Norway NTNU to France UBP

I have arrived! Charles de Gaulle airport Paris Sunday 31st August, as far I'm concerned there are so many things to look forward too compared to my three weeks living and learning in Norway. 1) Starting lectures in dance anthropology, finally! 2) My own room 3) Affordable living.
But maybe I spoke to soon.
I've searched high and low; I've used my best French language to ask for and be directed to anything but ANYTHING that does not contain lactose. I am exasperated from the search. So in order for my day to be productive and progressive I need at least breakfast, lunch and dinner. I cannot eat out! I tried a chicken burger from Mcdonalds and it ended painfully. I am a present day Cinderella bound by the necessity of sustenance, I can go out after breakfast but must be back by lunch, or after lunch but must be back by dinner. Everything but EVERYTHING seems to be tainted avec buerre, láit o fromage (with butter, milk or cheese).
But food aside the city that I now reside in is lovely, known for its support of Jazz music and musician's and the home of Michellen, Clermont Ferrand. Good news too! On my travels I have discovered a little home away from home, somewhere to purchase plantain, yam and extortionately priced aloe vera juice. The weather is good to compared to Norway which means multiple weekly visits to the local park 'Le Coque Jardin'.

They say size doesn't matter and I strongly disagree! The rooms at my student housing are way too small! It feels like sleeping, standing, reading basically doing everyone in a cabin. I mean even the bathroom, fridge (mini) and desk fits into that space. Now I am petite but even I get feel claustrophobic at times, is this even legal?!
We're kind of left to our own devices for the first two weeks in France, our only engagement is an intensive French language course and other than that life is about settling into Clermont Ferrand. We need to purchase, borrow or find all kitchenware and room furnishings, it's a lot. Where to go? How to ask? What to buy? The things I would do for a £1 store about now....
On a €500 financial contribution PCM and £233.50 of that going on housing plus the €240 deposit that I forgot about I can see this getting ugly.
A pot, a set of cutlery, a plate, a bowl, a cup, food shopping... MONEY DONE!
Calling home has been greatly reduced, with technology at my finger tips I never anticipated not having wifi. Yes you've guessed it my accommodation requires an ethernet cable to access the internet. I feel like I've been transported back in time! Take me back to Norway 'Roof over you head' where my bed was 1 of 14 in the same room, where my designated shower was in the basement but where I could speak with my family everyday if I wanted to. Now I must use the wifi at my local coffee shop at €2 per cup, which closes at 8pm.... Such is life.

My French is coming on slowly even though my pet peeve is evident.
“Je suis Anglais”.

But I'm not English I'm British!

International Master in Dance Knowledge, Practice and Heritage - Choreomundus 2013 - 2015.

Arriving at Trondheim airport Thursday 8th August 2013 11:30 and all I can think is "are you sure"?

“Yassmin seriously 24 months pursuing an MA…. "OUTSIDE THE UK”?

Actually scrap that I have been travelling for 10 hours and have not slept for 24, I am one suitcase lighter than I was when I left home from North West London because it has been misplaced by Norwegian Air during my journey.

Better still REWIND! I'm at Oslo airport waiting to collect my TWO suitcases from Gatwick to check them in AGAIN for the domestic flight to Trondheim. My connecting flight (after checking in AGAIN) is imminent and one of my suitcases has yet to appear on the conveyor belt, which may I add has now stopped. What to do? Report the missing suitcase and obtain an irregularity report, run like the wind to the check in desk through departure lounge - onto the gates and board the plane to Trondheim. "Argh! My toothbrush and toothpaste minus fluoride is in the other case" fingers crossed my luggage turns up in Trondheim.

No luck! Actually worse still I have met a fellow student at arrivals who has clearly labelled his luggage with our full forwarding address AS ADVISED by the department, swallowing my shame I introduce myself and so I have met one other person on my course. We are collected by more fellow students at the designated bus stop and so the quest for whose whom, interested in what and from where begins. I'm tired, I'm hungry and I really need to eat the ackee/ saltfish and roasted plantain in my hand luggage( Large up my mum who told me to cook and take it with me, it could of got real nasty otherwise).

Ackee and saltfish with roast plantain.

Directly from the airport we are welcomed at the The Institute for Music and Dance, our home for a two week intensive.

Dance Studies, Department of Music
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

Things you need to see when embarking on an international masters are signs that makes sense.

And for us who are lactose intolerant, coffee mate.

During the days that follow the MA Choreomundus cohort 2 is in full swing, there are numerous journeys being made to bus stops, student travel services and mobile phone shops, basically everything a foreign student needs. From student travel (of which I'm not entitled too!), bed linen, SIM cards, curfew on alcohol sales in supermarkets you name it and someone in the group can give you the details. We are 18 in total, 8 of us will stay in Norway for the academic year and 10 will continue onto France including myself who are housed at 'Roof over you head' in Gina Krogs Veg.

