|
|
Uganda: Carnival of the Animals Given Local Twist
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
The Monitor (Kampala)
17 May 2008
Posted to the web 16 May 2008
Moses Serugo
Most of the young performers had to look up to their older counterparts for guidance in executing their dance routines. Their enthusiasm, however, made up for their absentmindedness.
The occasional cheer from parents and siblings was the endorsement the little ones wearing leotards and ballet dance shoes for their stage time.
They may not understand ballet's long-term rewards like poise and self-confidence at this stage of their toddler lives but those are character traits they would find invaluable in their later years.
Last weekend's performance of The Carnival of Animals looked a little misplaced in a Ugandan theatre setting. The musical suite of 14 movements by the French Romantic composer Camille Saint-Saëns is alien and quite ancient having been composed in 1886.
It could be the reason The Kampala Ballet and Modern Dance School ignored the "traditional" city playhouses and took the production out of town to the Aga Khan Schools hall in Old Kampala.
Adding a local twist to the hour-long performance made it relevant to Uganda's although some may complain about this seeming adulteration of a timeless theatrical work.
But the inclusion of a kanzu-clad narrator alongside another that was all suited up worked. He was comic in making animal sounds like the cockerel's crow, the cow's moo and the cat's meow.
He dispensed some good advice about treating our feathered and furry with more compassion. We humans need not get mad about the cockerel announcing the start of a new workday. We should also not cut trees because they provide an abode for the birds even when their chirping gets a little irritating.
The delight of the performance was the musical accompaniment to the dance routines by a live orchestra played by Kampala Music School. The sound from a bow on a violin string, fingers on piano keys or lips to a clarinet had a cooling effect from the searing weekend heat.
The flawless playing included "classical" renditions of the National, Buganda and Toro anthems. Buganda Queen Lady Sylvia Nagginda Luswata, the dashing and now towering King Oyo of Toro and his mother Queen Best Kemigisha graced the show with their regal presence.
Much of the spectacle was about the ballet school reaffirming itself as a centre for this enduring dance form. The slow pace and at times disjointed flow of the revelry in the animal kingdom aside, the show had authentic applause worthy moments like the tiptoeing ballerinas that were as graceful as the ones in Swan Lake.
The use of coloured manila paper to depict lion manes, elephant ears, and tortoise shells was clever. Equally noteworthy was the English translation of a popular Luganda folksong.
|
There is a possibility that we can export orchestral adaptations of folk songs like Semusajja Agenda and have lyrics like "kyo kyoki kaleeba, kyuka nondeeba, kaleeba" translated for the benefit of foreign audiences.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 The Monitor. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
