Repertoire - Dances
SELECTED DANCES IN THE REPERTOIRE
EKE-GENE
Eke-gene is a rich African cultural dance, which originates from the Epie speaking area of Bayelsa State. Eke-gene, which literarily means, "big dance", has a medley of about six local songs with various dance patterns. This is one of the most spectacular dances in the repertory because of the colorful costumes and the beautiful dance.THE FISHERMAN’S DANCE
This dance is a contemporary piece, which teaches the occupational predisposition of the Izon people. It is suitable for presentation at ceremonial occasions. It has variety of movements depicting the different stages in a fishing expedition: paddling (the journey for the fishing site), casting of nets, taking the catch into the canoe for their wives to put in their fishing baskets, washing periwinkles, and rejoicing over a fruitful fishing expedition.NGU SEI
Ngu-sei is an age long traditional dance in Ijaw villages. Ngu means pot, while Sei means dance, so in totality it means pot dance. Oral history has it that a woman who came from the river brought this dance. She introduced this kind of dance and taught the people of the community. She decided to settle in the community finally. However, because of great beauty, many suitors asked her hand in marriage: the rich, the wealthy, the poor, farmers and fishermen. As it were, she turned all of them down and finally fell in love with a disabled man who eventually married her. Dances like Ngu-sei are demonstrations of the Izon rich cultural heritage, which we can project in international cultural festivals. This dance is always enjoyed by all and sundry because the message is apt: there is ability in disability.
YELASEI
WIND AND TREES
Wind and Trees is a festival dance showing the forest and the forest people playing together thus depicting how wonderful Gods creatures are. It is mainly danced by male and female dancers showing the footsteps of the wind and trees; and people who move in the forest. Every movement of the dance is has strong as the wind and trees. Selekefun Embiowei also choreographed Wind and Trees.HEART BEAT
The dance, Heart Beat, originates from the Yoruba speaking area of Nigeria. History tells us that with the coming of the Europeans to Africa, they taught the natives the European ways of life. Eventually, some of the missionaries decided to send some boys and girls (who were seen to be very brilliant) abroad to undergo further studies. Most parents were afraid to release their children, thinking the white people could kill them. However, some parents allowed theirs to go with them. Upon their return after several years abroad, the Yorubas saw a great change in their life styles and they were happy about this development. These boys and girls came home with this dance. In its present form, some Yoruba dance steps embellish it. Therefore, Heart Beat is a combination of western and African dance steps. Its performance could be at any kind of occasion. Ebinimi Richman choreographed this dance.
SELECTED DRAMA SKETCHES IN THE REPERTOIRE
TITLE: WHO TALK AM
CAST: FIVE (5)
DURATION: TEN (10) MINUTES
CONCEPT: JETHRO FREEBORN
SYNOPSIS: Created by Jethro Freeborn, this drama sketch centres on a mischievous and crafty houseboy, who sets confusion in an otherwise peaceful household. The houseboy, Banga, tells his master that his madam or mistress was having an affair. When his master is not around, he tells his mistress that his master was planning to bring in a second wife. In every instance, he begs one not to tell the other what he had told him or her. The mother-in-law come visiting and he tells her that the daughter of the couple, Tari, was not actually her grand daughter. He makes her believe that the mistress had the baby for another man. The climax of this drama sketch is that Tari gets pregnant and it was found out that Banga was responsible for the pregnancy.
TITLE: DRY BOTTLE
CAST: SEVEN (7)
DURATION: TEN (10) MINUTES
CONCEPT: ALEX NELSON
SYNOPSIS: This is a story of three fake professional mourners who visit every bereaved home for food and drink. They meet their waterloo when they go to the home of a young mother who had lost a four-month old baby. With their unusual enthusiasm and limited knowledge of the event, they mourn the death of a doctor. When they are told that it was not a doctor that had died, they call the dead person an engineer and later a lawyer. After they are made to realize that it was an infant that had died, they maintain that it is all the same as the boy would have grown to be a doctor, an engineer or a lawyer. In the final analysis, they still request for food and drink to regain the energy they had dissipated in crying. The women give them ordinary water in a supposed local gin (ogogoro) bottle. The joy that it was going be business as usual for them is short lived as the women drive them away with cutlass and mortar pestle.
