AFRICAN RHYTHM
Maritime Centre for African Dance searches for permanent Summerside base
Maritime Centre for African Dance celebrates heritage in Summerside
Music and dance flowed through the Summerside Rotary Library Sunday afternoon as the Maritime Centre for African Dance (MCAD) gathered a group of locals to clap and sway to the African rhythms.
It’s a sound the MCAD hopes will soon find a permanent home in Summerside and Charlottetown.
MCAD has helped teach more than 600,000 individuals across Canada through camps, classes, workshop performances and education material. Members also performed at President Obama’s first inauguration ball in Washington in Jan. 2009.
Dance instructor Shikha Choolun came to P.E.I. from Mauritius six months ago.
“In Africa, music will accompany marriage, births, rites of passage, hunting, and even politics.” Choolun said. “Music and dance is an important part of the way people interact.”
The most significant instrument in African music is the African drum. It’s rhythm holds the dancers together and is considered the “heartbeat of the community.”
Meenakshi Meeley Jeebun came to Charlottetown from Mauritius six months ago for school and performed a typical folkloric dance of her home country called “Sega.”
Jeebun swayed to traditional instruments such as the “Ravanne”, “Triangle”, and “Maravanne” in the Sega, which is usually sung in Creole (mother tongue of Mauritians). Her flowing skirt expressed the joy and liveliness of the Mauritian culture. Dance instructor Fisayo Hambolu, who moved to Nova Scotia from Nigeria, also performed a traditional Congo dance with energy and expression.
Members of the MCAD group are working to secure permanent locations in Summerside and Charlottetown next month. The group hopes to teach not only the rhythms of African dance, but the culture and values that go along with them.
Sunday’s class was also a celebration of Black History Month.