Reawakening Memory and African Identity through the African Caribbean Dance Theatre

201 Pages·2015·2.61 MB·English

by  Lisa Michelle Beckley

Florida State University Libraries
Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School
2005
"Making It All Click": Reawakening
Memory and African Identity Through the
African Caribbean Dance Theatre
Lisa M. Beckley
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THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF MUSIC

“MAKING IT ALL CLICK”: REAWAKENING
MEMORY AND AFRICAN IDENTITY THROUGH THE
AFRICAN CARIBBEAN DANCE THEATRE

By

LISA M. BECKLEY

A Thesis submitted to the
College of Music
in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
Master of Music

Degree Awarded:
Summer Semester, 2005
The members of the Committee approve the thesis of Lisa M. Beckley defended on May
22, 2005.
______________________________
Frank Gunderson
Professor Directing Thesis
______________________________
Dale Olsen
Committee Member
______________________________
Michael B. Bakan
Committee Member
The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee
members.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Figures …………………………………………………………………….......iv
Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………….v

INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………………………1

1. MEMORY AND MUSIC: A LOOK AT THE ROLE OF CULTURAL,
COMMUNICATIVE, AND COLLECTIVE MEMORY AND THE
PROCESS OF FORGETTING IN
ACDT………………………………………………………………. ……... ..20

2. ACDT’S USE OF MUSIC AND MOVEMENT AS A CHRONICLE OF
HISTORY………………………………………………………………….. . 36

3. THE SEARCH FOR ETHNIC AND CULTURAL IDENTITY
THROUGH ACDT…...……………………………………………………. ..52

4. THE ‘AFRICANS IN AMERICA’ COMMUNITY IN TALLAHASSEE
CREATED AROUND A MUSIC AND DANCE ENSEMBLE:
PRINCIPLES AND CHARACTER ....…………………………………..... ..67

5. RE-INVENTED TRADITIONS: THE PERFORMANCE OF
AFRICANISMS AND AMERICANISMS ………………………………….78

6. CONCLUSIONS ABOUT ACDT’S USE OF MEMORY, IDENTITY,
AND AFRICANISMS……………………………………………………... ..94

APPENDIX………………………………………………………………………… .98

BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………….. 190

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH………………………………………………………. 195

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LIST OF FIGURES

1. Photo of balophone master allowing a child who attends ACDT classes to
“try out” instrument……….……………………………………………….. 24

2. Photo of experienced drummer demonstrating drum part to younger
drummer……………………………………………………………………. 32

3. Model for group identity established through memory processes………... 35

4. Photo of exhausted child dancer as she embraces her father after class…… 43

5. Photo of Gayla Lowery dancing in community class……………………… 47

6. Photo of group of children observing more advanced dancers….…………. 60

7. Model for developing identity through community, memory, and
ethnicity……………………………………………………………………..65

8. Photo of mother tying her daughter’s lapa on so that she may join the other
dancers……………………………………………………………………....66

9. Photo of advanced student leading dance class……………….…………… 84

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ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to discuss how the expressive culture of members of
the African Caribbean Dance Theatre of Tallahassee (ACDT) is directly linked to those
of African people and other peoples of the African diaspora. This thesis discusses and
analyzes how aspects of memory, identity, ethnicity, history and community are at work
both in the ensemble and the community which surrounds it. Throughout this work the
concepts of ethnicity and identity are discussed in order to explain how and why the
ACDT was formed, as well as how it is the source for many members to establish and
assert their identity. In addition, I explore why many members of the ensemble have
identified themselves and specific aspects of their behavior as being African in origin
through an ethnomusicogical scope. The main focus is on these behaviors and
expressions within their American context as a means of reconnecting with a
conceptualization of “traditional African values”. This work seeks to establish music and
dance as the vehicles of memory that have created new senses of identity, self esteem,
and place in a diasporic community. Furthermore, this research explores new concepts of
the process of re-inventing and re-collecting aspects of African culture as a part of a
larger cultural flow process between the continent of Africa and the West.

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INTRODUCTION

This project began in August of 2000 when I stepped into the Aakhet Center in
Tallahassee, Florida, for a community dance class held by the African Caribbean Dance
Theatre (ACDT). There, I saw, heard and felt rhythms, dances, and feelings that I was
immediately drawn to. The high pitched yells of encouragement (which I later learned
were called ululations), and high energy drumming and dancing, as well as the sweaty
hugs and mile-wide smiles that I witnessed that day, along with the community from
which they came, have become the center of my research and passion. While I could not,
until very recently, pinpoint why I was so drawn to this ensemble, I now realize that it
was the customs and behavior that were a part of their gatherings which made them
unique and intriguing.
ACDT is a non-profit dance company founded by Marcus and Jevelle Robinson. This
organization performs African music and dance nationally and annually hosts the North
Florida Drum and Dance Festival. It was created in order to teach traditional music and
dance from Africa and the Caribbean to members of the Tallahassee community, as well
as to expose these same people to a culture that the founders believe is in many ways at
the heart of African American and African diaspora culture in the West. Now, the
ensemble focuses solely on music from Africa, but has maintained the term African
Caribbean in their title. Many of my African American informants from the dance
company, as well as class participants and community members, agree that the culture
they are learning about through the ensemble has been a part of the way that they have
lived and related to each other prior to this ensemble and other social movements with
similar goals (Appendix). Participation in the ensemble, however, has solidified this
cultural awareness.
The ensemble consists of several artists-in-residence who are percussionists from
Guinea, local drummers, and dancers. The percussionists play djembes from Senegal;
axatsa, dunduns, and agogo from Nigeria; a kpan logo orchestra from Ghana; a balaphone

