Movement Vocabulary as Social Commentary - Joshua Akubo

Epicenters: Nigeria has a rich history of dance and movement art, from Bata to Atilogwu, as well as other forms of traditional dances. Nigerians have always used movement to tell stories, connect with their spirituality and ancestry and advocate.

When traditional dance is referenced. Nigerians tend to recall the energetic movements of bata dancers in adire or the movements of masquerades in raffia dresses and elaborate masks with nonchalance; there is little to no value attached to the art in its contemporary form. It suffers from a lack of institutionalization, and it is barely regarded as a formal practice by Nigerians. I spoke to Joshua Akubo, a dancer and director of Duniate Culture Art Resource Centre, Kaduna, one of the thriving epicentres of Kaduna’s dance community. Akubo works at the intersection of dance, community engagement, and activism. Akubo, through this interview, offers valuable insights into how dance as an art form can be formalised and used as a means for activism and social change.

Can You tell me about Yourself and how You became a Dancer?

I began dancing from a very young age. Before I thought of dance as an art form, I was already dancing in cultural events, and it had always been a way for me to express myself.

Do You see the Fusion of Traditional and Contemporary Dance as Innovation, Dilution, or a Necessary Evolution?

I like to think that the word "tradition"; can be seen as events acted upon by time continuously, and in its own first time could be very contemporary, reflecting the necessity of the time it existed in. Then, over time, it became a way for a group of people or a certain social circle to identify themselves. As time goes on, the same becomes a tradition and is passed down because it now stands for something.

The Bata dance, for instance, is used to put a king on the throne or take him off it. The whole idea that keeps the traditional dance alive is not getting the importance it deserves for many reasons, including contemporary emerging cultures. People no longer feel the need to carry on traditional dances because there is an introduction of new movements and cultures in social dance, because even as the body holds knowledge, when it experiences new events and seeks to express them, it changes, evolves, or shifts from old knowledge.

I say this to establish that it is tricky to say whether or not it is an innovation, a dilution, or a necessary evolution. For what it is, it’s just people adapting or readapting to what they feel like is their present context. I’m personally looking back to see what traditional dance looks like in my contemporary body. In short, I would say it’s a useful innovation or evolution, as the case may be. If the knowledge is being abused, then it becomes an unnecessary dilution.

Why do You think Dance still Struggles for Institutional Recognition Compared to Other Art Forms in Nigeria?

I don’t think dance struggles for institutional recognition; on the contrary, I think dance struggles for economic recognition, especially within the Nigerian economic system. Dance is missing the connection between what is regarded as professional (career, economy) and academia (institution of thinking, learning and creating); this gap isolates its defence in the public space as relevant in the discussion of society, even though it is embedded in every cultural ceremony or ritual in history.

So wherever dance is coming up, whether formally or Informally, you would see that dance is recorded as a significant part of history. It is a form of communication; it is also a political tool. But it does not have the same economic potential as other art forms, such as music or film. We see that because of how much education on dance is available in the public space. It needs to be integrated within structures and socio-cultural institutions that allow the market to thrive. For example, it is part of the culture in Europe to go to theaters the same way we would go to a music concert. It’s more of an economic imbalance than a place in an institution.

Beyond Entertainment, how can Dance Serve as a Tool for Social Commentary or Resistance?

Dance can definitely serve as a tool for social commentary. I mean, I am a big practitioner of that. I can’t dance if I am not addressing an issue. For me, dance that elaborates and emphasizes a subject or an event becomes a useful tool to capture people’s attention because it can carry a representation of the event. We did a project called No Man’s Land in 2021; it was about the killings in southern Kaduna. We interviewed the victims of these killings, and we created the piece from the reactions of the victims of the insurgency. We adapted how they ran in the night to escape bullets and how they defended themselves.

We adapted every movement vocabulary from these real-life situations as a way to give exposition to what was felt. Due to the speed at which news is published, there is not a lot of focus that goes into the severity of these attacks, and dance offers the ability to tell and retell these stories. It goes beyond entertainment; it becomes an alternative medium for telling people’s stories, for contributing to the social commentary and for making relevant propositions through choreographies. Dance has an active role in making sense of society and presenting it with such powerful visuals of body movement.

As head of the Art Resource Centre, Kaduna, what have You done in Preserving and Advancing Dance?

We started the art resource centre as a meeting place for people with different art forms to create, co-create and collaborate. We have provided an international residency for artists to research and collaborate with local artists and dancers in Kaduna. The Art Resource Centre functions as a residency space, as a research centre and as a co-creative compound.

We are focused on creating a space that is locally designed so that when we have visitors from around the world, they are immersed in a space that motivates inquiry into what it means to explore Nigerian indigenous intelligence and technology. As a dancer setting up that space, I set up things that allow dance to flourish, and we have seen more dancers visit the place than any other artists. So dance can continue to grow.

In Societies where Bodies are Often Regulated or politicised, how does Dance Negotiate Freedom and Expression?

I think dance negotiates freedom very well; the concept of movement is not one particular thing. For me, I move, and people call what they see 'dancing.' I think dance has a way of escaping such stereotypes or stereotypical suppression. The more we can demystify what dance can do and how dance can be put on bodies, the more we can reduce that stereotype and question what it means to be a politicized body in itself. I think that with the kind of sectors that are coming up with dance, development dance and community dance, it offers a new entry point into including both dancers and non-dancers in dance spaces, and this allows non-dancers to appreciate what can be done with dance.

A negotiating tool for self-expression and for addressing communal discourses, which most of the time, verbal introduction doesn’t capture effectively or make people feel safe to have.

I’m currently doing an MA in dance for community participation and activism, and it has exposed me to a whole new world of alternative ways of negotiating spaces and of organising community through dance, and I’ve seen how vast dance can be as a contributor to spaces and to negotiating the body in spaces.