A two week intensive course in dance analysis is upon us by 19th August and for me the honeymoon period is definitely over, we have structural analysis approaches, epistemology and Labanotation coming out of our ears and going over my head. I'M STILL MISSING A SUITCASE and practising the wash and wear technique with one pair of socks. I should be happy for small miracles because at least I left the airport with the suitcase containing my food stock including lactose free bouillon, lactose free chocolate, lemsip and underwear.

13 days later my suitcase arrives, broken but containing everything I left home with. I have a head cold because my winter clothes are in my missing suitcase, I’ve spent too much money on things I already have but which had been delayed and I’ve just realised that Norway is an expensive country. In short both shopping to cook and eating out cost the same EXTORTIONATE. It has been a great three weeks I am sorry to see the back of Norway and the half of our group that will spend the first academic year in Norway, from here on in I will refer to them as the ethnochoreologist (8) and us the dance anthropologists (10) are heading to France.

On 31st August 2013 we 10 board a plane to Paris via Frankfurt, travelling by taxi the Bercy and then by train to Clermont - Ferrand, our home for the next 10 months. I miss everything that I know and welcome the knowledge and experience of everything I don't. If it's true and France is the country for cheese I'm in big trouble.

The line for hamburgers outside of Samfundet (Student Union)

MJ alive and well at the crossings in Trondheim, Norway.

A bit of London in Trondheim? 

Not sure why I'm smiling, Norway is EXPENSIVE

All students should wear animal onesie's it's fitting.

I finally got to go to the bridge! Great landscape.

The perfect learning environment, dance floor and desks WINNING!

Norwegian homes... bliss.

MA Choreomundus investigates dance and other movement systems (ritual practices, martial arts, games and physical theatre) as Intangible Cultural Heritage within the broader contexts of Ethnochoreology, the Anthropology of Dance, Dance Studies, and Heritage Studies.

The programme is offered by a consortium of four universities recognised for their leadership in the development of innovative curricula for the analysis of dance.NTNU Trondheim

UBP Clermont-Ferrand

University of Szeged Hungary

University of Roehampton UK 

As at 9/9/13 http://www.ntnu.edu/studies/choreomundus

African continuities in Jamaican culture: A talk given by ‘H’ Patten at the British Museum, 19th October 2011

Today (19^th October 2011) I visited the British Museum to hear a talk being given by ‘H’ Patten, on African continuities in Jamaican culture. He introduced himself as a dancer and storyteller but whose journey started as a visual artist. ‘H’ Patten is also a lecturer at Surrey University and is currently researching for his PhD - Moving in the Spirit of Jamaican Dancehall: Continuities and change between traditional African Dance and the Dancehall genre.

Matching historical similarities between West Africa and in particular Ghana, with the island of Jamaica which is located in the Caribbean, through mental state, spiritual connection and physical form. The talk began at the Tree of Life; which is made from weapons of war and destruction.

Patten started here because of the similarities between it and The Kinder/ Kindah Tree of Accompong, a village in the parish of St Elizabeth, Jamaica. Accompong; It is the belief that it is here that the enslaved Africans who had evaded their captures had fled too, during the 400years plus of the African Slave Trade. 

The Kinder/ Kindah Tree of Accompong is symbolic of the crossroads between the physical and the spiritual world. Every year on the 6^th January the Maroon people of Accompong celebrate the 1739 signing of the treaty between the Maroon’s and the British.

Patten went on to talk about the native Kromanti, language of Accompong, and that it is similar to; if not the same as the Twi language of Ghana, strengthening the belief that the Maroon people were those Africans that managed to escape their captures. They were creative people and had to be, their survival techniques included hunting, cooking, bathing and basic everyday necessity all carried out in a way as not to get caught. Survival meant that they had to stay one step ahead of their opponents and continuously design ways to outwit the enemy. Using tactics of camouflage and illusion, I agree with Patten that ‘creativity saves us’. Again manifested in the erection of this tree, the craftsmanship is equally as aesthetic as it is frightening.

Kromanti is not only a language it is also a dance and a place in Ghana, around the installation of the Tree of Life in a circular form Patten engaged us in a Kromanti song. Clapping the rhythm that would be played on the gumbe drum, our call and response assimilated the calling of the spirits for knowledge and guidance through this ritual.

Nanny Maroon was the leader of the Maroon people, the free Africans, once enslaved but who rose up against their situation and bought their fight game into play. She, being a woman not only led her people into freedom but as a woman she would of undoubtedly had struggles of her own to become a leader. Like Yaa Asantewaa before her who led armies, Nanny found that African sense and sensibility to change their circumstance and position in a situation.

The Junkanoo festival of Jamaica, where masquerade and dress takes precedence over everything you have done in the year, the masks instilled morals and values of traditional society and the spirited self. Patten asked “if you saw a cow head coming towards you, wouldn’t you begin to think about and ask forgiveness for all wrong doings throughout the year, especially if you were a child?’ The spirituality and social order element of the festival has become less prominent and more or less removed over years.

