International Arts: Scholarship Program to sponsor dance research in Ghana

By Jennifer Micale 04 March 2021 Dancing does more than please the eye with deeds of grace and athleticism. It teaches, transmitting cultures values, history and traditions. This spring, Assistant Professor of Theater and African Studies Samuel Eliakem Kwame Nyamuame will return to his native Ghana to study the festival's traditional dances with Sylvanus Kwashie Kuwor, head of the School of Dance Studies Department at the School of Art. of the University of Ghana at Accra-Legon. Then, the two researchers will develop a new curriculum for the graduate program at the University of Ghana in dance. Assistant Visiting Professor of Theater and African Studies Samuel Eliakem Kwame Nyamuame Image Credit: photo provided. The program is made possible by the prestigious Carnegie African Diaspora Scholarship Program for African-born researchers. Only open to African-born scholars, the society aims to make connections between institutions on the continent with its North American counterparts. The hope is to collaborate and share resources with the host institution to promote intercultural exchange, Nyamuame explained. This exchange will build on an already strong foundation of international cooperation. Kuwor has lectured at Binghamton before, in 2019 and 2020 respectively, while Nyamuame visits his country every year. He also gives seminars at the University of Ghana during his visits, sharing the latest in theory and practice, and engaging in collaborative research with colleagues there. Intercultural exchange can focus on the arts and culture, but it also goes beyond that, too. Students from Binghamton and Ghana also share deeper perspectives from their countries about lifestyles, study and research, he said. We want to continue so that students have a better understanding of different cultures and intercultural collaboration, and ways to then share their ideas, Nyamuame said. Hopefully, they will be able to come together and write some articles. Music and dancing As it stands now, the University of Ghana dance program lacks the ethnomusicological component of dance in its curriculum. That’s why Kuwor asked Nyamuame to partner with him on the project. This is about integrating music and dance, and how they can capture the festivals and cultural components that take place in Ghanaian societies and African society, Nyamuame explained. It's a performing arts school, so the different departments under the school share these traditions and learn from each other to better understand the holistic nature of African arts. The global coronavirus pandemic has somewhat delayed the trip, but Nyamuame and Kuwor are likely to be on the field in the late spring semester, the start of the Ghanaian festival season, which lasts until the end of April. Ghana has taken the coronavirus seriously and was praised in 2020 for its response to the pandemic. Most of the cases are concentrated in the greater Accra region, a very urban area similar in some respects to New York City, said Nyamuame, who last visited the country in December 2020. On the plus side, the location that the researchers will visit has not reported any case of COVID-19. With the transition to online learning, Nyamuame will continue to deliver two classes at Binghamton this spring, despite the research trip. One is an online workshop, the other a hybrid dance course that alternates between online and in person to maintain social distance. With a good internet connection, Nyamuame is able to teach from anywhere, as he did in the fall of 2020. His teaching assistants will also assist in classroom sections when he is away, but he will always show up at distance to run classes, he said. While in Ghana, Nyamuame and Kuwor will explore the deeper cultural contexts behind traditional dancing, which are essential to Ghanaian festivals. What are the elements to be studied culturally and academically? Ask Nyamuame. We will also study how those values can contribute to bodies of knowledge, particularly ingrained philosophies in motion and gestures of the theatrical component. picture credit