other Senegal reviews? more Renee Renouf reviews

These one-night community concert engagements have been many a performer's bread and butter since the 'Thirties, bringing five or six yearly glimpses of 'higher' culture to small cities and communities through annual subscription. In 1940 during one such season in Visalia, California I saw San Francisco Ballet and heard Sergei Rachmaninoff.

The company's program was titled Kuuyamba, referring in Mandingue to the rite de passage of adulthood for men and women. I made the assumption, thanks to numerous costume changes, parts of the program represented different areas of Senegal with the rite itself common to all.

The stage setting was a theatricalized version of a village compound, reed fences, pointed roofs, plastered buildings close to each other. One stylized tree changed color and silhouette according to the lighting.Pre-dawn and early morning village chores were enacted before the village elder, the Alcali, made his entrance.

Among the assembled musicians, I counted eleven drummers, two musicians with xylophone-like instruments, the kora exponent, and perhaps one more. The male dancers numbered four consistently and the women nine. Other players, danced at some point, but were involved in traditional village roles.

While the sequence of initiation preparation, sanction and ceremony seemed fairly obvious, I wish the tour managers as well as the Senegalese government had provided us with a few program notes relating to the variety of the drums and their relative signifance, as well as the other instruments. I may be asking too much for the going admission price, but such information would be helpful as would some explanation regarding the nature of the costumes.

Although adapted to the stage, the variety of caftans, sarong like costumes and the multi-tiered raffia costume of the shaman, like waves of cascading and swirling water, was eye catching. The same material was worn by the men and by the women during the initiation rites, without obscuring the figure.

At least two of the men provided notable acrobatics - back flips and a controlled diving enabling them to pick up calabash containers in their teeth. High jumps in a broad second position seemed to take off with out noticeable preparation. There were contests of will, or evil eye, which briefly paralyzed opponents. Accompanied by steady or accelerating drumming, staccato to underscore the excitement and the virtuosity of the performer,we were transported, exhausted and totally engaged. We also had glimpses of the origins of capoeira.

The women displayed a collective solidarity,interspered with solos. The hip movement was supplied by manipulation of one slightly bent leg, the torso held at a 45 degree angle. Arms frequently swung like frenzied windmills. The acceleration from energetic collective movement into presto fortissimono, hopping in place, was breathtaking and constant. Any langourous movement seemed to be weight shifting,pivoting around the spine, the torso flexing and shoulders with a sublety not obvious, though distinctly present.

It is patent this African style evolved for action and reaction with the drumming as leader and pace setter. The master drummer and the echoing of the supporting drummers, or the small ensemble of drummers, made one understand again the term "call and response" in ethnomusicology. In the United States, the preacher's voice on Sunday became the drum for the African community, deprived of permission to express themselves through drumming.

The San Francisco Area has a number of African dance ensembles and a healthy share of African drumming. Le Ballet National du Senegal reassured us we have available here a quality and calibre of drumming when those wonderful Senegalese aren't around to remind us what Africa's heritage is all about.