Break and Mould the Dancer: Bakare Ojo Rasaki’s Technique
of Training.
SURU, Cyrus Damisa PhD.
Lecturer,
Department of Theatre and Cultural Studies,
Nasarawa State University,
P.M.B.1022, Keffi, Nigeria.
Phone: +234 8035042011 / +234 8074505896.
Introduction
“Everybody
can dance, only a dancer can perform”. This was the maxim that came from Bakare
Ojo-Rasaki to us, the newly recruited dance artistes, as a Dance instructor/Choreographer
and Cultural –Troupe-Builder (in conjunction with John Egugu Illah), of the the
Kogi State Council for Arts and Culture, Lokoja where this researcher was a
dancer (invited then from the Niger State Troupe – The Gwape International)in 1993.
From those words, in spite of the experience gathered as a dancer, this
researcher started to learn to draw a dichotomy between a dancer and a dance-performer.
Also, reading Bakare (2007, p. 272)’s article, Singing Old Tunes: Critical Comments on Welsh Asante’s African Dance
he reference Pearl Primus’s comment on dance training in Africa that:
There is a
distinction between the trained dancer and somebody who just dances...the
professional dancer must have been trained from childhood to be a dancer.
Having shown special talent and skills, for rhythm and dance language, he is
apprenticed to a master dancer who employs whatever methodology he feels is
appropriate to take this apprentice through a rigorous dance training
programme. The dancer-to-be then learns traditional dances of the people.
Reminiscent
of Bakare’s reference to Pearl, dancing is one of the most natural things to
execute among the external prevalence and activities bestowed on man. In other words, the act of movement merged
with feelings and emotions is paramount in the life of humans. That explains
the “everybody can dance” and the other sub-quote “only a dancer can perform” is predicated upon the skilful
application of the natural and ordinary movements in an extraordinary manner
through training, for entertainment, education and, information, also as source
of finance, which are regarded as the pivot of dance professionalism in the
society. Shaibu Husseini (2006, p.296)
comments that:
Training is what
separates a dancer artiste from say a club dancer. Because dance as an art form
makes use of the human body, scholars have stressed that only a sound training
in movement techniques can lead to a better manipulation of the body lines,
curves, skeletal and muscular control and other variations in movement and
velocity. This is where a professional dance artiste differs from those who can
merely move to rhythm.
It
then indicates that there are two types of dancers in the society; the
born-dancers and the made–dancers. The born-dancer is a natural and talented
dancer who executes rhythmic movements naturally and merely for self excitement
or aggrandisement or for the delight of others – the informal spectator/audience.
On the other hand, this study considers the made-dancer as that skilled and
creative dancer who may be a born-dancer or not but, with adequate training,
developed the techniques of performance-communication to entertaining,
educating and, informing a formal or an informal spectator/audience. In the
words of Suru C. Damisa (2012, p.1):
Dance is concerned with the use of
body gesture, body movements and other dance elements for expression. The
elements being referred to here are: rhythm, time, space, dynamics, costume,
props, make-up, music, drama, and so
on. Dance messages are communicated using the elements mentioned above and
through signs and symbols to impact on the life of the people.
Suru
personifies dance as a living communication tool. This is where the dancer
needs adequate training. Thus, this kind of dancer needs the expertise training
of a professional and, this is where Bakare Ojo-Rasaki’s didactic technique of
training comes handy; break, then mould the dancer.
Bakare Ojo-Rasaki and Dance
The
title of this paper is borne from the flyer, Musing on Bakare, Ojo Rasaki @ 50,
2014 which was put out to scholars to contribute papers in honour of the great
professor of choreography. The eulogy that x-rayed his contributions to the
theatre world in the flyer notwithstanding, did not include his technique of
‘Breaking and Moulding the Dancer’ which this researcher is privy to, adopting
the participant-observer methodology from the knowledge received through training by him as a cultural dancer
in the Kogi State Arts Council added to secondary sources as support.
