UCanDanc’ African Healing Arts
MASANKHO KAMSISI BANDA, MA
Educator, African Dancer, Motivational Storyteller, PeaceBuilder, Healer
PMB 101 1185 Solano Avenue, Albany, CA 94706
Phone # (510) 773-7328 / VM 1 (800) 201-4932 / Fax # (800) 201-4932
E-mail: Web Site: http://www.ucandanc.org
Artist in Residence & Assemblies & Performances!!
This is a general outline of African Dance, Storytelling and Conflict Resolution workshops and performances!!
Conflict Resolution / African Dance & Drumming / Storytelling / InterPlay / Diversity
Peace and Conflict Resolution:
For the past 15 years I have done a lot of work with students around the issue of peace and conflict resolution. In the world of today it is important for us to teach ourselves how to be peaceful and how to resolve issues in a peaceful way. It is natural that as human beings we will have conflicts, the key is being able to resolve these conflicts peacefully. As a dancer and actor I use role-plays and interactivity in my workshops, as I believe that this is the best way to convey these lessons.
In my workshops you will learn:
• the use of “I” statements in conflict situations: -
• the importance of eye contact
• the effect of body language
• the correct and incorrect use of language
• the importance of breathing or “taking a moment”
• Understanding cultural differences and their effect on conflict
• Understanding all other differences and their effect on conflict
• the importance of effective and active listening
• How to respect other people
The results that you can expect from this workshop are:
• An understanding of the value of dialogue over violence
• less chance of Violence in our communities
• A community Environment that is Conducive to growth and learning
• A community of Peace Leaders
• A Community that understands and respect Differences
The Peace and Non-violent conflict resolution workshop is Interactive and engages the mind and body of the Students. Dance, Stories and Role Plays are used to convey the message of our role in creating Peaceful Communities.
Modern & Traditional African Dance: Workshops & Interactive Performances
I grew up with African dance in my home country of Malawi. Dance was one of the main pillars of any community. In my workshops and interactive performances the community will learn some of the basic steps that make up Africa Dance. Even though there is a variety of dance on the African Continent there are some basic steps that are common to all African dance:
Here is what the community will get from my Workshops & Performances
• Learn African Dance Steps from all over Africa
• Learn how African chants go with African Dance
• Gain an understanding of the different types of African music
• Learn about African Culture and African people
• Learn about Traditional African music & Modern African music
The Community will learn African Dances that celebrate the various cycles of life in Africa
Birth / Puberty/adolescence / Marriage / Planting and Harvesting / Dances of the four Seasons / Community Building / Nature in all its Beauty / God and African Spirituality / Death and Our Ancestors / Peace and Non-violence
Below are some of the long-term benefits of my workshops for the community:
• To instill and nurture in the students a curiosity to learn about the different cultures of the People of the African Continent
• Introduce to the comunity and instill in it a long term love of dance and appreciation for what it can do for
Communities around the world.
• Introduce the community to dance as a means to achieving long term physical and mental health
• Improve coordination and motor skills
• Improve Self Esteem and ability for Self-expression
Storytelling: Workshops & Interactive Performances
When I was growing up in Malawi, there was always someone who was telling me a story. Stories were used to entertain, to teach values and morality and to improve cultural understanding. Stories also taught me how to express myself. We are all storytellers. However, we all can be better storytellers. In my presentations I combine performance with teaching.
. In my performance/workshops the community will:
• Learn how use their voice properly
• Learn how to fully express characters
• Learn how to pace their stories
• Plot development & Character development
• Learn how to use the body
• The art of improvising stories
• The art of telling stories in groups (duets & more)
• Learn how and when to accents
• Learn how to effectively use eye contact
• Experience the cultures of different peoples
Here are some of the long-term benefits of my workshops:
• The Community will learn to value the spoken word
• The community will improve its speaking abilities in all arenas of life
• Improve its self esteem
• Learn about the positive and negative aspects of the spoken word
• Learn more about people and the world that we live in
Drumming:
The heartbeat of Africa. The pulse of the continent is in its drumbeat. Drums have many uses in Africa. They are used for ceremonies, rituals, performances, and communication and in worship. There are many different types of drums. In this section of the workshop the community will learn basic drum rhythms from around the continent.
• Basic drum patterns
• The Interaction of different percussion instruments
• Drumming and Chanting
• Different drum rhythms and their various uses in African Culture.
