Kuumba African Dance Ensemble Presents: One People - A Dance of African Unity

Kuumba African Dance Ensemble was created in the 1970Â’s by a group of students who wished to perform traditional African, African-American, and jazz dance as a small ensemble. In our 2004 Spring Show, we will be combining different dances of the African Diaspora, music, and live drumming. Choreographed by Stanford graduate and former Kuumba director, Nikko Thompson, we are performing a reproduction of the show, "One People," which she first organized and performed in Ghana. Our reproduction will focus on conveying a message of unity among all people of African descent. It will show the birth and unity of people as Africans, the separation and dispersal of these people to different lands, and will emphasize the significance of maintaining this unity in order to become one people. Through live drumming and music, we will perform combined dances of Senegalese, Ghanaian, Congolese, Afro-Brazilian/Peruvian, hip hop, stepping, and many other forms of African dance. Our spring show will also feature a performance by Talisman, an a capella group whose musical origins are rooted in South African and West African folksongs, African-American gospel and spirituals, and contemporary black percussion and rhythms.