A
cursory look at some of the lyrical movements of the write-up (divided into
three parts for emphasis) serves to illuminate the above. The first part states
for instance that:
He joined the
Yoruba Travelling Theatre movement. He consequently plied his trade under Jimoh
Aliu’s cultural troupe and the late Hubert Ogunde, who has been acclaimed the
doyen of professional theatre in Nigeria. Rising from this humble beginning,
today, Rasaki is Nigeria’s first professor of Choreography... He is also the
Artistic Director of Nigeria’s National Carnival... In his career, Bakare has
directed over 200 major theatrical performances. Over sixty percent of these were commissioned
high profile command performances. In
fact, three of these were for Presidential inauguration ceremonies.
The above is a laconic
chronicle of Ojo Bakare’s sojourn in the theatre world. He is privileged to
have received his early theatre, dance and choreography training from popular
theatre legends like Jimoh Aliu, Hubert Ogunde, including Arnold Udoka and a
few others. They could have informed his didactic technique of impacting dance
training on other naive dance artistes as a way to contributing his own quota
to the society. Noorbakhsh Hooti and Nasser Meleki (2009) stress that “man
cannot devote himself thoroughly just to his family, but he has equal
responsibility to his own society. Though man’s character is shaped by society,
yet his impact upon society is inevitable as well.” The flyer adds his
achievements which have brought him to an enviable and respected position in
the national and International theatre space.
The second part is an expository of
his academic “onslaught” via the publications of plays such as “This Land Must Sacrifice; Drums of War;
Rogbodiyan; Once Upon A Tower; The gods and The Scavengers; Voyage; Sekere and
The Parable of Many Seeds; Adanma; The Fate of Ejima; Etutu and over thirty
other unpublished stage plays that were produced and performed with rewarding
and outstanding successes”. (It is imperative to mention here that this
researcher, apart from reading most of these plays also, played the character, Ogbegun,
in the premier performance of the play Drums
of War). The enumerated plays above have only explained to us that he is a
dramaturge and a good scholar. And, that he has contributed to alleviate the
dearth of African theatre literature and the demonstration of the performative
art in the views of theatre enthusiasts.
The third part
which aligns with the focus of this paper, in a seemingly similar note, is his
dance and choreography accounts. The flyer on Bakare, Ojo Rasaki @ 50 stresses
that:
However, it is perhaps in Dance and Choreography
that Rasaki has achieved his most enduring legacies. Today, Dancerasaki
is the leading Nigerian dance scholar, the most sought-after Nigerian
Choreographer and Dance Trainer and the most revered dance adjudicator. He has
worked directly with, and influenced most Nigerian dance practitioners, taught
and trained many of those who teach and intellectualize Dance and Choreography
today. His numerous choreographed works are found in the repertoires of
most dance troupes in Nigeria and beyond... His Choreography – Sekai Aiki won
the First Prize for Nigeria at the Spring Friendship Festival, North Korea in
1997.
The alighted
portion of this quotation is a truism of his immense contributions to dance and
choreography scholarship in Nigeria and beyond. A quick addition is Bakare’s
scholarly battle for dance and choreography in Africa. For instance, Bakare (2007, p.267) challenged the lack of adequate
knowledge of African dance thus:
The popularity of dance as an art form in
Africa notwithstanding, African dance has received limited scholarly attention.
Even where such exists, apart from the fact that much of what exists came from
Europe and the Americas, especially the Diaspora, it is largely anthropological
and generic. Little scholarly attention has been given to the choreography of
African dance and the technical devices proper to it.
The question is,
where lies his technique of training the trainer in the act and art of dance
and choreography?
Bakare’s Techniques of Training
Bakare’s technique, to my knowledge
and to many that have been privileged to be trained by him, in one way or
another, is that of allowing the ‘talented’ or ‘professional’ dancer or dancers
to execute movements naturally or according to their dance knowledge and cultural
dance experiences from which the most appropriate and suitable steps are chosen
and are fine-tuned, for aesthetic sake, by him for the dance package or
performance. One of the methods of actualizing aesthetics by Bakare involves
moving around the rehearsals venue while the dancers execute free or talented
or even earlier choreographed dance movements, trying to visualize or picture
how the audience will appreciate the dance performance. As it were, aesthetic
imperative is very paramount in the theatre be it in a drama, music or dance
performance. Musa, Rasheed Abiodun (2001, p.92) captures it for drama in this
manner, “be it professional or academic theatre, the essence of any dramatic or
theatrical experience is aesthetic success of such performance. Interestingly,
the importance of the theatre director in the art of directing cannot be
over-emphasized if aesthetic experience is contemplated”. Bakare’s experience
as a dancer and a choreographer has been instrumental to his aesthetic
packaging of dance performance.
