Rhythm, body, and 'fit'ness

In late December 2018, I am finally fulfilling a lifelong dream of travelling to Guinea, West Africa to partake in five weeks of intense full-time study into West African dancing and culture. I will be studying with a world renowned Grand Master of West African Dance, Moustapha Bangoura.

Moustapha is a legend in the West African Dance world. He was one of the principal dancers of the original Les Ballet Africains de la Guinea; and has been teaching students around the globe for years. This year, he is celebrating his 50th year of dance in his homeland, Guinea. He is the teacher of my current and previous teachers, and it is visibly obvious when a dancer has been trained by him. As such, I have long thought it appropriate not only to keep within his lineage, but also to acknowledge his "mana whenua" (or indigenous guardian) status within this extended family of dances that I so love to embody.

This trip also comes at the end of my graduate studies in primary teacher education, and thus, upon my return, I will be entering the Aotearoa teaching profession as a preliminary qualified primary teacher. I am so passionate for greater inclusion of the performing arts within the arts curriculum, but also the inclusion of non-colonial perspectives of music, dance and drama. I hope that this study in Guinea will offer many seeds to be watered within my practice as a primary teacher.

While in Guinea, I will be undertaking more than 100 hours of dance and 50 hours of drumming instruction and training. This is such an incredible opportunity to really get inside the "pocket of the rhythm" (Ojeya Cruz Banks, pers. comm. 2014). As you can imagine, the fitness required for this is massive, and I have begun an extensive training program to prepare my body and mind for this journey. Below are a few "insights" I've had along the way :-)

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The art of walking... acknowledge & reclaim this important ancestral movement that took Homo sapiens in a new direction! In current days, as technology and the latest "scientific" exercise plans consume us we often forget the rhythmic, calming art of walking.

Each morning for the past week I have begun my day at 7am with a walk along the southern cost of Te Ika-a-Māui. I love both Moa Point with its intricate rock formations and glowing reflections of light as well as the coastline along Tapu Te Ranga Marine Reserve. Having just completed a pretty hectic year at university, during which I was often constrained to a sitting position (at my laptop) for arduous hours while I wrote my assignments, it has been a refreshing way to start my day now that classes have finished. I often think about the rhythm of walking and how people around the world often walk for miles - even my parents walked for miles - and that's only 40 years ago! Now we rely on cars and buses, sit at desks all day... yet walking, despite being an intricately woven movement within the evolution of our species, is starting to be forgotten. The steady pace of walking is integral to Malinke harvest rhythms such as Kassa - so I set my music to the Kassa rhythm, align my breath to its beat, and begin the art of walking...

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Yankadi rhythms inspire a sinking earthy feeling in my hips and belly, much like Afro-Cuban Rumba does. It's marked syncopations evoke a freedom playful sassiness that at once activates my sacral chakra and solar plexus elucidating a deep interplay between diaphragmatic and upper throat breath as I breathe out the rhythm. I begin to walk in large 'lunges' up the hill and release into the deeper dun dun beats, half time, letting the belly draw deep the breath, and my hips sink into the earth... Rhythm embodiment and heart alignment, coupled with a springy lightness in the body and gentle sinking into the belly, is the heart of training for Guinea!

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Swimming - buoyant, weightless, fluid... I twist to breathe, then hold my breath, letting my cells suck in the oxygen... slowly I begin to breathe out, bubbles tickle my body as they escape to the surface of the water; and then I hold my breath out... silence... the cycle completes and I twist to begin once again. There is a yoga in swimming - focussed mind, aligned body, and cyclic breath.

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May your waters be ignited by the rising moon,

Heather