TITLE: THE BAG
CAST: FIVE (5)
DURATION: FIVE (5) MINUTES
CONCEPT: TONBARA SAMPOU
SYNOPSIS: A young man, who is running for his dear life, abandons a bag by the roadside. A pedestrian attempts to pick it up, only to be accosted by another young man. Both of them claim ownership of the bag. In the argument that ensues, a police officer comes and tries to settle the matter. He asks both of them to mention the items inside the bag. The first man says he had beverages, while the other claims to have smoked fish and his clothes inside. The police officer opens the bag only to discover a human head. Upon realizing their plight, they all disown the bag, but it is too late as they are arrested.
TITLE: KIDNAPPER
CAST: TEN (10)
DURATION: Five (5) MINUTES
CONCEPT: PAYEBOYE FESTUS-LUKOH
SYNOPSIS: There is fear of ritualists in town.
Every one is suspicious of the other. Even
acclaimed anointed Servants of God suspect
that any passer-by could take his manhood
to make money. An innocent young boy
becomes a victim. His manhood vanishes
after he collects money from a man that claims
to have known him during his early primary
school days. The alarm he raises, upon
discovery of the loss of his manhood, is
his saving grace. The kidnapper returns his
manhood under threat of jungle justice from
passers-by. However, the process is
not without the boy being given organs that
belonged to a white man and an adult respectively,
before being given him the right one.
TITLE: FAKE PASTOR
CAST: EIGHT (8)
DURATION: TEN (10) MINUTES
CONCEPT: ALEX NELSON
SYNOPSIS: This is a satirical drama sketch parodying the evil machinations of some self-acclaimed men of God. A houseboy who unknowingly wears a mysterious perfume that his master (a pastor) had left in the sitting room inadvertently reveals the devilish anointing of the pastor. In an attempt to deliver a message to his madam and her daughters, the houseboy unknowing waves his hand at the direction they were to go, and the effect is devastating. As if he had waved a magic wand, his mistress and her two daughters fall on the ground as if they were under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The pastor comes back, and sees the situation and starts "casting and binding". On asking to know what the cause was, the houseboy explains; and again, the wave of the hand yields the same result as the pastor and his assistant pastor fall under the spell or "anointing". Realizing that it may be the perfume he had worn to meet his girlfriend, the house boy decides to capitalize on the situation by "casting and binding" all of them to make a quick escape.
TITLE: FAMILY AFFAIRS
CAST: NINE (9)
DURATION: TEN (10) MINUTES
CONCEPT: INEYE JOHNNY-DUDAFA & ALEX NELSON
SYNOPSIS: This is comedy at its best. It tells the story of an only child in a family, who happens to be an imbecile. The couple was involved in extra-marital affairs, not knowing that the boy was watching. In his foolishness, he reports to his mother that Aunty Caro, a neighbor and his father were playing on the bed when his mother had traveled. The mother, in righteous anger, calls the entire members of the family to come and listen to the sexual escapades of her husband. Tari (or Junior) is asked to repeat his story to the father’s relatives, only for the imbecile to give a graphic description of the romance and actual affair, while he was watching from the wardrobe. Let us see how the whole crisis unfolds:
TARI: Aunty Caro and Daddy were inside your room e! Mummy, they were playing on your bed e. After now, Aunty Caro was removing Daddy’s trouser, and Daddy was removing Aunty Caro small small knickers now. Mummy, I was in the wardrobe o! Mummy, are you happy? (Turning to his mother and grinning sheepishly). As Daddy and Aunty Caro were playing on the bed now, they started playing… they started playing… after now, they started to do that thing that you and Uncle Joe used to do that makes you to cry e. (Shocked reactions from family members who exit in anger. Tari laughs sheepishly). My Mummy is happy o… and my daddy is a tough man! (Laughing).
In an attempt to expose the sexual perversity of her husband, the wife ends up exposing her acts of immorality.
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