"I really have no definition for Contemporary Dance because everybody has their own definition. For me I express myself through dance so if I do contemporary dance I’m speaking to somebody about either a certain story or a certain journey and I want them to get it as well,” explained Jack Bryton, a dancer, drummer, vocalist and actor from Kenya.

Bryton is one of twelve young African contemporary dancers who were recently in Kigali for a two week-long choreography training workshop. The sessions opened on February 6th at the Kigali Sports Club (La Cercle Sportif de Kigali) in Kiyovu. It culminated in a performance at the residence of the Belgian Ambassador in Rwanda on Friday, where participants showcased solo and joint pieces created in the course of the workshops.

"Traditional dance is somewhat limiting because it never changes. We found it around and it’s still the same, the way our forefathers danced it is the way it is up to now. With Contemporary Dance we try to change a few things. If they were moving one hand, I may want to try moving both hands,” Bryton concluded.

The training drew a total of twelve dancers from Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and the DRC. Rwanda had the biggest representation, with four participants; three boys and a girl.

It was organized by the Rwandan contemporary dance troupe, Amizero Kompagnie, in collaboration with Ecole de Sables, a dance school based in Dakar, Senegal.

The training aimed to equip participants with critical skills and by extension raise the profile of the African contemporary dance scene for it to gain wider public acceptance.

Like Bryton remarked in the opening quote, contemporary dance is little understood and everybody is likely to define it their own way. According to him, Contemporary Dance is still considered a European or American kind of thing:

"As Africans we need to expose ourselves more because I’ve realized that many of the shows we’ve staged locally, about 80 percent of the audience were whites, and the other 20 percent are your friends who have not paid,” Bryton added. 

It was in 2008 when he attended his first dance workshop and since then he’s been dancing all through, both home and abroad.

After realizing that his mother could not pay for his university after high school, Bryton decided to find something constructive to keep him busy:

"I found myself dancing and have never looked back. Today I totally depend on dance, which pays all my bills, so it’s up to me to get busy with dance. I don’t have to wait for people to call me to go participate in something before I can get money because it’s about your own creativity and thoughts.”

Joselyne Murekatete was the only female participant from Rwanda, and one in only two girls that qualified for the training with ten boys.

Murekatete’s dance journey started in 2010, with traditional dance from Rwanda. In 2013 she was lucky to meet Guy Beaujot, a Belgian who was visiting Rwanda to teach contemporary dance.

"I was doing only traditional Rwandan dances at the time but was among the eleven people he selected. He started to teach us the basics and told me I was capable of becoming a good contemporary dancer and pledged to guide me,” she explained. 

Soon, she landed an opportunity to study African traditional dance and contemporary dance in Dakar, Senegal. Since then, she has been travelling to Senegal every April to spend three months honing her dance skills. In June this year, she will be awarded her Dance diploma.

She is currently a member of a local dance troupe called Inshongore.

"I go there two times a week, but as a contemporary dancer every day I train my body to repeat what I have been taught by different teachers and also what I’m learning in Senegal.

Meeting with dancers from outside Rwanda is a good opportunity for me and for other Rwandan dancers to get something new because here we don’t have enough opportunities in contemporary dance because most people are only used to traditional dance.”

Wesley Ruzibiza, the founder and director of Amizero Kompagnie shared Murakatete’s views about the place of contemporary dance in Rwanda:

"Many people think that contemporary dance is moving without rhythm or moving like white people,” he laments.

"In most of Africa, it’s individuals that are trying to push the case for contemporary dance. There are no institutions or organizations to support it. But African contemporary dance is still one of the most sought-after in the world because it’s original, but we still have a lot of work to do in teaching people. We still need to teach, make it more open and introduce it to more publics, not just the very intellectual high class society that knows the importance of theater. We also have to take it to the muturage (common man) in the village so that everyone can see that they too can do contemporary dance.

Everyone who can dance can do contemporary dance, and anyone who can dance can tell a story using dance,” he concluded. 

With such a status quo, Rwandan contemporary dancers and those in the region have to literally elbow their way to opportunities and eventually the limelight.

Stella N. Situma, a dancer, choreographer, actress and dance model from Kenya is a good example;

"I started dancing with the Yawa Dance Company in Nairobi in 2009, then after three years people started moving out to different countries and different companies as well.”

She headed to Tanzania, where she joined a dance ensemble called Dance Team Africa.

"I had to move to Tanzania because Kenyan companies tend to close you in, meaning that you can’t work with more than one company yet I needed the experience.

While in Tanzania I also worked with the Ibuka Dance Foundation for a while, but during that period I had a baby so I took a break from dancing for about two and a half years and then went back as a freelance dancer. So I would commute from Nairobi to Arusha to Dar es Salaam just to learn from different people and in the process I also ventured into dance modeling.”

Like many female dancers, Situma had to stave off criticism from her parents to see her dream through;

"My parents were against it, so I really wanted to prove them wrong. To this day, my motivation has always been to prove to my mum that I can actually live comfortably with dance. The values they taught me still stayed in me because I just wanted to dance.”

She reveals that gradually, things are beginning to look up for contemporary dance in Kenya:

"I think because of the persistence of dancers people are starting to understand the idea behind contemporary dance. Contemporary dance is very abstract and the older generation especially would not understand it.

But slowly as dancers kept inviting people for performances, after the shows we would sit down and let people ask questions and we would get weird questions; ‘what is that you’re doing, why, and what’s the message? This helped us grow and also learn how to interpret our bodies so that our public can understand what we’re saying, and I think that’s another step in growth. It’s our job as artists to make sure people understand what we’re doing. We have stories to tell, but some people don’t read, so it’s my job as a visual artist to do that”.

Ruva Walter from Uganda started dancing professionally in 2006;

"What inspired me to go professional is that the people I used to dance with were paying their school fees from dance.

It was hard in the beginning but after a while I had gained the body and the confidence and before long I was paying my school fees from dancing. It was a hard journey but in the end it worked for me,” he explained.

"This was a great opportunity because it was my first time attending any dance training or workshop. It was a good opportunity to see what other choreographers go through and learning never stops,” he remarked.

Vincent Sekwati Koko Mantsoe, a dancer, choreographer, dance teacher and mentor from South Africa was brought in to facilitate the workshop;

"The problem with young choreographers in Africa today is that they tend to rely on materials from Europe because they are not trained in choreography. This is an opportunity to bring different dancers from different countries together,” he explained. 

He described Contemporary Dance in Africa as "a very difficult thing for people to process. First of all we don’t consider contemporary dance as a profession because we don’t think you can earn money from it. Sometimes people in government or the high seats don’t have a clue about what is contemporary dance. If you talk of dance, they will think of either traditional dance or Hip hop. So part of the solution is education. In South Africa we were exposed to contemporary dance at a very early stage –in the 1960s and 70s, the reason it is much more appreciated today.

But even then, for black people contemporary dance was considered more as a hobby than a professional job”.

He has received dance training from Australia, Hong Kong, Japan and Africa, among others.

"So I have a bit of knowledge on every style of dance. This is the richness that I’ve managed to accumulate and it’s helped me understand what the body can do and what different cultures are capable of, and to be able to bring all that richness into my personal life. I’m not rich with money, but I’m rich in culture and tradition so it’s really a pleasure for me to come and share with these young people.”

editorial@newtimes.co.rw