InterPlay (http://www.bodywisdom.com):
InterPlay can show the community how easy it is to combine moving and telling stories and singing and making art up on the spot. The Community will learn from International InterPlay Leader, Masankho and from each other. They will pick up skills that enhance their creativity. Through InterPlay the community can learn how to make the world a better place and will also learn to play together and build peaceful communities where everyone is welcome!
These are the benefits of doing InterPlay:
• Increased confidence with their creativity — dance, music, story
• Strengthened skills for public speaking
• Increased ability to think and create on their feet
• Stronger Community building skills
• Reminder that PLAY is very important
Introduction to InterPlay
The community will get a basic introduction to InterPlay. How do you create dance, songs and stories on the spot? How do you create with others with choreography, script or written lyrics or music? All these questions will be answered with this basic InterPlay workshop. Fun, spontaneity, creativity, peace, diversity and power: all are possible with InterPlay!!
Playing for a Change Workshops – Minimum 2hrs or up to week long
Masankho gets the community up and moving, telling their stories and appreciating their own and
other’s culture. With simple InterPlay© activities they will play with diversity and common
ground to move beyond tolerance toward multicultural health.
Playing for a change: Seeding Cultures of Peace Performance - 3 to 4, 2 hour rehearsals
required
Masankho and students reveal the possibilities of a multicultural, intergenerational, multi-faith
world. See you students as passionate, funny, honest, real people creating music, song,
dance and story all on the spot, through InterPlay’s improvisational forms.
InterPlay for Peace – Minimum 2hrs or up to week long
Masankho working with the community masterfully creates paths for personal and
community reconciliation, forgiveness and insight. Come play and learn his approach to
building peace at home, at school and in your community. Bring rhythm instruments
Diversity — Shining the Light and Healing Community
To transform communities through interactive Diversity Seminars that heal and educate!
Revolution is not a one-time event. It is becoming always vigilant for the smallest opportunity to make
genuine change in established, outgrown responses; for instance, it is learning to address each other s difference
with respect . — Audre Lorde
Modalities Used:
A unique approach that uses body/spirit centered activities for transformation. These modalities include
storytelling, movement, writing, song, experiential exercises and ritual. By opening the heart this approach
allows the integration of awareness, healing and motivation for future harmonious behavior between races and
cultures.
Goals:
¥ Create a community that is unified in a world that is becoming increasingly diverse
¥ Identify conditions that will encourage increased diversity in the community
¥ Heal past prejudices that have already occurred
¥ Create an environment that is supportive of transformation and ongoing change
¥ Empower each individual to find self healing
¥ Increase each individuals knowledge of our differences and the gift of our oneness
Sample Day:
¥ an opening activity to bring us together
¥ a get to know ourselves activity through movement
¥ a series of body/spirit interplay exercises introducing group to different ways of being
¥ looking at some visuals and discussing them — Heart Exercise etc.
¥ Sharing our own stories of the power of diversity
¥ songs that enable us to tap into our inner healing resources
¥ a series of experiential activities allowing us to look at our differences
¥ a series of experiential activities allowing us to look at our similarities
¥ a closing activity to end the day
¥ an action plan for the future
The above seminar can be done in a variety of formats: Half Day / Full Day / Weekend
Results you can expect:
¥ Healing of past prejudices and any incidents arising from them
¥ Openness to discussing the pain that results from prejudice
¥ A comfortable community that is welcoming for all who live in it
¥ Creation an Community atmosphere that can be examples for other communities
¥ Increased communication and collaboration across race and culture
¥ Healing that will affect all the other differences that challenge us in life
All humanity is one undivided and indivisible family, and each one of us is responsible for the misdeed
of all the others . — Gandhi
Possible Themes for Residencies in Dance & Storytelling: -
Even though the descriptions above are pretty self explanatory, there are some themes that I can focus on in my presentations. Here are some of the themes:
Africa - Past, Present & Future / African Dance - African Life / Celebrating Life through Dance
African Spirituality through drumming & dance
African Myths and Legends
Chanting and Singing African songs. The messages that these songs convey.
Children’s Stories and Songs and the lessons that they teach
Peace through dance & song – Creating Peaceful communities with the arts
Youth Leadership and Self Esteem building
Structure of Workshops / Classes / Residencies:
Workshops and Performances can be done as a combination or as separate entities. They can be accomplished in one day or can be spread out over a few days.
