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AFRO-HAITIAN DANCE WITH KARINE LABEL
By
Sabina Holzer
Each class in Karine LaBel's
workshop is dedicated to a certain divinity of the traditional Afro-Haitian
culture. In relation to this divinity specific gestures and steps accompanied
with specific rhythms of the drums and songs are studied. Monday is the
spider's dance. Tuesday's dance is dedicated to Erzilie; Wednesday's to Ogoun;
Thursday's to Simbi; Friday to Guédé.
At the beginning and the end of
the class Karine LaBel gives a short introduction about the dance of this or
the next day. It is a mixture between getting in touch with the content of
Haitian tradition and storytelling. In a light and playful way, elements to
inspire imagination are provided, while at the same time she refers to the
physical aspects to work on. The classes finish with a talk about the next day:
which dance will be learned, and some basic information (which does not differ
so much from the talk at the beginning of class) on the respective divinity.
And again she talks and demonstrates the technical demands of the movements and
encourages people to ask questions.
The basic structure of the class
remains the same every day: The class starts with a salutation to Legba, who is
the opener of the gates in Voodoo. The salutation is repeated in all four
directions of the space. After this follows a warmup which consists of either
rather soft and simple movements in which one can focus on how the movement is
done, or a series of stretches of arms, shoulders, spine and legs. Then the
group is divided in two. The movements and steps related to the specific dance
are practiced while moving through the space on diagonal axes. At first one
gets to know the steps, then the movement of the spine in relation to the feet,
and finally the arms and head come in.
The basis and connection of all
the dances are the wavelike movements of the spine, front to back and left to
right or vice versa, a circling wave. It is the base of the "Yanvalou", a
traditional Haitian dance, the snake dance, which has been developed further by
Karine LaBel. The whole class is accompanied by three drummers. They change
rhythms according to LaBel's instructions. Although they are not, as LaBel once
tells me after class, original Haitian drummers – "This is what makes me
contemporary," she laughs –, they add a beautiful strength and support the
execution of the dances.
At the end of each class the
different parts are put together to build a sequence. The sequence grows during
the week. At the end of the week, a whole palette of Afro-Haitian gestures are
put together in a dance, and Karine LaBel smiles: "We have all there: from
the opening we traveled through love with Erzilie; violence, war and diplomacy
with Ogoun, then Simbi, who is a protector and enchanter; and we close, as we
have to, with Guédé, who is the divine of death and healing. We went through
it. You can leave all the energy here."
Respectful Game
Profane actually means to give
what has been sacred and religious back into the possession of human action and
behaviour. As religion can be defined as that what withdraws things, spaces,
animals or humans from a common use into a segregated sphere, the transition
from the sacred to the profane can happen through a seemingly inadequate use, a
prolongation, which is: the game.
"Bekanntlich ist die Sphäre
des Heiligen mit der Sphäre des Spiels eng verknüpft. Der grösste Teil der
Spiele, die wir kennen, stammt von uralten heiligen Zeremonien, von Ritualen
und Praktiken der Weissagung, die einst im weiten Sinn zur Sphäre des
Religiösen gehörten. Der Ringelreihen war ursprünglich ein Hochzeitsritual; das
Ballspiel kommt von den Kämpfen der Götter um den Besitz der Sonne; die
Glücksspiele stammen von Orakelpraktikern; der Kreisel und das Schachspiel
waren Instrumente zur Weissagung."[1].
A respectful playfulness spreads
through the class. There is a certain awareness added to the pure physicality
of the movement. The little information about the divinities seems to support
the execution of the dances, as if one were feeling less exposed while trying
to move one's pelvis in circles.
Each divinity in the Afro-Haitian
tradition is also related to certain colours. Therefore Karine LaBel invites
the participants to dress in these related colours. And as a matter of fact,
nearly all 45 women dress up in their dance clothes accordingly. One day all T-shirts,
trousers, sometimes skirts, scarves are yellow, orange and white, another day
in red and black, and yet another day in all variations of blue, turquoise and
green, or black and violet wave through the dance space. It is simple and very
effective. It is not glamourous, there is a profane cheerfulness to it. And the
fact that there are just women dancing also creates a delicate complicity.
The atmosphere in the class is
very open and full of appreciation. There is a kind of hunger, a decision to
give in to the drums and the movements and the exchange of stories by means of
participation. One woman tells how she suddenly found two big spiders in her
house after doing the spider dance. On Thursday, another woman suddenly brings
a kite which she found in the street, still packed in the original paper of the
shop that sold it. A big rattlesnake is painted on the kite. The daughter of
one of the participants who was sitting in during classes, now has a fine toy to
play with in the Arsenal sun. Karine LaBel responds smilingly, and keeps it
simple: Yes, in Haiti spiders are important animals. Yes, the snake dance is
very powerful.
It is a complex system which is
offered in this class. Karine LaBel has quite a good sense of how to handle a
big group, how to measure out theory and practice. In her demonstrations one
sees the richness of the dance vocabulary when everything is executed with
precision. At the same time the movements feel organic, so even if the spine is
really not yet undulating in the wonderfully smooth snakelike way, or the steps
are hard to coordinate with the throwing of the head, the women dancing have
grace and pride.
www.karinelabel.at
[1] Agamben, G.: Profanierungen, Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main
2005, p. 72:
"As is generally known, the sphere of the sacred is closely connected with the
sphere of play. The major part of the games we know originated in ancient
sacred ceremonies, in rituals and practices of divination which ones belonged
to the religious sphere in a broader sense. Ring-around-a-roses once was a
wedding ritual; ball games come from the fight of the gods for the possession
of the sun; games of chance developed out of augurial practices; the spinning
top and chess were instruments of divination."
(August 20, 2008)
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