IN THE CLASSROOM -- Bodies in motion

Danette Goulet

Dancers’ limbs and torsos twisted and writhed in ever-changing, fluid

motions as the lightning fast beat of African drums filled the air.

Liquid rhythm and grace is how I would describe the dancing of

Abdoulaye Camara, a dance master from Guinea, Africa, and his once-pupil

Nikola Clay.

The dancers performed for students at Davis Education Center in Costa

Mesa on Monday to the amazing percussion sounds of three other members of

their troupe -- Aziz Faye, Jason Hann and Bill Meinerding.

Faye also doubled as a dancer, making impressive leaps into the air.

The Allatanous Dance group, an ever-changing collective of people, has

come together to perform at various venues during Camara’s three-month

visit to the United States, during which he performs and promotes his

African dance and percussion workshop held in Guinea each winter.

In three back-to-back performances, the troupe began with an energetic

dance that immediately engaged the attention of its young audience.

Students, teachers and parents alike appeared enthralled by the bold

movements and incredibly quick drum beat.

Children’s response to Camara was immediate and loud.

He asked them to repeat after him the lines he sang. And did they

ever.

His shouts in a language they didn’t know -- and had most likely never

heard -- echoed back to him more loudly than I’ve ever heard students

respond in an assembly of its kind.

No other type of music could possibly elicit such a reaction.

Their favorite line ended with a loud and whiny “Nah” sound and a

finger pointed at one’s neighbor.

Hann explained the various instruments and demonstrated the sounds

they created.

He told students where they were from and what they were called in

different countries in Africa.

What really got the crowd roaring, however, was getting students up

there to play five-gallon water cooler bottles while their teachers

danced to an ever-increasing tempo played by the students.

It was an energizing assembly for students back fresh from spring

break. And those children were darn good on those water bottles.

* IN THE CLASSROOM is a weekly feature in which Daily Pilot education

writer Danette Goulet visits a campus within the Newport-Mesa Unified

School District and writes about her experience.