move their bodies. However, the white people in the class including myself are left in the dusk when the movements speed up and positions get jumbled causing us to no longer have a clear view of the TAs.

I was most excited about dance class that is why I began today’s blog attempting to explain the experience. To regress back to the beginning of the day I had my first Political Methods class and it was a true eye opener. There were literally four hundred people in my class and I was the only white person. The teacher watched me as he spoke and the students all seemed to notice. However, out of sure luck I accidently sat in the middle of a group of friends. When I realized what I had done I apologized and went to move my seat. One individual stopped me and told me I could join their small group. I was jumping up and down inside, but I attempted not to show my great pleasure on my face. As the class went on I learned a couple of things about the class structure. The professor is always right; you listen, laugh, and take notes. But the students almost never listen unless the teacher repeats something twice or writes something on the board. It is difficult to understand the accents of the Ghanians, so I already have some difficulty concentrating on the task at hand. It added to my frustration when the entire class would hold their own conversations when they were suppose to be listening. The u-pals say that people will start paying more attention when it is closer to exams, but in my eyes that seems like it is already to late to catch up.

We decided not to go out because we were exhausted, so we just went over to Chukes room, one of our Nigerian friends and hung out for a while. It was extremely interesting finding more out about the culture of the Nigerians. Although both Muslims and Christians are present in the country, they both take their religion seriously and respect the views of one another. All in all it was a good day, but the next days lecture proved to be a very different experience.