CONCERT/DANCE REVIEW
Costumed Lions Dancing to Distinctive Drummers
Kresge Audience Experiences a Lively Senegalese Tradition

In a well-coordinated effort, Rambax MIT and the MIT Dance Theater
Ensemble presented a simb, a Senegalese tradition, last Sunday afternoon
in Kresge's main auditorium. These two MIT arts ensembles provided a
memorable hour and a half of music, dance, and storytelling, with the aid
of several guest artists and sponsorship from the Music & Theater Arts
Section, Office of the Arts Special Programs, and the DeFlorez Fund for
Humor.

A simb is "a traditional Senegalese fake lion spectacle, or Senegalese
lion dance," and Rambax MIT (Patricia Tang, Artistic Director) ably
provided the musical accompaniment. Rambax MIT (pronounced "rahm-bach")
is an MIT club focused on learning sabar, the traditional drumming and
dancing of the Wolof people of Senegal. Like other indigenous forms of
drumming the Wolof drumming ensemble is divided into several subgroups on
various instruments that combine rhythmic patterns into more complex
textures. At this performance Artist-in-Residence Lamine Touré, as the
lead drummer, directed Rambax's drumming, while a bit louder than
was quite comfortable, was intense and hypnotic. Much attention was
devoted to Touré himself who was an immediately magnetic and mercurial
presence. His larger-than-life personas alternated between a master of
ceremonies, a hellfire-and-brimstone Methodist preacher, and a talk show
host, with a few flashy dance moves thrown in for good measure.

The MIT Dance Theater Ensemble (Thomas DeFrantz, Artistic Director)
provided the majority of the dancing. The cast included a main lion
(guest artist Pape Ndiaye) and two smaller lions (each with colorful face
and body paint and costumes representing lion skins) and three colorfully
garbed women as "the lions' wives." The story of the simb, which is
generally about "'taming' the lion's spirit through music," was at times
a bit difficult to follow (perhaps it would have been less so with more
comprehensive program notes). Still, although the other dancers didn't
quite match the effortless grace of the lithe James Tolbert ('05) and the
playful Ndiaye, all the dancers were a pleasure to watch as they executed
jumps and leaps; wild, oftentimes circular arm movements; repeated hand
and foot movements; along with the occasional bit of pantomine.

Much of the humor of the performance derived from the audience's
participation. As is traditional, the lions and their wives made audience
members dance with them onstage. Audience participation tends to be
predictable in every art form, but Touré's mock-threatening cues to clap
rhythms with him or repeat phrases back to him were ultimately winning.
The energy levels of the performers were high all-around and the
audience's response enthusiastic. Clearly this was a successful
collaboration and a chance for the MIT community to experience a lively
Senegalese tradition.

Rambax MIT's Spring Concert is Saturday, May 8, 2004 on the Student
Center steps.