Adesa

“Adesa” is a Ga word that means story and as a native of the Gas, I chose this title for this piece. The storytelling tradition is one of the cultural practices in Ghana which is going extinct. Growing up as a child, older folks of households usually told stories of historical events, myths, and legends which was very interesting and knowledgeable to us as children. Currently, this act of storytelling in Ghana is extinct and one of my research goals is to investigate the storytelling tradition and relieve it.

I wanted to have a storytelling session in my Choreography Workshop class as an experiment on how the storytelling tradition will be taken. I had this planned out when Q performed a piece and gave the context of the piece which almost seemed like a storytelling session. I immediately spoke to her about my plans to have a storytelling session and openness for collaboration. She was excited to join because she had those experiences as a child growing up and this will provide an opportunity to share that experience. We had pep talks every time to discuss the story we will be telling, the plot structure, and the dance attached to it. We had this discussion every time we walked to get food or to her car after school and that was how we had the story together. I told her about the storytelling structure, and we found a story that could fit what we wanted to do. Initially, I wanted to be the storyteller and do this project alone but after listening to Q, I realized she will be the best person to tell the story. She has the eloquence and flair to bring the story to life and I needed the story to have that freshness.

For this piece, we had more discussions and actual rehearsal time in the studio. We spent time talking to make sure everything was the way we wanted, and we only rehearsed the day before our showing with some of our colleagues. We needed audience participation and we felt having some of our colleagues know what we were doing will draw the others to join. We performed the piece in class and the response was great, it was interesting and educative for our colleagues and us. With this feedback, I know my future storytelling sessions will be well received and I look forward to another storytelling session.