Assembly / Class - 40 minutes to 90 minutes
Residencies – Half Day / Day long / Week long / two weeks / Seven weeks / Fourteen weeks
Rate Structure:-
Morning only / Afternoon only - $350.00
Whole Day - $600.00
Whole Day & Evening - $800.00
Long Term Residencies: 1 week up to 14 Weeks – 9am till 3pm – $400/day
Out of State Residencies – Long weekend or Week long - $600 / day plus travel & accommodation.
Some images from Malawi:
Malawi’s flag –
Black stands for the people of Malawi
Red stands for the people who lost their lives for the struggle for Independence
Green stands for the Beautiful countryside that is lush with vegetation
The Rising sun on the black stands for the “Kwacha” which means dawn and the beginning of a new Era for Malawi in 1964
Elephants / Malawi sunrise / Malawi Sunset / Elephant, Lion, Leopard, Rhinoceros, Buffalo
Malipenga dancers / John Chilembwe (Malawi’s first Freedom Fighter) / Antelope / Little Boy with drum
Cheetah (fastest animal on land) / Lake Malawi / Baobab Tree / Mulanje Mountain
Zomba Mtn. / Masked Dancer / Malawi Arts & Crafts / Ariel view of Blantyre (City where I grew up)
Some of the songs that I may sing with the Community:
Calling our Ancestors
Baba Yo
Baba Aye
Baba Lorisha
Baba Okay
Siyahamba enkhayeni Kwenkos (We are marching in the light of God) A South African Freedom song
Siyahamba enkhayeni kwenkos, siyahamba enkhayeni kwenkos
Siyahamba enkhayeni kwenkos, siyahamba enkhayeni kwenkos
Siyahamba Siyahamba, siyahamba enkhayeni kwenkos
Siyahamba Siyahamba, siyahamba enkhayeni kwenkos
We are marching in the light of God
We are marching in the light of God
We are marching in the light of God
We are marching in the light of God
We are marching we are marching
We are marching in the light of God
We are marching we are marching
We are marching in the light of God
Chant for the Earth
Aye Moji num-ba, Ko-me-re Chi-ke-re moji num-ba X4
Ko-me-re Sam-ba moji num-ba
Ko-me-re Chi-ke-re moji num-ba X2
Chant for the Rising Sun
Dzu -wa I-wa le When the sun rises
Ti Se-we-re, Ti-yi-mbe We will play, we will sing
Dzu-wa I-wa-le When the sun rises
Ti Se-we-re Ti-yi-mbe We will play, we will sing
Malawi National Anthem in English & Chichewa
O God Bless our land of Malawi
Mulunga Dalistani Malawi
Keep it a land of Peace
Mumsunge M’mtendere
Put down each and every enemy
Gonjetsani adani onse,
Hunger, disease, envy
Njala, nthenda, nsanje
Join together all our hearts as one
Lunzitsani mitima yathu,
That we be free from fear
Kuti tisaope.
Bless our leaders, each and everyone
Mdalitse Mtsogo leri na fe,
And Mother Malawi
Ndi Mai Malawi.
Masankho Kamsisi Banda
Creating a worldwide legacy of peace messengers
It is most fitting to begin the story of Masankho Banda with the image of him, as a child, dancing under the moonlit sky in Malawi, Africa his country of birth. “I danced all the time,” says Masankho. “Even when I was not supposed to dance, my feet moved. When I danced, I was happy and my entire view of the world was transformed.”
Masankho learned the fine arts of storytelling and dance from his elders. In their company, he spent many long days and nights listening to stories and dancing to music that captivated his mind, nourished his soul, and strengthened his spirit. Says Masankho, “My grandmother’s words, whispered to me when I was five, continuously echo in my ears: ‘Masankho (which means to choose) your destiny is to bring peace and healing through your talents as a dancer, singer and storyteller’. Masankho’s mother’s courage and wisdom continue to be great influences on his life.
Masankho’s late teen years in Malawi were extremely difficult. His father, Honorable Aleke K. Banda, was imprisoned in 1980 for his efforts to maintain democracy and economic stability in Malawi by the President who reigned over Malawi in a brutal dictatorship for thirty years. In the seventh year of his father’s twelve-year detention, twenty-five year old Masankho was forced to leave Malawi. “I was a refugee — scared, angry, and unsure of my future.”