Caribbean Dance Hirtory: Lesson Plan on African Influences on Caribbean Spanish Speaking Islands

Caribbean Dance Hirtory: Lesson Plan on African Influences on Caribbean Spanish Speaking Islands

Caribbean Dance History – Fall 2011Level: Undergraduate

Unit: African Influences on Caribbean Dance from Spanish Speaking Islands

Learning Background:

Dance students, at the Dance BA level, know about the dances in the English Speaking Caribbean. This course emphasizes the history of dance in the Spanish Speaking Caribbean Islands. The students will be learning about Taino dance, Spanish dances, African dances and Chinese dances. The course gives students the opportunity to experience the essential elements of these dances in a creative way through the combination of academic lectures and practical dance demonstrations. It is a unique way in which the students can integrate and express what they know from before, learn the new ideas about dance presented and synthesize their acquired knowledge of the subject matter by integrating their learning through their own dance piece.

Course Overview
As the students go through their semester, the students become more engaged in learning about how other Caribbean people dance and what have been the influences that have shaped their dances. Through lectures, videos and demonstrations, the students see how other Caribbean dancers move, think, and feel. Soon, they can begin to see what it takes to be a folk dancer in a Caribbean country, a researcher of Caribbean dance or simply someone that is sensitive to dance , creates dances and performs them. In the following sessions students will learn some of the basic things a dancer and a choreographer need to know and do in order to accomplish his/her goals. Then, they can try it out for themselves by working in groups. Besides the historic content of the class, sessions will include:

1) How to conduct exercises dancers use to prepare themselves.
2) How to make a dance of their choice by working in groups.
3) How to organize a presentation on the dance of their choice to share information on the historic aspect of the dance with the rest of the class.

ObjectivesStudents will:

• Learn how dancers prepare their bodies for dance class or performance with warm-up and stretching exercises.
• Learn the history of the arrival of the Bantu, Yoruba, Abakua, Arara, Haitian groups to the Spanish Islands, specifically Cuba, and how these influences crystallized in the Cuban Rumba Complex: namely, Yambu, Guaguanco and Columbia.
• How to research the history of these dances and their relationship with the world of the time, dances now and the rest of the Caribbean.
• Learn to explore and discover how to reproduce steps derived from African influenced Caribbean dances such as: Bantu, Yoruba, Abakua, Arara, Afrocuban-Haitian and Cuban Rumba.
• Learn how to differentiate these steps by ethnic group.
• Learn to put together a group presentation and a performance using one of the styles learned in class.

Estimated Time
Warm-up and stretches, exploring shapes and steps, and designing a dance will require 3 sessions per unit of 3 hours each. The extension activity on researching the different dances by cultural influence will require time for reading and presenting information (6-8 hours).

Necessary Materials
Books, posters, or photos of dancers in action, videos.
CD player and selection of music by cultural influence.
Space Requirements
Lessons are adaptable for a variety of spaces, but it is preferably taught in a professional dacne studio.

Teaching ProcedureActivity I: Learning the History of Afro-Caribbean Dance in the Spanish Caribbean by Specific Ethnic Group. Afro-Cuban dances are used as reference through videos and articles.
Begin a discussion about what cultural or folk dance is about. Explain the type of historical background they need to know to get ready to do their presentations and dances, the final aim of the course.
Activity II: Learning the Steps of the Afro-Caribbean Dances by Ethnic Group.
After being introduced to the history of the specific African ethnic group that introduced the dance to the Caribbean, the students will learn 4 steps for each African influenced cultural dance covered in class, learning how to differentiate these steps from one ethnic group to the other.

Teaching of Academic Content: Dances Ordered by African Ethnic GroupBantu Dances

Bantu: The Bantu peoples, from south of the equator, were the most influential in Cuba and all of Afro-America. The two major subgroups were the Bakongo (northern Angola, southern Zaire, and southern Congo), and the Abudu from Angola and part of Zaire. Also, from the eastern areas south of the equator were the Makua from Mozambique. They, especially the Bakongo, formed the religion Palo Monte which survives in Cuba. They were introduced throughout the period of slave trade.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPQ063RioIc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMsLej6zoMk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcigBrd08AY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lavx6mt22fM&feature=related

Yoruba DancesYoruba: The Yoruba people were the second major ethnic group brought to Cuba from Africa. They were mainly from what is now southwestern Nigeria, and arrived mostly during 1820-1860s. Many were also brought to Bahia, Brazil. In Haiti, by contrast, the slave trade had ended in 1791 with the Revolution. The Yoruba brought religious practices which were formed into the religion called Santeria or Regla de Ocha in Cuba. (The Ijesha were a Yoruba sub-group from southwestern Nigeria. Their music is now called Iyesa. The Ketus were another Yoruba sub-group, from a western Yoruba kingdom where the Nigeria-Benin border is today. Many Ketu were sent to Brazil and were the majority of Yorubas in Salvador. The religion Ketu Candomble came from their culture).

Eleggua
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWiOXWKFxS8&feature=related
Yemaya
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnmFqm4Nq4Y&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KndrrwJiAdY&feature=related
Chango
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UElodBNwQIA&feature=related
Ochun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqYiVcNF-m8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZKD0c1wfE4&feature=related
Oggun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vJBmKKiFt4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1f2LniY9zM&feature=related
Babalu Aye
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6dfvXKgP7A&feature=related
Oya
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDS4no2xLoQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=215OLyndNHI&NR=1
Ochosi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPV892BHVVs&feature=related
Inle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK_pP5xtxVg&feature=related
Oba
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEdySQTdY_Y&feature=related
Ochanla
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9oLsYotFwg&feature=related

AbakuaIbo, Ibibio, and Ijaw: These three related groups were from southeastern Nigeria. The began arriving in Cuba around 1762. A subgroup of the Ibibio called the Efik carried over to Cuba the only African secret society to survive the passage - the Abakua secret society (which is not a religion per se).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKa5OvH6moU&feature=related ( 0.23 to 1:10)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usXxGf5zIvY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l12ZjxL8ITg&NR=1

Arara or Ewe/FonEwe/Fon: The Ewe/Fon people were from the Dahomey Kingdom, which was in present day Benin. The Yoruba kingdom attacked Dahomey and many Ewe/Fon were brought to Cuba 1750-1800. The Yoruba were weakened by these wars, though, and then the Dahomey took many Yorubas captive and sold them into slavery in the 1800s. The Ewe/Fon created the religion known in Cuba as Regla Arara, mostly in Matanzas, but this religious practice has been largely assimilated by Santeria.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3uWRJH5Nw8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHF2XDHtfqE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5xFTSHBjMk

Afro-Cuban-Hatian
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au8RmaGk36s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06PzkM2pdYY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8lHupr3nW8&feature=related

Cuban Rumba Complex

Yambu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV4Im-dOweI&feature=related
Guaguanco
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdgURtb83VM
Columbia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6j3DKlILE0&feature=related

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