1.0 Introduction
1.1 Background of the Study
Dance is a means of entertainment and communication. It is referred to as a type of art or series of steps and movements that match the speed and rhythm of music. It may be regarded as an expression of human feelings, as a spectacle, an art form, recreation, fitness, drive or social representation of culture. Owigiri dance is often used to communicate different ideas to the spectators. The supposed temperament of the dancer is often revealed in his or her dance expressions. The osundu dance step for instance communicates a state of sadness; this is equally clear in the movement which is slow or leisurely executed. The penge or agene dance step on the other hand is fast and energetic and convey a mood of bliss or happiness.
The owigiri dance of Bayelsa State as a social performance is mainly used for entertainment. It is composed of other Izon dance patterns such as abo, agene, penge, owu, konkonba, osundu and feletei. These dances are full-fledged dance forms in their own rights and are laden with symbolic gestures. These symbolic gestures with the accompaniment of costume, makeup, props and other expressive modes are used to communicate ideas, messages and philosophies of the dances to spectators. The paper examines the expressive modes of owigiri dance as a unit as well as the expressive patterns of the dance styles that make-up the owigiri dance form.
Dance has gone beyond just the movement of the legs and hands. It generally involves one moving or shaking the body especially when following the rhythm of music. Dance is the transformation of ordinary functional and expressive movement into extraordinary movement form extraordinary purposes, even a common movement such as walking, when performed in a patterned way. Perhaps in circler or to a special rhythm in a special context becomes dance.
In contemporary society, dance is being studied as an academic work most especially in the university. This is because, apart from the fact that dance is entertaining, there are other factors that lie underneath it and so, many people want to know why it is so important and being treated as an academic discipline. It is for this reason that this study will help us to understand the value of Owigiri dance, Robert Ebizmo's dances would be used as case study.
1.2 Statement of Problems
Investigation reveals the problems of the research work which entails that a lot of people have totally forgotten about our African traditional dances. They see traditional dance as waste of time because in their estimation, it is not fun again. They see it as mere entertainment and something to laugh at or ridicule.
This is affecting our society negatively. Although our fore fathers are gone, their memories can live on through special arts like dance. It is worthy to note that in many parts of Ijaw land today, various indigenous dance forms and music are fast disappearing. For instance, the common form of music and dance today is Owigiri. Other forms such as Owusei, kb, Ngusei, Odumu and others are disappearing or have gone into extinction. This means that future generations of Ijaws would not have much musical and dance traditions to lay claim to because our traditional dancers are dying rapidly. This work aims to help correct this situation.
1.3 Aim and Objective of the Study
The aim of the study is to osition Owigiri dance in such a way that it competes with modern dances such as hip-hop dance, ballet dance, salsa dance, etc. that are now in vogue. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To find out how the Owigiri Dance among the Ijaws in Delta State is been showcased.
- To provide an understanding of the value of Owigiri dance to the public and theatre arts students.
1.4 Rationale for the Study
This study is centred on the benefit of dancing. A major rationale for the research work has to do with some questions that have been agitating the minds of so many people, some of the questions are:
- What is the Owigiri dance?
- What is the value of it?
- How do you show the value of the Owigiri dance to the public and theatre arts students?
Of the different dances the researcher has seen in theatre, it is noticed that the value of Owigiri dance has not been shown to the public. This will be shown in this research work.
Concerning the first question, what is Owigiri dance? So many people think dance is just having the dancers show their body but this is not the case.
Rasaki Ojo Bakare says:
One discovers that essentials of dance are rhythm, human body, space, time and communication (2).
The greatest tool of dance is the human body. Every body movement is however, not qualified to be called dance. It must have rhythm. Rhythm, is the underlying beat that animates movements.
This is where the time comes in. rhythm is created when the movement happen at specific times. Without timing, there can be no rhythm and without rhythm dance cannot occur. Owigiri is a dance that has to do with rhythm, time, space movement.
On the second question, what is the value of Owigiri dance?
According to the Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, value is the worth of something in terms of the amount of other things for which it can be exchanged [1648] values also means importance or relative worth.
Secondly, what is owigiri? It is the traditional trail dance of the Ijaw people used for entertainment, play, display and celebration. The value of Owigiri dance is tied to other important aspects of Ijaw tradition that makes the Ikaw who they are. This work, hopes, therefore, to convey a proper understanding of what the Owigiri dance is all about.
On the third question, how do I show the value of Owigiri dance to the public and theatre arts students? It is observed that there seems to be a lack of understanding of the different steps of the Ijaw dance that can be used to enlighten the public and theatre arts students. These are the things that stimulated the interest to investigate this subject.
1.5 Significance of the Study
The importance of carrying out this research work is to provide an understanding of the value of Owigiri dance to the public and theatre arts students. It hopes to open the eyes of theatre arts students and the public to the various dance steps that can impact on a production of particulars importance, students offering dance classes would find this work very useful. The work would also be useful to the general reader who may want more knowledge on this subject.
1.6 Research Methodology
This study will make use of the literary methodology. According to Sam Ukala in Manual of Research and of Thesis Writing in Theatre Arts,
This is also called the analytical methodology. It focuses on written and printed library and archival sources, especially books, journals, reports, literary works, such as plays, novels.
The literarily methodology would be used in this work to investigate the value of Owigiri dance and how it can be used in theatre.
Also, the artistic methodology would be used as the researcher will carry out a practical component to this work.
1.7 Scope of Study
The study focuses on the Value of Owigiri Dance among the Ijaws in Delta State, Nigeria.
1.8 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet).
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