The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation (NOJHF) presents a Tom Dent Congo Square Lecture on stick-fighting dances of the Caribbean and early New Orleans. It will be at the Ashé Cultural Arts Center, Friday, March 24 with doors at 5 p.m. and the lecture beginning at 5:30 p.m. A community dance event will follow at 7 p.m.
The cultural practices that enslaved people of African descent perpetuated in Congo Square on Sunday afternoons reflected those found in the parts of West and West Central Africa along with the French and Spanish West Indies. Stick-fighting dances were among these, and New Orleanians who provided interviews during the 1930s for the Federal Writer’s Project reported witnessing versions of them.
Dance artist, choreographer, educator and scholar Militeri Tucker Concepción researched and studied with master dance artist Miquel Quijano to revive, choreograph and stage Cocobalé (also Kokobalé), the long-forgotten stick-fighting dance of Puerto Rico. Once an integral part of the Bomba, the traditional dance of Puerto Rico, Cocobalé was used to disguise the fighting practices of enslaved and free people when the Spanish colonial government prohibited them from bearing arms.
As a Bomba practitioner and advocate, Concepción is the founder and artistic director of Bombazo Dance Company, a Puerto Rican Bronx-based organization that preserves, educates, advocates and performs Bomba, Puerto Rico’s oldest music and dance genre of enslaved and free people of color that dates back to the 17th century. The Bomba is directly related in performance style, music accompaniment, and ethnic origin to the popular dance performed in Congo Square and other parts of the city and state commonly called the Congo Dance. Other names for the dance are the Bamboula and the Chica.
Concepción and her company will perform Cocobalé at the Congo Square Rhythms Festival on March 26th. The opportunity to discuss the history of this dance, the process of choreographing it for the stage and its historical relationship to New Orleans will educate and inspire local audiences as well as promote an international perspective about local history and culture.
Immediately following the Tom Dent Lecture, Ashé Cultural Arts Center’s Sistahs Making a Change will host a special community dance class led by Bombazo Dance Company.
The suggested donation is $10, RSVP here.
Panelists include:
- Milteri Tucker Concepción
- Miquel Quijano, Gran Maestro Cocobalero (Grand Cocobale Master and Martial Arts/ Stick Fighting)
- Demonstrators (Drummers and dancers of Bombazo Dance Company)
- Freddi Williams Evans
The discussion with Concepción and Quijano will include the following points:
- The history behind the Cocobalé
- Versions of this dance in other locations. For example, in Cuba, it is called the Juego de Mani and in Haiti, it’s called Mayolé.
- The process of reviving the dance and bringing it to the stage
- The aspects of the traditional dance that were altered (ex. the inclusion of women)
- Ways in which Concepción and her company conserve and advocate for Afro-Puerto Rican Bomba
- The connection between the Bomba and traditional dances in other parts of the African Diaspora including New Orleans
- Strategies for preserving traditional dance forms while fusing them with contemporary and social styles
Social justice themes from the 17th century to the present day.
*Time will be allowed for questions from the audience and music and dance demonstrations with members of Bombazo Dance Company.
