HABIB IDDRISU PERFORMS AT THE UO’S DANCE AFRICA 2013
From Ghana with Love
UO PROF HABIB IDDRISU ACTS AS INTERNATIONAL AMBASSADOR FOR WEST AFRICAN HISTORY AND DANCE by Vanessa Salvia
H
abib Iddrisu has a slender, compact body,
an unlined, youthful face and a headful of
small, short dreads. The University of Oregon
adjunct dance professor travels the world with
traditional African singing and dance groups and actively
teaches African history. But he won’t reveal his age. “I
keep that to myself,” he says.
Iddrisu just returned from a month of research in his
native Ghana. “I’m observing the hybridization of African
music from the village to international stage,” he says.
This occurs when people visit the village or when villagers
leave, join the national dance company and travel, then
return to the village.
“I picked two or three different music and dances
that originated from my village and followed their
transformation to the city center and to stages across the
world,” he says. “I’ve seen a lot of development in it and
I’ve also seen how these make their way back to the village,
because everything is so connected now.”
Iddrisu was born into a family of court musicians and
historians in the small northern Ghanaian village of Taha.
His ethnic group, the Lungsi order, is one of the most
powerful clans among the Dagbamba people, where music
and dance go hand in hand.
“We are the most powerful because everything about
our ethnic group is passed down through oral tradition,”
Iddrisu says. “Even though we are not part of the ruling
class, the ruling chiefs and the queens and the queen
mothers rely on us to recount the history of our people,
which dates hundreds and hundreds of years back. We also
provide entertainment for almost every occasion, from
childbirth to naming ceremonies to puberty rites, marriage
and even death.”
His teaching focus is on the dance forms of the Sub-
Saharan region in Africa, a large area that includes all
countries south of the Sahara Desert. While the dances of
Northern Africa have Middle Eastern roots, the dances of
the other regions in Africa are noticeably different.
Though the dances of these many cultures have
similarities, Iddrisu says they vary greatly between ethnic
groups. “I’m from West Africa, which is the dance style
that a lot of people in the United States are exposed to,” he
says, “but in my classes I teach dances which can come all
the way from South Africa.”
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Iddrisu says one thing setting these dances apart is the
“call-and-response” form. “West African dance forms tend
to have a lot of it based on the drum call,” he says. “The
lead master drummer gives the signal and dancers respond
to what the drummer plays.” You may have seen him
showcase this at the 2013 Dance Africa performance last
winter at the UO Gerlinger Annex.
Sub-Saharan dances in general have what Iddrisu calls a
“more grounded” form, in the sense that the dancers’ knees
are bent and for the most part remain touching the earth.
Another unique feature of dance in South Africa is that
the dancers often create the music themselves, rather than
following a drummer or group of musicians.
Iddrisu describes a South African dance called the
Gumboot, in which the dancers wear rubber boots, known
as Wellingtons, with jingles attached to them. “The dancers
create the rhythm style while wearing the rubber boots with
jingles attached,” he says. ■
Habib Iddrisu will be teaching Dance in Traditional Cultures: Ghana and
African Music courses fall term at the UO.
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