Ghana grooves

When hearing the word “groupies,” the first things that usually come to mind are teenage girls claiming they’re “with the band.”\nBut the Willkie Auditorium was full of a different kind of “groupie” Tuesday night. Claiming to be “Bernard Groupies,” people from all over Indiana and surrounding states gathered to watch a free performance of the Saakumu Dance Troupe of Ghana led by Bernard Womo. The event was hosted by the African Studies Program in collaboration with the graduate students in African Studies.\nMatthew Halvorson came from Cincinnati to view the performance. Halvorson did not make the trip just by chance. He has known Womo since he was 13 years old.\n“Matthew started taking lessons from Womo when he was sick one summer,” Suzanne Halvorson, Matthew’s mother, said. “It was a healing process.”\nNow, after completing a degree in ethnomusicology and continuing to study percussion on his own, Matthew Halvorson said he was excited to come back and see his past teacher and friend perform.\nWomo led the performance Tuesday night, as he and 13 other musicians and dancers filled Willkie Auditorium with music and motion. The group performed music from northern and southern Ghana. While the musicians provided the rhythm through drums and Dagara xylophones, the dancers turned themselves into their own instruments, using their costumes, props, feet and voices. Together, nine dancers produced one unique drum set, working in tandem with the musicians behind them. \nAfter performing several songs, Womo let the group take a break while he talked with the audience. Womo urged the audience to look very carefully at the performance, since the dancers and musicians are representative of the change that led the Ghana Revolution. It was musicians who urged people to move forward for the freedom that was so desperately needed, Womo said.\nAs the troupe performed onstage, a few members of the audience, “Bernard Groupies” and students alike began to dance in the aisles and to the side of the stage. A majority of audience members stayed seated, though some chose to clap along to the beat as Womo cued them in.\n“Bad dancing will never hurt the ground,” Womo said after the troupe performed another set of songs. “If you’re dancing badly, the ground will not complain. So why are you sitting down?”\nIn Africa, the audience is not separate from the performers. Instead, they join in, adding their own movement and voices to the dance, Womo said. The dancers wear traditional Ghanaian double bells, gourd rattles, fabrics and traditional smocks. \nIn addition to the Dagara xylophone, the group also uses other unique instruments such as the Kpanlogo drums, Ewe drums, Dagomba talking drums, Akan drums and Ghanaian Djembe drums. \nIn addition, the troupe also turned the necks of pots into tiny drums. \n“This is the Gameboy of our country,” Womo said. “A little drum to build rhythm and make your own music.”\nWomo took a special moment near the end of the performance to honor the late professor George Gaber. Gaber, a professor emeritus of music at IU, was a friend of Womo’s. The group performed a traditional remembrance piece, using drums and dancers. Following this piece, Womo performed a solo on the xylophone in remembrance of Gaber and his influence on musical studies.