New faculty: Mustapha Braimah
New faculty at Mount Holyoke College Mustapha Braimah has more than two decades of international experience and artistic accomplishment as an artist-scholar from Ghana.
Social gatherings or potlucks in the U.S. are often characterized by people coming together to sit and share food and conversation. But Mustapha Braimah, a native of Ghana, says that isn’t the case in other parts of the world.
In fact, Braimah’s experience at get-togethers in Ghanaian — and most African societies — wouldn’t be complete without drumming, singing and a little bit of harmonious chaos.
“You see dance everywhere. It is pervasive and entrenched in the fabric of our society. When a child is born, we dance. When a child goes to college, we dance. When a child gets married, we dance. We dance whenever there are any milestones or achievements accomplished in the community,” said Braimah. “From birth to death, there's dance everywhere. It's part of our life. It's interwoven. It's ingrained in our society in Africa.”
And this fall, the choreographer, educator, administrator, curator, musician and performer will bring his passion for West African dance to the classroom as he joins the faculty as an assistant professor of dance at Mount Holyoke College. His lifelong artistic practice is deeply rooted in contemporary, popular and traditional African dance forms as well as drumming and singing.
With more than 20 years of international experience, Braimah holds a master of fine arts in dance performance and choreography from the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland. He also holds a master’s degree in African studies from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, and a bachelor of fine arts in dance performance and choreography from the University of Ghana, Legon.
Prior to joining the dance faculty at Mount Holyoke, Braimah served as assistant professor of dance at Goucher College in Baltimore. He was also the visiting assistant professor and director of dance at the University of North Carolina Asheville.
After spending a 10-day residency at Mount Holyoke and witnessing the diversity of the dance department, he knew he would be a good fit for the College. Braimah is looking to develop and broaden his teaching methods. For many of his students, this will be the first time they’ve been exposed to West African dance forms. Unlike studying a performance dance like ballet, which is often considered one of the strictest art forms, Braimah said his classroom could be described as more of a community space for students of all disciplines to thrive.
“When you come to this class, you are not alone. The communal and altruistic modalities I model in class allow students to talk to me and feel free to ask for help from anyone in the class, including my accompanists or musicians, Peter Jones, Faith Conant and Michael Ofori. Students can ask questions and share your ideas here,” he said. “Giving our students more options will help them grow as an artist. And when you understand people’s culture, there is a tendency to know people better, understand how they behave and why people are the way they are. It all comes down to tolerance and getting used to being good people, good citizens.”
Braimah is also on a mission to archive and document traditional dances and movements throughout the entire continent of Africa. Though he admits this project is a large undertaking, he intends to work with colleagues who are natives of Africa and teach in the U.S.
“I know it’s a bit crazy to tackle the entire continent, but we have to dream big. It’s important to keep these dances alive and accessible to everyone – especially my colleagues who teach dance history or dance composition,” he said. “We as professors or dance educators have to let our students know the length and breadth and diverse dance forms that are embedded in our shared humanity and not just keep them in a box by exposing them to mostly Western dance performance ideas.”
For his part, Braimah will begin his research endeavor by documenting Ghanaian traditional dances and choreographers who have used Ghanaian traditional dance movements and traditions to develop their work.
“I was born and raised in Africa – I have read widely. I speak nine different languages from the continent, and yet, I still have a lot to learn and decipher in African cosmology. I'm always learning – it still amazes me,” he said. “It's going to take a lifetime to do all this research, but we’re all committed to making it happen.”