Other
addition to his technique of training is the art of giving the technical
know-how in dance for effective out-put of performance and the maximisation of
energy and appropriate use of the body in dance to avoid dance related injury. As
succinctly put by Sherbon Elizabeth (1975, p.23):
All artistic expression is based on craft, the
technical control of a given instrument of expression... there are two concepts
that can be immeasurable value in learning the craft of dance. Probably the
most important is the idea of striving continuously for complete efficiency in
movement. Use only the amount of energy needed to perform the desired movement.
The energy should be exerted in the desired direction and in the sequential
order needed to accomplish the wished-for effect.
The
above takes us back to the aphorism “everybody can dance, only a dancer can
perform”. Using the appropriate body movements in dance comes with the
questions; Why? When? Where? and How? Why this movement? When should I apply
it? Is it okay at this time, space and venue? And, how will it be executed are
some of the questions that a trained dancer should answer in a sharp reflex
manner. That explains why Bakare must break the dancer.
Braking the Dancer
Breaking
the dancer is one of the techniques of Ojo BAkare in grooming his dancers. A
dancer may be talented in act of dance but lacking the skills of performance (the
dance art) and the proper way to sustain the energy needed for the performance,
may be too stiff, and lacking the lubricant for malleability of body movements
artfully. That accounts for the reason
why Bakare (1994, p.7) explains that:
There are certain
fundamental principles guiding the preparation of dance and movement and
without them dance may not be accomplished. They prepare the body for its
functions and they are fundamental to the entire process of dance-making and
dance production. The dancer sustains his carrier with these principles and can
only acquire them through training. These principles are: Centring, Posture,
Rhythm, Gravity, Balance, Breathing, Grounding and Space.
A
dancer or talented dancer must be acquainted with these principles to be a
broken dancer Bakare concluded. In an attempt to break, the Kogi State
artiste-to-be, at the camp in Lokoja in 1993, Bakare, in a very serious note,
warned the dancers to avoid heavy eating before rehearsals, drinking of beer
which most Nigerian local artistes/dancers see as stimulants, better still,
source for courage to face the audience and, baffling and puzzling too, is the
non eating of fried meat, fish, plantain (dodo)
and the likes which according to him could make the dancer weak, grow fat and
heavy, even obese from the excessive oil intake. This last one was frowned at
with the pessimism that he does not want the dancers to enjoy (but to endure) given
the fact that, as at that time, we were not paid any salary or allowance. Added
to the ‘punishment’ were the everyday road and stage exercises and all-night
rehearsals. The ‘Ososa experience’ under Hubert Ogunde one might say. At this
point, we all saw Bakare Ojo Rasaki as a god, who does not sleep and never
tired because as we all slept mid-rehearsals he was always awake and walking
around only to wake us up again to proceed with the rehearsals.
Encouragingly, it was at that six
months camp that many who were fat and bloated became trimmed to shape, light-weighted
and flexible enough to execute hitherto difficult dance movements and also able
to apply the principles enumerated by Bakare above in performances. Upon his
departure, the artiste began to overdo the training. For instance, artiste
dancers trained by jugging several kilometres during the day time, under the
scorching sun, in the name of stamina could have been avoided.
Sadly, Bakare’s training was not
sustained because after a few years, bad eating habits, lack of appropriate
exercise and general laxity resumed and today, most of the artiste dancers are
roundish, bloated and inactive. In addition, dancers, particularly in the arts
councils, now eat uncontrollably and without caring about their health, body
and the success of the dance profession. By so doing, they await re-deployment
to other departments where they are no longer useful. Bakare’s method of
breaking the dancer is now better understood.
