West African dance is art, and a workout

Ann-Marie Shapiro is sweating and catching her breath as she sits to put on her shoes in the great room at the Channing-Murray Foundation in Urbana, Ill.

She looks physically spent but elated.

The 41-year-old meditation teacher from Champaign and 11 other students have just finished the West African traditional-dance class taught by dance master and Guinea native Djibril Camara to live drumming.

"I had to join a gym so I could work out so I could do this once a week," Shapiro says. "It's so fun. There's nothing else like it that I've ever done that makes me as joyful as this.

"It has everything. It has passion and strength, and it's so expressive. It's worth pushing through it."

Often compared to capoeira, the acrobatic Brazilian martial arts form, African dance uses the entire body. And it's important that the entire body including the neck be relaxed while dancing, Camara says.

The movements he teaches are large, open and energetic, inspired by and responding to polyrhythmic Mande-style drumming.

The accompanying ensemble plays traditional West African instruments: the djembe, a single-headed hourglass-shaped drum; dun-duns, double-headed cylindrical bass drums; as well as shakers. They also provide some vocals.

Camara, 39, teaches the steps as his students dance behind him in rows. They follow Camara, moving toward the small stage where the drummers are and then returning to the back of the room before starting again on a new step.

Toward the end of the 90-minute break-free session, the dancers form a large circle and clap as each takes turns dancing inside the circle.

Camara watches as he drums. Finally, he takes his turn in the circle, making some impressive moves, among them six or seven somersaults during which he doesn't even seem to touch the wood floor.

Through it all, Camara flashes what seems to be a constant and brilliant smile. He says he loves sharing his culture and looking behind him to see his students. He shows it.

"There's time when I personally drop out and watch for a moment," says 41-year-old Jamie McGowan, associate director of the University of Illinois' Center for African Studies. "But it's a great workout, and it's a lot of fun, and he's always throwing in new steps so you can't get bored."

Camara has taught African dance the past seven years in various cities in the United States; before moving here a year and a half ago, he lived in Eugene, Ore.

"There are not many college towns in the Midwest that have as skilled of a dancer as Djibi," says Gordon Kay, one of the drummers who often accompanies him. "It's becoming more common for West African dancers to come here and teach, but they're still heavily located on the West Coast and in the East."

In addition to teaching at Channing-Murray, Camara taught traditional West African dance one semester at the U of I Department of Dance and does performances in area schools and festivals.

Before teaching, he danced professionally for 20 years, with 17 of them as the principal dancer and choreographer with Ballet du Afrique Noir, which toured Africa, Europe and the United States.

To help support Camara, who works at an Espresso Royale on campus, the drummers do not take payment. Kay said they have fun doing it, and African drumming is primarily for dancing anyway.

Indeed, live drumming is a huge factor in African dance.

"The drummers and dancers are always talking to one another and synchronized with one another," Ault says.

"It provides a ton of energy for the dancers," Swanson says. "That's what's great about this class."