By Sanya Khanna, The Seattle Medium
When Etienne Cakpo moved from his home country of Benin, West Africa, to Seattle in 2001, he brought along a rich cultural heritage and traditions and used them as the cornerstones to create Gansango Music & Dance.
Gansango is a performing arts company providing a space for multicultural dancers and musicians to connect and learn from one another while also enriching the cultural education scene in the Seattle area.
The name Gansango derives from the words “ganke” (bell) and “asan” (shaker) in Fon, a common language in southern Benin. The name pays homage to the cowbell itself, which is used in many African and African-diaspora cultures, and sets the base for the tempo of a song.
“Gansango has a core group of four to five artists based in Seattle and frequently collaborates with a wide network of dancers and drummers locally, internationally, and across the U.S.,” Siri Wood, manager of Gansango, wrote in an email.
The core artists are all teaching artists. Gansango teaches African dance and drumming in schools and libraries in the Seattle area and across the Pacific Northwest.
Cakpo, the artist director of Gansango and an award-winning dancer, choreographer and musician, has built upon his already extensive dance repertoire by leading specialized classes and performances within Gansango.
“He’s just a person who when you see him dance you know that’s what he was put on this Earth to do,” said Wood.
Cakpo holds classes on Monday at Aspire Kinetic Arts as well as on Wednesday and Friday at Open Flight Studio.
“Teaching for me is the key to life,” Cakpo said.
Within the company, Cakpo works to represent a diversity of styles in each performance. Performances are held at a variety of venues, such as the University of Washington’s Ethnic Cultural Theatre, Neptune Theatre and LANGSTON Seattle. Most performances center around West African culture and history, but he also works on contemporary pieces and collaborates with other artists.
“Dance is universal,” Cakpo said. “It’s important to share the culture and work with the community.”
The company collaborates with schools, independent art agencies, and more, showcasing dance and music traditions from Benin, Ghana, Togo and other African countries. Although Gansango is contracted to perform in venues throughout the year, they also stay connected to community groups by holding public library shows, free to the public.
“We teach kids at the schools and you can see in the span of one hour, they are so happy and ask when we are coming back,” said Cakpo. “We did a teaching three weeks ago in a school in Port Townsend and one kid asked for us to come to their PE class because learning these dances made them happy when they went home.”
In addition to these performances, through small grants from 4Culture or the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, Gansango self-produces a large public show every two years. “Those performances have an average audience size of 400-500 over two days of shows,” Wood said. “We often feature one or more visiting international artists as well as collaborative pieces with other companies in Seattle, and sometimes student pieces.”
Attending a performance from Gansango, the audience can expect live music in the form of drums (djembé, djun-djun, and paholé), as well as percussion (shaker and bell). These percussion and drum instruments accompany the dancers as they perform in colorful and flowy costumes.
Dancer Nailah Bulley first joined Gansango around 2014-2015. She started on small projects and now performs regularly with the company. “Performing with Gansango is one of the greatest, natural feelings,” she wrote in a direct message. “All of our talents mesh very well, we take care of each other, kindness behind measure and musicality that can’t be made up.”
Through the company’s wide network, they bring in artists from the East Coast, as well, paying for their airfare and in some cases housing these artists in their home. Through these collaborations, Cakpo and Wood can include a diverse array of creative voices.
Won-Ldy Paye, a master storyteller from Liberia, who is now based in Connecticut, is a member of the Tlo Ker Mehn, a class of professional storytellers and musicians who preserve Dan group oral heritage within Liberia, and joins Gansango for periodic tours.
“Working with a diverse group in our community is central to our success,” Won-Ldy wrote in an email.
Bulley said that with the company she has found a community, but also a family. “We all have our own personal families, lives, and work but even with those obligations we have Gansango that unites us time and time again.”