Moulding the Dancer
To
mould the dancer is a germane procedure by a good choreographer. This is
because the creativity of the dancer contributes, in no small measure, to
articulating the message that the choreography is passing across to the
audience through dance performance. Bakare (1994, p.2) puts it in this manner;
“the dancer is to the choreographer what the actor is to the director. The
choreographer creates while the dancer interprets what the choreographer
creates, though the dancer himself needs some level of creativity to be able to
interpret effectively.” The dancer needs moulding, moulding through adequate,
consistent and perseverance trainings. Bakare understands that the artiste dancer
must first of all be helped to discover himself as a creative individual. This believability
usually comes from a dance instructor or choreographer who instils self-
confidence, sociability, self-reliance, personality, co-cooperativeness in the
dancer to encourage, build or promote his/her ability and potentiality. Kane
J.E. (1972) did not agrees less and affirms that:
One explanation
offered is that the environment in which physical abilities are
displayed...constitute an ideal setting for the development of desirable
personality characteristics such as confidence, sociability, self-reliance,
co-cooperativeness and general personal adjustment.
The
dancer is moulded to have a good and great figure, to exhume beauty in dance,
to have the shape of a model with self-confidence devoid of low self- esteem
and, courage to believe in others and to also, have confidence in them. These
are some of the qualities of a moulded artiste dancer.
Conclusion
Breaking and moulding a dancer to carry
on with the profession is imperative and should be the concern of every
choreographer. While the businessmen in most fields give money to the
graduating apprentice to begin business with, the professional dancer or
choreographer should, as we have seen in Bakare Ojo Rasaki’s technique, empower
the dancer physically, morally, intellectually, financially and spiritually.
Taking from the artiste dancer what rightly is due to him/her could be
discouraging.
Furthermore, as the doyen of theatre,
Late Hubert Ogunde once advised dancers in 1988 at the Niger State Arts
Council, Minna, “a dancer can only spend
ten active years of his/her life on the stage, after which diminishing return
sets in”. In other words, all trained dancers and choreographers of today
should not hide their skills but impact on trainee artistes or dancers to
continue from and to keep the dance profession afloat. Furthermore, those who
are blessed with the knowledge to intellectualise, commoditise and document
dance through literary or practical means should not deter but rather persist
to making dance germane in the society.
References
Bakare,
Ojo Rasaki (1994). Rudiments of choreography Part 1. Zaria:
Space 2000 Pace Publishers Limited.
Bakare
Ojo Rasaki (2007). Singing old
tunes: Critical comments on Welsh
Asante’s African
dance. In Chris Ugolo (ed) Perspectives in Nigerian Dance Studies. (pp.
266-284) Ibadan: Caltop Publications (Nigeria Limited).
Kane
J.E. (1972). Personality, body concept and performance. In Kane J.E. (Ed.) Psychological aspects of physical education
and sport. (pp. 91-127 ). London:
Routledge & Kegan Paul
Musa,
Rasheed Abiodun (2001). Psychology as a factor in play directing. The Performer. Ilorin: Journal of the
Performing Arts Vol.3.( pp.92-103). Department of the Performing Arts,
University of Ilorin.
Musing
on Bakare, Ojo Rasaki @ 50. 2014. Call for Paper. London: SPM
Publications.
Noorbakhsh
Hooti and Nasser Meleki (2009). The voice of conscience in the vortex of
capitalism in Arthur Miller’s all my sons.
Oye: Ogun Journal of Arts, Vol.XV June. Ago-Iwoye: Olabisi Onabanjo
University. pp. 46-51.
Shaibu,
Husseini. (2006). From natural talent to professionalism: The challenges of a
Nigerian dancer. In Ahmed Yerima, Bakare, Ojo-Rasaki and Arnold Udoka (Eds.) Critical perspectives on dance in Nigeria.
(pp. 293-304). Ibadan: Kraft Books Limited.
Sherbon,
Elizabeth (1975). On the count of one
modern dance methods, 2nd
edition. USA: Mayfield
Publishing Company.
Suru,
C. Damisa. (2012). “Marriage and funeral dance performances among the Ososo
people of Nigeria.” Unpublished PhD Thesis, submitted to the Department of Performing
Arts, University of Ilorin, Ilorin.
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