Moving onto Benin bronze plaques Patten told the story of Kalimbe, the father of carvings in Jamaica. Stating that on each and every corner of Jamaica you will find carvings being sold, and that these carvings were all produced at the hands of the family of Kalimbe, through the skill that has been passed on through generations. That the carving continues the spirit of the person and the life of the tree in which the wood has been taken from, reflecting signs of the times and holding onto memories. Similar to the bronze plaques held by the museum that depict the ruling countries through the dress of the soldiers, the story can be retold and comprehended. Again like Africa and Africans, Jamaica and Jamaican’s have sizeable families; which also continues to carry the spirit of the elders and the mentioning of their names continues their lives.

Patten closed the talk by speaking on Dancehall and its resistance to oppression. Suggesting that the songs sung today, are no different to those sung by the ancestors and the reasons behind such music and dance are the same. He stressed that it too is part and parcel of the Africans struggle as a Jamaican. The masquerade and dress is all the same, the bashment, where you go, look and feel a certain way. That tonight we party even though we know tomorrow’s survival is not guaranteed. How the warrior spirit comes through in the music and the dance, the call and response, the puffed up chests of the men that take the stage in all their glory and the woman that rule at the top of the hour until the sunrises. 

Reflection

In all my 35 years I cannot remember one day where I could explain what it meant to be a Jamaican but I saw, felt and witnessed myself for the duration of the talk. Unequivocal to anything that I have learned, being is not about where you were born it is about the life that you live. I am the woman that will lead, honing the soft power to instil morals and values into family and friends in an effort that they will do the same for me. That my fight is the fight of many, therefore I will never stand alone, knowing that we are a nation of people who know that the balance does not equal fair and the upper hand is held by a few. That the flight or fight is real and is what you face everyday of your life, so if you cannot run you are innately born with the will to survive.

My coping mechanism in life is the dance, as an adjective, as a noun and as a verb; I thank my ancestors for that.

By Yassmin V Foster, November 2011

The Electric Slide - Know your copy/right/left…

That’s right the “Electric Slide” not the “Candy Dance”.

A New Year is now well on it’s way and I have held back on this subject for as long as I could but watching the “The Best Man” has provoked me into sharing my thoughts. I do not want to hinder the autonomous bodies that descend upon many a dance floor but instead would like to add value (literally) to social dancing.

Year after year I watch people of different ethnicity, age, social status and beliefs perform the numerous steps of the sequence that I know to be the “Electric Slide” but to many the “Candy Dance”.

Firstly we should be totally in agreement here, that if it were not for these dance steps, many a party, dance or rave would never get started. The hot flurry that comes over each individual when you know you have a maximum of 8 bars to find enough room, to workout which way we are all going to face, to decide if we are going right/ right/ left/ left before we get into the tricky bit.  The bass of the guitar hits you right in the pit of your stomach, the snare and what maybe a xylophone or cowbells (who knows) all tamper with your cerebral cortex.

Then it happens “Yeaaaaaaah ee yeah, oooooooh” ............................, 5, 6, 7, 8.

But oh no!  If my memory serves me correct which it does, this “Candy” song is not the original song for this dance. Waaaaaay back when I was youngish the song I danced to echoed the name of the dance. Marcia Griffiths one of the I Threes, also a backing vocalist group of the late Bob Marley and the Wailers.

Recorded the song “Electric Boogie” which accompanied the dance in a live performance in 1976. The dance steps/sequence are copy written! So every time you’ve seen it and you know you’ve seen it but here it is in black and white. Someone is getting paid…

http://the-electricslidedance.com/id2.html

If it were not for this dance I cannot imagine what at least half of us would be doing and want to take a minute to big up Richard “Ric” Silver” choreographer/ originator of the “Electric Slide”.

and

Until such time,

Yassmin V

Cuddle Rub, Crub, Rub

The compressed effort of two embraced bodies, the slow and sustained movement and almost still sway of the union. The components of the music - where the melody is in the base, the florescent lyrics with fruitful undertones and in this instance... your alibi. Both bodies are guided through the darkness by the sound, the appealing scent or stifling odour of the other and the personal objective in this unspoken, undisclosed, yet understood activity. Where there are others coupling, but it's so hard to tell who is not and who is, who is?

Anyway you are both riding the riddim getting into the groove, the speed and complexity of your movement suggests your knowledge, interest and commitment, but only for the period. The time being the length of the song, you give in for a maximum of 5mins, unless... Unless it is a version excursion. Tighten your belt, secure your headrest and cruise that body all the way to the desired destination, temple to temple, forehead to forehead, rock them fast and slow.

Be sure to pace yourself, change your gears, height and levels, sink deep into your motion allowing momentum to carry the swing - bring yourself up for air, adjust to the weight in your knees and maintain your decency.

Unless...Unless he or she is already yours.

Truly,


Yassmin V