African Masque
The huge African talent for music, dance and storytelling is no longer confined to the traditional village setting. It is moving out on to the stage.
Peggy Harper has been studying African dance for many years. She works with a theatre group of dancers, actors and musicians attached to a Nigerian university. She has had international success with dance dramas based on traditional Nigerian dances and rituals. This film follows her from the university campus to a small Yoruba town where she participates in the great festival of the year-the festival of Ogun, God of Iron. The festival lasts two weeks and begins with a divination by the Priests of Ifa and ends when some thousands of people follow the great mask, that is Ogun, deep into the forest to visit the sacred shrines. They carry whips, with which they strike each other throughout the celebrations. There is singing, dancing and high religious drama.
Working with her theatre group back on the university campus, Peggy gradually evolves, rehearses and performs a theatrical version of the festival and the myth that lies behind it.
Series editors MICHAEL ANDREWS and ANTHONY ISAACS