Call for Papers, Workshops and Cultural Tour for Pan African Music and Dance Conference in Zimbabwe

Dec. 20, 2011 - PRLog -- The main theme will be "African aesthetics in global arts". The Pan-African Music and Dance Conference will examine music and dance practices coming out of Africa and how they have influenced – and have been influenced – by global arts. The conference will focus on genealogies, nature, processes and the way globalization, technology, economics, culture, politics, trans/intercultural transactions, and borrowings have impacted the global music and dance scenes. The conference will include issues that try to define and locate indigenous performance forms within an identity matrix by exploring the dynamics of the global versus the local, tradition versus innovation, culture versus creativity, and politics versus commerce, from different perspectives and disciplines.

While exploring these dynamics, we will incorporate into the presentations these and other themes:
•   Performance as historiography
•   Cultural interchange
•   Culture endangerment, preservation, and documentation
•   Globalization, citizenship, and identity  
•   Music and dance use in national and political spheres
•   Genealogies and influences
•   Impact of new media and technology and Performance research and education

The conference will incorporate CAMP: Zimbabwe - a Cultural Arts & Music Project featuring workshops and excursions where participants will engage in traditional music and dance workshops taught by Zimbabwean master artists and community outreach visits to cultural arts venues in Harare and surrounding areas. CAMP: Zimbabwe will give participants the opportunity to refine their artistic skills through interdisciplinary studies in dance, drumming, marimba, mbira, and singing. These studies will deepen their multicultural awareness as they simultaneously draw from the richness of experience that cultural emersion brings. Participants will have opportunities for outreach through several urban and rural institutions and communities.

The organizers invite contributions to the conference program and camp from scholars, commentators, critics, artists, and others from all over the world. Papers should be designed for 20 minute long presentations.

Please submit the following information:

•   Title of proposed paper
•   Abstract that does not exceed 250 words. The abstract should include the paper’s argument and theoretical framework
•   Brief biography of 200 words or less
•   A/V needs
•   Full contact information (email address, mailing address, primary telephone
number, and institutional affiliation)

Deadline for submission of abstracts: February 28, 2012.

Submit the above materials and/or questions regarding the conference to the conference convener, Dr. Wonderful Bere, at wonderful@panafricanperformance.org.

Participants who wish to participate in the cultural tour and workshops only and students wishing to format the conference and tour as a STUDY ABROAD program can REGISTER directly at http://dreamlandtours.org/registration.

For more information and updates visit http://www.panafricanperformance.org, http://www.dreamlandtours.org or call 1-718-427-0421.