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from Guinea; and a host of other instruments from West Africa. The dance repertoire is
even more varied than the instruments coming from the entire continent of Africa. The
company itself rehearses once a week, but offers community drum and dance classes for
all ages twice a week. It was during these community classes that I was first introduced
to the ensemble and all that came with it. Each class is like an African festival, market
day, or a family reunion because of the camaraderie. Children can be seen playing,
adolescents giggling and gossiping, and community elders watching over the entire
gathering. Often I have witnessed vendors set up before, during, and after classes, selling
clothes, instruments, and food. It was this atmosphere, and not necessarily the dancing
and drumming that I was not very good at, which made me want to return to classes.
Months into conducting this research, I spoke with an informant who discussed his
“awakening” as a participant in the ensemble. He described himself as a “missing link”
who first arrived at dance class unable to perform the dance steps accurately, but that he
was drawn to the rhythms. At some point he realized, however, that he was “in sync”
with the dances and that an “African” had been awakened within him, who knew
instinctively what to listen for and how to execute the movements. His theory was that
this African had been a part of his subconscious mind always, but that he had never
nourished him by acknowledging his presence. Participating in an activity which was a
natural part of that African’s existence, that is, dance and music, was the first step in
providing that much-needed nourishment. Another informant expressed that being a part
of the ACDT was the key to “…making it all click” (McIntosh, 2004). She expressed
that it was only through this ensemble that she began to understand her role as an African
woman, born in America, and what that meant to her as an individual and a part of a
larger community.
These comments and numerous similar ones led to the title of the project. In addition,
the atmosphere at ACDT gatherings inspired me to take an in-depth look at African
Caribbean Dance Theatre members’ behaviors and customs in relation to the music and
dance that they perform. Furthermore, this research discusses and analyzes aspects of
memory, identity, ethnicity, community, and historical references that are at work in the
individual participants and the group as a whole. The thesis makes connections between
these important cultural components and the culture from which they originally came, but

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focuses on their new residence within this community in Tallahassee. In sum, this work
seeks to establish music and dance as the impetus for the creation of new definitions and
understandings of many of the members’ ideas about identity, community, and history.

Survey of Literature
There are many sources upon which I have drawn in order to further address the
issues that I have outlined above. These include sources which define terms and concepts
such as ethnicity, identity, memory, surrogation, and “invented traditions.” Other sources
aided in formulating models for analysis, and in discussing of various aspects of the
music that the ACDT performs, and provided the foundation upon which I base my
conclusions regarding the degree to which African cultural, collective, and
communicative memory are or are not at work in the ensemble.

Memory
Memory in relation to expressive culture has been the most difficult concept to
clearly define. While various studies present numerous types of memory which include
(but are not limited to), the cultural, communicative, and collective models outlined in
this study, these varying forms of memory overlap and can be difficult to differentiate.
Furthermore, even with these models clearly outlined, the lines between them remain
unclear at best. This research uses these models to demonstrate how memory of a
common set of events has impacted and created a community while serving as a vehicle
for cultural transmission.
In his book On Collective Memory, Maurice Halbwachs (1992) discusses memory as
a phenomenon which occurs primarily through social interaction. According to the
author, “…it is in society that people normally acquire their memories. It is also in
society that they recall, recognize and localize their memories” (1992:38). He proves this
point through extensive examples of collective memory functioning in families, religious
associations, and social groups. Through this book, I was able to understand how a group
of people, like those affiliated with ACDT, explained the origin of specific dances and
songs in similar ways. Aside from the fact that they had been told specific stories related

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to these dances, I grew to understand that they were recalling collective cultural
memories associated with dances that affected both their performance and their identity.
Alon Confino (1997), building upon the research of Halbwachs, finds that the
concept of collective memory encompasses most of these types of recollection. He
emphasizes from the opening of his article, “Collective Memory and Cultural History:
Problems of Method,” that the term memory denotes a number of things with one
common theme: “the ways in which people construct a sense of the past” (1997:1386).
The author defines collective memory as: “an exploration of a shared identity that unites
a social group, be it a family or a nation, whose members nonetheless have different
interests and motivations” (1997:1390). That is, collective memory is built upon similar
representations of the past through reducing or eliminating differences in recollections in
communications about the past:

…as a study of collective mentality (memory) provides a comprehensive view of culture
and society that is often missing in the history of memory, whose fragmentary tendency
is to focus on distinct memories. The history of mentality distinguished itself from the
history of ideas by looking at the common man (Confino 1997:1389).

This definition includes both the remembrances of those who have experienced an event
as well as the way that these events are represented to the generations who live after their
occurrence. This is the point from which the research represented in this thesis follows.
Only a few of the members of the African Caribbean Dance Theatre, and about
half of the instructors, have personally experienced African music and dance in its native
setting, and as such have an individual memory of this and associated experiences.1 Most
participants have learned about it through classes and reading. Yet, there exist common
ideas about the execution and meaning of the movements, songs, and expressions of each.
Based upon Confino’s definition, this work asserts that all memory associated with
ACDT and the community from which it comes is collective.

1 For members of ACDT “African music and dance” specifically refers to music and dance traditions which
are a part of indigenous African cultural expression. This excludes contemporary popular dance forms and
includes dances which have historically been a part of ritual and social performances. For references see
Appendix: 124-131, 142-192. While many debate the use of terms such as “African music” because of the
numerous forms of musical expression in Africa, members of this ensemble use this term to denote a
collage of both traceable and untraceable types of music that they perform.

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