Learning Dance In Uganda - The Dances of Busoga
I studied three traditional dances in Busoga: irongo, tamenhaibuga and nalifuka.
The oldest dance is thought to be irongo, a dance created to celebrate the birth of twins. Having twins is thought to be a blessing from God - a sign that "you have a good relationship with the spirits".
When you hear the irongo rhythm in a village, you'll know that twins have been born and a celebration is about to begin. Villagers will gather grass or dried banana leaves and tie these around their waists before joining the dance. This makeshift costume accentuates the movement of the waist, and makes the dance more beautiful.
The movements have sexual connotations. For example, when girls dance the okunyola variation, they move their waist in a circular motion, and place their hands on their breast to tease men. Or when the husband dances okunyola, he positions his hands as though he is holding a spear.
Tamenhaibuga has been danced since the eighteenth century. The name of the dance means "don't break the gourd" - a gourd is used as a cup in Busoga, and is a symbol of unity.
The dance is performed at the funerals of old people to celebrate their life. Funerals last several days and this dance is performed on the last day so that the family can release their sorrow. One of the songs says Amusika tiga isa, which means "tears don't bring back the dead". It is a happy dance, and i is danced in the different places where the dead person had been.
Nalifuka is a new dance that has been created from taminhaibuga. The name means "we pour them there": during the funeral, the musicians will lead the villagers to different places, "pouring" them here and there. The rhythm is a very fast.
Nowadays, professional village groups will perform these dances for different functions and celebrations. Some groups, such as Nile Beat Artists invent choreographies involving many dancers, but mostly the focus is on creative solo dancing.
In the middle of our trip, we spent about a week staying in Jinja town to train with Nile Beat Artists. I also returned to resume training during my last week.
The dance lessons took place by the source of the river Nile. It was inspiring to dance in nature whilst listening to the sound of water and the powerful singing of birds! My teacher was called Waiswa, and Andy learnt from Haruna Walusimbi, the leader of the group.
We began by working on basic technique for the dance: the knees are bent, the heels are off the ground and the upper body is still and relaxed, whilst the waist moves in a circular motion - quite different from embaga's shaking hip movement! By the end of an intensive week I had learnt the basic steps for nalifuka, irongo and taminhaibuga, but I kept on practising to internalise the movements and gain flexibility in the waist.
The first occasion I performed with Nile Beat Artists was at the opening of a factory, attended by the president of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni. I was encouraged to dance baakasimba, which I had studied three years ago, even though I didn't know their particular choreography.
I also performed with the group at an engagement party. This time I danced the group's choreography of Soga dances. This begins with fast nalifuka to capture the audience's attention, and is followed by the contrasting slow irongo rhythm, before moving to taminhaibuga with all its variations. After this, solo dancers then show off their skill, before the whole piece is ended with fast nalifuka. I appreciated the group's creative use of space on stage.
Whilst in Busoga, I also returned to Siragi Kirimungu's village, whom I had met on my previous trip. Siragi is very popular singer in the region, and Andy had arranged to record his group. Siragi is a gifted composer, and creates topical and funny stories to teach people to live better lives.
Siragi is also a great performer, and in the fourth week I was lucky to have the chance to perform with him at a cultural event in Kampala. In his group, the focus was more on solo or pair dancing, rather than choreographies that involve many dancers.
It was a great lesson in solo performing: how to approach the audience in a bold way; to sometimes stop dancing and walk comfortably around the stage, targeting a new audience; to remember to rest whenever the drummer stops a variation, etc. The music was challenging to dance to, and I realised I had only scratched the surface of the dances I had studied in Busoga.
Siragi described how he will closely observe the audience and the occasion in order to choose (compose) song text that will resonate with them. This left a big impression on me.