By Tanya Batson-Savage, Freelance Writer
Mona Preparatory School students performing 'Zulus' in the creative folk, Class 1 (six years and under) at the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission's national dance finals at the Little Theatre on Monday. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer
THE FOLK forms carry the brunt of the weight of that semi-ignoble creature called culture. For far too many persons in Jamaica, culture is defined according to what it is not.
As the antidote to 'slackness', culture becomes the un-hip, stiff-waisted guardian of 'proper' acceptable behaviour. 'Culture' is what you dust off and bring out when visitors stop over. Too often it loses its meaning as a way of life, a way of seeing the world.
Because of this ill-fitting identity the work of the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) is important to breathing life into cementing ideas about what culture is and its continued relevance.
For the past two weeks the stage of the Little Theatre, Tom Redcam Avenue, St. Andrew, has been walked on, stomped on, and slid across by numerous persons from across the island as the adjudication of the JCDC's festival of the performing arts competition progressed.
The festival features performances in music, dance, drama, speech and the traditional folk forms. With competition now ended, the best of each category will be displayed at the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre, Hope Road, St. Andrew, from July 26 to 30. The most entertaining entrants will then be showcased in Mello-Go-Roun at the National Arena on August 5, the eve of Independence Day.
The traditional folk forms competition is the major repository for the retention of Jamaica's folk traditions. Through this competition, students and adults alike continue to explore many of the folk arts.
The traditional folk forms include performances in 15 areas. Schools and cultural groups compete in ring games/ring play, quadrille, Maypole, kumina, dinki mini, bruckins party, gerreh, tambu, revival, jonkunnu, nine night and integrated song and dance.
VARIETY OF CREATIVE FORMS
Folk performances are not, however, limited to the traditional folk forms competition.
The music competition allows for traditional singing and traditional heritage categories. These allow for the inclusion of folk songs, as well as music used at nine nights, revivals and other forms of folk form celebrations.
Along with these categories is creative folk. As the name suggests, creative folk allows for the re-working of folk forms.
As such, creative folk, which occurs in the music and dance competition, is one of the of the most intriguing subject areas on the syllabus. Through creative folk, the past and the present and multiple cultures often collide, commingle and sometimes create something wonderful.
While vocal gospel contained the most entries in the music competition, the creative folk category was one of the most contested areas in dance.
The dance finals took place last week Monday through Wednesday. In the dance competition, there are two creative folk categories.
Maria Smith, JCDC dance co-ordinator explains that 'creative folk A' dances utilise Jamaica folk elements, while 'creative folk B' extends to the Caribbean.
So it was that Seaward Primary and Junior High presented a slice of revivalism done to Chalice and Lovindeer's Pocomania Day.
Despite the contemporary music, the students dressed the part of revivalists and even had one of their numbers getting 'in spirit'.
Likewise, Mount Alvernia's 'Feel The Beat' started like a traditional revival, with students coming out to the tune There is a Meeting Here Tonight.
Suddenly the tempo was changed as the music switched to Elephant Man's popular Yuh Too Bad Mine. However, though the dance changed tempo, the style never varied. As a result it pulled on the revival elements which the popular song sampled as the basis for its rhythms.
With 'creative folk C', folk culture of the wider world was also explored.
Glenmuir High brought to the fore Jamaica's Indian connections with 'Indian Harvesting', while Excelsior Community College explored Africa with 'Visions of Africa'.
Interestingly, the JCDC is currently attempting to allow the students and their teachers to better explore and represent the folk forms in the dance.
WORKSHOP
The JCDC will be conducting a three-week workshop on developing the aesthetics of dances in the Black Diaspora. The workshops will be conducted by Professor Kariamu Welsh of Temple University.
Professor Welsh's professional career includes a combination of practical and scholastic work.
With an MA.H in choreography from the State University of New York (SUNY) and a D.Arts in dance history from the University of New York, Professor Welsh was also the founding artistic director of the National Dance Company of Zimbabwe.
Her writings have been published in The Griot, Journal of Black Studies and The International Journal of Black Dance, among others.
Additionally, she has authored two books Zimbabwean Dance: An Aesthetic Analysis and The Umfundalai Technique; Shapes of Rhythm.
HONING SKILLS
The workshop is intended to cover seven areas background studies of various dance genres in the Diaspora; dance composition; movement studies; dance technique (folk modern and jazz; traditional, social and popular dance; quadrille), Caribbean dance and music for dance and costume design.
Smith noted that the workshops are necessary to strengthen the offerings of the various groups which participate in the competition.
"The chief thing is choreography and how they can use the skills to build the technique," Smith explained. She noted that the workshops should help to level the playing field for the leaders, especially those who are not trained in dance outside of JCDC workshops.
Smith noted that while schools like Tivoli Comprehensive High, Stella Maris and Lannaman's preparatory schools have been producing quality work, the general standard needs to be raised.
A part of raising this standard, she says, is allowing the choreographers to understand the cultural form behind the dance. She argues that understanding the background will keep participants from treating material lightly.
"Whereas we want to abstract and make it like a show, we still don't want to leave the roots too much," she said.
The workshops will take place at the Shortwood Teacher's College, starting July 12 and continuing through to July 30. Because of the intensive nature of the workshop it is being offered on a residential basis, especially to those from the rural areas. The workshops ought to provide another well-placed step in rediscovering and continuing ideas of the folk.
Participants can uncover the past while redefining it with the present. Several schools and studio groups seem to have caught the beat now, they simply have to hone it.
