Our first trip to Africa was in 2008.
We planned this to go to The Dagara Music Center.
And it was while I was there that I saw the potential for African music and dance at K-State.
That's where it all started.
The DMC was established in the year 2000.
And the idea of the DMC is to bring culture, art and people together.
You can learn dancing, you can learn about all aspects of the culture in Ghana, and in
Western Africa.
And you meet people and spend time together and exchange culturally.
Our basic idea is to develop the potential of artists who may not have the opportunity
to become academics to go to higher school.
But in the meantime, they're very talented.
They use their bodies as tools, they use their training as artists – like the kente weaving.
So, I wanted to harness all of this potential from the youth in this community … and bring
them to a place of organized learning.
So we can share our talent, our knowledge, with people.
Seeing how everything was run at the Dagara Music Center, I saw the potential for the
source of material – I knew that there was going to be a wealth of things that I could
study, that it would take developing a long-term relationship before I could foster those things.
Thanks to the long-term relationship, we have not only added courses that K-State students
and faculty participate in, we have a successful West African dance and music ensemble that
performs not only on campus but out in the community.
And that ensemble is growing, and growing, and growing, and growing.
I think it opens their eyes up to the world and gives them different perspective on how
people live and what their life is about – and just connecting with people … that students
in Kansas normally wouldn't have access to otherwise.
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