‘Soaring High’ music-dance concert swoops into Atlanta’s ArtsXchange

“Fanga” is a traditional West African welcoming dance, said Kuumba, and “Fanga” will welcome audiences into a concert of new and familiar pieces performed by a 12-member ensemble of musicians, vocalists and dancers as part of Kuumba’s 65th birthday celebration Saturday at East Point’s ArtsXchange.

Credit: Photo courtesy of Omelika Kuumba

Credit: Photo courtesy of Omelika Kuumba

“Fanga” is also a thread that runs through Kuumba’s life. It was the first dance she learned as a child growing up in Brooklyn and the first dance Kuumba choreographed when she directed Barefoot Children’s Dance Ensemble in Atlanta. And as Kuumba launched her three-decade career in African dancing and drumming, “Fanga” was the first dance for which she played.

It is, perhaps, her deep knowledge of African traditions that helps give “Soaring High” its irresistible appeal.

“Fanga’s” smoothly flowing yet lively rhythm links Kuumba to Pearl Primus, one of the earliest African American artists and scholars to study traditional African cultural expressions at their sources in Africa and weave them into contemporary African American culture.

Like Primus, Kuumba has spent her career studying African music and dance in order to show their connection to African American culture. She is perhaps best known for her 25-year tenure as artistic director of Giwayen Mata, Atlanta’s “all-sistah” African dance, percussion and vocal ensemble, which proved to skeptics that women could play African drums with excellence and distinction.

During that time, Kuumba earned the esteem of the late “Baba” Chuck Davis, founder of DanceAfrica USA, which invited Giwayen Mata to perform on DanceAfrica’s national platforms in several cities. Giwayen Mata hosted DanceAfrica Atlanta in 2013.

“Soaring High” may surprise people who expect to see Kuumba perform the style of African dancing and drumming she did with Giwayen Mata.

“Seeing the full band gives them another glimpse into who I am artistically,” she said. “They get a chance to connect in another way through the lyrics and the storytelling.”

The process of creating new songs for “Soaring High” has been intertwined with the pandemic, loss of loved ones and the resolve to find joy in life.

Kuumba hadn’t planned to start a band until fall 2019, when producer Ken Rye invited her to compose a music set that would show the relationship between African drumming and songs in other genres of the African diaspora.

She drew from past work, including songs written for Giwayen Mata and her first song, “Sunset,” composed in the early 1980s while she was singing with Atlanta-based spiritual jazz group SOLAR (Source of Life Arkestral Revelation).

Inspiration for new songs came with a deep intention toward healing. In December 2019, Kuumba was ill for three weeks in what was possibly an undiagnosed case of COVID-19. Kuumba recalled lying in bed thinking, “I need to get up from here. Time to soar.”

Then the lyrics came to her: “My spirit is lifted, my heart is aligned — my mind is enlightened, I feel so alive. My vision’s unclouded, my purpose is clear — I’m moving with passion, I know why I’m here.”

Credit: Photo by Shoccara Marcus

Credit: Photo by Shoccara Marcus

She continued to write, but Rye’s production, scheduled for April 2020, was canceled due to COVID-19. That summer, Kuumba watched video footage of the murder of George Floyd that was posted on social media and followed news of subsequent protests worldwide. “It would have been shallow to just stand there, singing and smiling and grinning,” Kuumba said, “and not acknowledge that.”

Kuumba’s song, “9 MIN 29 SEC,” repeats a phrase reminiscent of Floyd’s dying words: “I cannot breathe.” The song reflects more broadly, said Kuumba, on “things that have been happening for 400 years. Raped, lynched, burned, chain line, pipeline — different ways we have been intimidated, terrorized — just because of the way we look.”

Mostly, Kuumba lifts up audiences through songs that celebrate love, joy and family.

While composing “Soaring High,” Kuumba experienced the deaths of her mother and father within eight months in 2020 and 2021. A new song, “Seeking Joy,” reflects a turning point in her mourning process.

“There was a heaviness that I was carrying for a long time,” Kuumba said. “It was really raw. And then, one day, I woke up and I didn’t feel the heaviness. The missing was still there, but the load of the missing — it just felt very different.”

She began to write a new song.

“That one just came from being grateful that I could consciously seek joy,” Kuumba said, “and then find ways to hold onto it and use the joy as impetus.”

Now when she misses her parents and starts to feel sad, she reminds herself, “Well, the reason why you’re so sad is that you had great parents. You all had a wonderful relationship.”

Kuumba hopes “Soaring High” will continue to gain visibility in Atlanta and beyond. She plans to write more songs and hopes to weave “Soaring High” into the larger music world.

As for audiences, she’d like to create a sense of community and camaraderie in the space and for audiences to gain knowledge — whatever learning is for them — and to feel a sense of joy and affirmation.

It comes back to “Fanga,” a dance “about having nothing to hide and everything to share,” Kuumba said. “That was the story that Primus wanted people to take away from the dance. That the dance is open and giving and affirming and helps people to come together in a way that makes them feel like they’re in the right place.”

IF YOU GO

“Soaring High”

7 p.m. Saturday. Sold out. ArtsXchange. 2148 Newnan St., East Point. events.humanitix.com.

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Cynthia Bond Perry has covered dance for ArtsATL since the website was founded in 2009. One of the most respected dance writers in the Southeast, she also contributes to Dance Magazine, Dance International and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She has an M.F.A. in narrative media writing from the University of Georgia.

Credit: ArtsATL

Credit: ArtsATL

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