J leads the class through a segment of Lamban motions during the West African Dance class. Photo by Justin Cox.
On April 2, UAA’s Assistant Term Professor of Dance Katie O’Loughlin brought in a guest instructor, Kasha J, a local Anchorage dancer and choreographer. J gave a lesson on Lamban, a West African dance, for O'Loughlin's Dance Appreciation class, UAA students and the Anchorage community.
Lamban is a traditional springtime celebratory dance that originated in Mali and Senegal and performed by griots, who act as the cultural repository for the communities. As J describes in one of her lesson plans, “A djeli or a griot is a West African poet, praise singer, and wandering musician, considered a repository of oral tradition meaning that they hold the distinct honor of passing down from generation to generation in griot families the stories & traditions of their tribes lineage.”
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