DANCE : Art Form, Not ‘Ethnic Cabaret’

Descriptions such as “raw,” “fierce” and “exotic” have appeared in recent Western reviews of Les Ballets Africains, the national dance troupe of the Republic of Guinea, and they tend to rile company Manager Rikki Stein.

“That’s very much part and parcel of my daily battle,” Stein said in a recent phone interview from London, prior to the company’s appearance next week at the Irvine Barclay Theatre.

“I’m trying to legitimize the art form, to get away from all these images of exoticism and primitivism and be able to say this is an art form that should be able to stand proudly and of equal status with classical ballet and dance or opera or any art form you can mention.”

Stein argues that the company is “as significant a company as the Kirov (Ballet) or the Royal (Ballet of Great Britain) or any professional touring company.”

But if he is frustrated by critics who overemphasize their reactions to the kinetic style of the troupe, he’s equally opposed to characterizations of their work as a kind of “ethnic cabaret” which, after decades of success in the West, has lost its former “innocence” and “authenticity.”

“Some presenters and critics come to see a performance and see something very polished,” he said, “and, by virtue of that polish and professionalism, they say it can’t be authentic.

“But these people rehearse in Guinea from 8 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon, six days a week,” he said. “Before they leave the country, there’s a jury of respected citizens who come to see the production to be presented overseas to satisfy themselves that it is a real representation of Guinea culture and African culture in general. Everybody is concerned that what they’re doing is taken very seriously.”

Founded in 1952 by the Guinean choreographer Keita Fodeba, the company, which retains the name it adopted before the former French colony won its independence in 1958, offers “a pastiche of traditional African music and dance.” Those traditions are drawn from the four natural regions of West African coastal country: the highlands, the coastal region, the forest region and the Fouta Djalon Mountains, according to Stein.

“Keita Fodeba had a vision about how best to present African culture to the world in a way that would be exciting, but at the same time remained faithful to the tradition,” he said.

“When you are in a village, it is all terribly exciting. The dust is flying, everybody is jumping, but there’s no way you can represent that on the Western stage. To make that transition, he used certain forms of blocking, choreography, entrances and exits, judicious use of lighting and, of course, many costume changes.

“So there is deformation. But the dance steps haven’t been messed with. The costumes, for the most part, haven’t been messed with. . . . The music is utterly as it should be. Well, everything is.”

Stein also argues against a Western “preconception” about African culture. Westerners, he said, consider African culture “as some sort of time capsule which people step out of to entertain or amuse modern man.”

In contrast, he argued, it is an evolving art.

“There is quite a bit of acrobatics in the production,” Stein said. “Some of our acrobats went to China because they were not satisfied with their own level of accomplishment. They went there, studied there and came back and taught the others. I consider that to be perfectly in order. . . . One occasionally butts up against a different point of view. But we’re ready to fight the fight. I feel we are accomplishing something.”

Although the company now is popular and supported in its native land, it wasn’t always that way.

“When I joined in 1955, my father-in-law was opposed to it,” recalled Italo Zambo, general director of the company, in a phone interview from Indianapolis, one of the stops on the current 53-city North American tour.

“Different tribes were supposed to sing (only) their own songs and dance their own dances. This is why the people before didn’t want to show us many of their celebrations and secrets.

“But now all the people understand what we want and everybody helps us and wants to be dancers.”

In fact, about 200 people show up at auditions now, he said.

“We choose the best ones,” Zambo said. “But when we take a dancer we have to transform him. Everything he does in the village is for himself. He dances what he is feeling. We have to teach him to dance not for himself, but for the public, the audience. It’s difficult.”

Both Zambo and Stein believe that Western audiences are getting better at appreciating the art of Les Ballets Africains, however.

“The first time I came here to the U.S. in 1958,” Zambo said, “people came to the show because it was a curiosity. What could African ballet be? But now people come out of interest and love. For us, that is very important.”

* Les Ballets Africains will dance Nov. 6 at 8 p.m. at the Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine. The troupe is sponsored by the UC Irvine Office of Arts and Lectures. Tickets: $20. Information: (714) 856-5000.