\u201cIt’s an unforgettable experience to be connected to my ancestors and descendants and the people around me and the drums,” said Netanya Thompson, the artistic dance director at the African American Cultural Center. “It’s something unexplainable.\u201d<\/p>\n
It’s a language without words.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople may start in the artistic realm before they walk or talk,” said Thompson. “It’s a language that’s speaking to the soul and to the heart.”<\/p>\n
The energy and the rhythm fill every square inch of the dance hall where practice is held. The Dance and Drum Class at Buffalo\u2019s African American Cultural Center welcomes all people of all ages.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started at three,” Thompson said. “My mom wanted a dancer child, so she puts me in dance class, and I’ve been here ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n
Netanya Thompson takes what she\u2019s learned and brings it to the stage. She also passes it on to the next generation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to bring everybody together and create, unify and just bring that family out with everyone,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The components of each piece differ, but they meld together.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe feed into each other without talking, without nothing but dance and drumming,\u201d said Youssou Lo, the African dance and drum director.<\/p>\n
It tears down walls in the process.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you go to Africa now, they’re dancing,” said Lo. “You’re not going to recognize who’s poor, who doesn’t have no money or who doesn’t have no food or who’s rich because the drumming, the culture will bring them together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lo brings years of experience from Senegal in West Africa.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was a little boy. Dance every day, drum every day, five times a week, five hours a day,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n
It’s a practice that fills his soul.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have nothing but happiness,” Lo said. “Actually [the dancers] pulled me to dance because they were doing good […] you’re telling the person ‘good job’ by dancing with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here you can find that community within a whirlwind of tradition.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s a culture that saves people, saves kids. It saved me and it saved a lot of kids…these guys here,” Lo said. “We all watch them grow up and now you see that I was dancing, they play for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Respect, focus and humility all come with the territory here.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt talks to individuals and everyone throughout the community all over, and it gives them a voice when can’t speak,\u201d said Thompson.<\/p>\n
They have hope that that voice and their space to continue to grow.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want them to carry on say, generation to generation because if I’m not teaching it, who’s going to carry on after me, after us? Nobody,” said Lo. “That’s our goal is just helping the kids to grow up, to hope they know who they are.\u201d<\/p>\n
The African American Cultural Center has open classes every Wednesday from 6-10 p.m. It’s $10 to drop in on a class or $30 for the month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There are a lot of ways to learn about your culture. One class in Buffalo brings that heritage alive through dancing and drumming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12963,"featured_media":26188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,12],"tags":[7,30,14],"class_list":{"0":"post-26191","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture","8":"category-entertainment","9":"tag-apie-project","10":"tag-culture","11":"tag-entertainment"},"yoast_head":"\n