Cyberspace dance connection

College of Staten Island students partner with dancers from South Africa

Staten Island Advance - April 23, 2005

Nothobile Ndokweni was dancing passionately. The big-boned African woman, dressed all in white with a white head wrap, had given herself over to the liberating rhythms of her South African homeland.

She swayed and swirled as the members of her South African women's vocal group and some college students sang a cappella, stamped their feet and clapped their hands in rhythm.

Quite a spectacle.

But the most remarkable aspect of Ms. Ndokweni's dance was that the circle of people around her began in a classroom in Grahamstown, South Africa, and ended in a classroom at the College of Staten Island.

Credit state-of-the art technology now in place at CSI in Willowbrook.

As part of the International Partners in Learning Virtual Crossroad Project (I-Pals), CSI students connect with international students and other citizens of the world to share and enhance educational opportunities.

Five lucky CSI music students got to see the five-member Nokulunga Women's Group sing, perform and talk about traditional African music.

What makes the project possible is a 256-megabyte broadband connection via CSI's video-conferencing lab. The technology, which includes a huge view screen, provides a virtual cyberspace connection that allows students on opposite sides of the planet to meet in real time.

For Professor William Bauer and his students, this conference is part of a three-workshop program. Bauer, a jazz aficionado who teaches music theory, said he believed that pairing the African vocal group with his students would give them a better understanding of the musical process.

"I wanted them to learn to get up and move to the music and experience the music. The human body is the first instrument; if you tune into the body, you will be able to make more beautiful music."

Bauer calls those selected for this project his best of the best: students Gerrianna Cardito, Robert Kipp, Patrice Panelli, Izzy Ramkisson and Robert Stumpf.

While the CSI students were in their video-conferencing lab, the South African group -- under the direction of American Professor Diane Thram -- met in a classroom a world away in Rhodes University. With the help of the huge screen, Island students and their South African counterparts could almost reach out and touch each other. CSI students got the opportunity to look on while the African singers sang Dumzela, Bantwana Bokugula and Mandela, a paean to the former South African president -- all the while watching their body movements and trying to follow the song-music-body combinations. The American students had some initial difficulty.

"We've learned the same thing in class, but here it is much more cerebral," said Ramkisson, 24, of Westerleigh. "There, however, the whole process was much more spiritual."

While Kipp said he saw traces of Motown in the movements, student Patrice Panelli, 19, of Huguenot, said she saw a different focus in American and African music. "The music is more about enjoying themselves rather than about entertaining other people," she said.
 

By Kiawana Rich
Reprinted here with permission from the