Talise Campbell is dedicated to spreading the knowledge and culture of West Africa in her hometown of Cleveland.
“If you want to learn about a people, if you want to learn about a culture, dive into the art,” Campbell said.
Campbell founded the Djapo Cultural Arts Institute in 2009, which is based now at the Pivot Center for Art, Dance and Expression on West 25th Street in Cleveland.
“The word Djapo itself means together. And that's part of our mission, bringing individuals together to learn about the art, music, dance, history and folklore of Africa and throughout the diaspora,” Campbell said.
Campbell recently created new choreography, “Sandia: Of the Blood,” along with her husband, Weedie Braimah, who is Djapo’s music director
The dance and music are inspired by their trips to Africa and regular village ceremonies celebrating family, specifically n Mali in West Africa, she said.
“People will go, and the griots will show up and they will sing the praises of your family,” Campbell said.
The griots, Braimah said, are the historians who “maintain the culture, maintain the preservation of narrative that’s created within certain villages.”
A couple’s collaboration
Campbell collaborates closely with Braimah whom she describes as “an encyclopedia” when it comes to the music and folklore of West Africa.
In July, the couple began teaching the company of 12 dancers, three singers and eight musicians the songs and music before moving on to the choreography.
Early on, the goal is for the company to get an understanding of the music and the timing, Braimah said.
At this stage in the process, Campbell wanted the company to first learn the musical foundations of sandia, which means “new year” and refers to the ceremony honoring the griots.
“They're going to learn the rhythms because that enhances their ability to dance it with happiness, with jubilee,” she said.
Feeling the dance
A month into the process in August, Campbell said she was pleased with the company’s progress.
“I'm just still in that place where I'm seeing… how they feel with the movement that's been given to them,” she said. “Now it's just kind of like moving through space to see where those final moments will be.”
Campbell wanted her dancers to experience and learn the choreography physically.
The company was preparing to debut the piece at Dance Africa Chicago in October.
Further in the process, just weeks before the Chicago debut, Campbell exuded confidence in the new work as the company went through final rehearsals at the Pivot Center.
“We are complete. It is a finished piece. I'm so excited. Like it's really finished,” she said.
Her husband agreed.
“The music has its voice. The dancers understand and have implemented what they've learned into their body, and the song is now understood,” Braimah said.
“I want them to take away a piece of history. A piece of Africa. We've lost so much,” she said, adding that their job is complete if audiences “can get a piece of happiness, a piece of history, a piece of folklore.”
