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Dance gives Uganda own cultural flair
Kerry Erin Sloan (L) and Herman Bagonza lead others in the Ekimandwa dance. PHOTO BY BRIAN MAGOBA.
What you need to know:
A marriage of cultures. Kampala dance lovers were treated to a satisfying performance when the products of teaching workshops held at the Kampala Ballet and Modern Dance School were showcased at the National Theatre.
It is always such a satisfying feeling when a packed audience finds a performance worth its time. Students from New York University’s Dance Abroad programme enabled Kampala’s party types re-discover this feeling during Dance Your Rhythm, which showed at the National Theatre on January 17.
The performance showcased the products of a week of teaching workshops held at the Kampala Ballet and Modern Dance School (KBMDS). Workshops featured dance-education partners drawn from Makerere University’s Department of Performing Arts and Film (DPAF), and children of mixed social and economic background.
Signs of good times began with the opener, a processional treatment of Sweet Honey in the Rock’s We Are the Ones We’ve Been Waiting For.
Afterwards, the audience relished watching the dance-exchange students execute Ugandan traditional dances, Amaggunju and Ekimandwa with a skill that belied the two weeks they spent learning from teachers Herbert Mukungu and Judith-Lubega Tusiiime.
