Dance Troupe Keeps Spirit of West Africa Alive in S.D.

The relentless rhythms, stooped-back movements, and quirky isolations of West African dance are almost an endangered species in San Diego.

Only one group, the relatively unknown Teye Sa Thiosanne West African Dance Company, keeps the flame alive.

The name Teye Sa Thiosanne translates to “keepers of the tradition,” and this year-old, San Diego-based troupe, headed by drummer Bernard Thomas, is determined to live up to its name. Thomas and his ensemble have never dominated a mainstream stage in San Diego, but they often spread the gospel of West African dance at workshops and offbeat venues around town.

“We’re an emerging group, toiling away in out-of-the-way places,” Thomas said. “We worked 33 times last year, but never on our own.”

Although few San Diego dance buffs have ever seen the Teye Sa Thiosanne Dance Company in concert, the troupe represented San Diego at Nelson Mandela’s historic visit to the Los Angeles Coliseum earlier this year.

This Saturday, Thomas and his dance troupe will make their debut as an independent arts organization at 7 p.m. at the Educational Cultural Complex in East San Diego. With a 10-member ensemble that features Nemly Napla and Mark Joe (drummer-dancers from Liberia, West Africa), the fledgling troupe will tap its African cultural roots to create an authentic program of dancing and drumming that evolved from African tribal rites.

Thomas describes this coming-out concert “as an act of faith. We’ve had no clear signs (of support). The dancers are in transition, and we had no sense of where help was coming from. I just crossed my fingers and prayed,” he acknowledged.

Nevertheless, Thomas is optimistic about his chances for success in San Diego--despite its poor record of support for grass-roots efforts.

“There’s a resurgence of interest in African dance from all groups of people--not just African-Americans, but whites and Mexicans too,” he said. “People recognize the value of this as a resource. The African people are experiencing a cultural uplifting, and there’s been a surge of interest (surrounding) Nelson Mandela. We want to share this.”

Thomas is particularly eager to show his wares to his own people--the black population of San Diego.

“I have a commitment to our community,” he said. “There’s suffering in some areas. Our people need a cultural experience (to counteract) drugs and other trouble in our schools.

“The African way of life--folk life--has all the communal mechanisms to restore integrity,” he said. “The traditions of the past are our link with the present. It’s easy to become unfocused in our society, and there was such greatness and complexity in Africa. They didn’t have these ills in pre-Colonial times.”

Thomas has another goal in preserving and presenting the art forms of West Africa.

“I’m also very concerned with having people understand us,” he said. “We have to go out and share this very authentic (cultural expression). . . . This is traditional folk dances. It’s our African heritage.

“It’s only in this century that we find traditional dance on the stage,” Thomas said. “The village was the stage. We’re going to create a village setting for the dances, and depict initiations, social celebrations, harvests, births, naming ceremonies, and healing dances.”

Obviously, some of the movements will come “from everyday life,” as Thomas noted. But there is much more to African dancing than acting out the age-old rituals.

“There is a lot of multimetered movement, with feet moving independent of the arms and torsos,” he said. “The feet move like tap dancers with bells rattling. The movements are very challenging, but the dancers have to (maintain) a poised expression on their faces. There is a lot of eye contact between the dancers and the audience.”

The dancing and the spicy rhythms that drive it vary according to region, Thomas said.

“The Liberians dance very close to the ground. Dancers from Senegal and Gambia take more flights. There are a lot of leaps. And (the African drumming) is not typical of European time signatures,” he added. “It’s constructed in layers. There is a lot of dialogue between the lead drummer and the bass drummers. Some is improvisational (as in the solos sections), but other parts are very structured.”

All the costumes are true to tradition.

“Nemly Napla of Liberia designed them, and they’re definitely authentic,” Thomas stressed. “Some of the fabrics were imported from Africa, but they’re very expensive, so we had to compensate by using some (copies).”

This weekend, Thomas and his troupe will pass on their traditions to a new generation of dancers and drummers. In addition to their performance, the company has scheduled a pair of workshops. The first will be taught at 10 a.m. on Saturday at the Encanto Recreation Center.

On Sunday, the ensemble will take up residency at Three’s Company’s Hillcrest studio for another quick course, beginning at 3 p.m. Both sessions are open to the public, and both will feature master drummer Abdu Kounta and his colleague Assane Konte from Senegal, West Africa.

“We don’t have the best dancers in San Diego,” Thomas said, “but we’ve been doing workshops here for two years, and we’ve selected people out of those workshops who have shown dedication. Dedication has taken a front seat to raw ability because we had to consider persistence and resilience--people who would work diligently to make this work.”