Title: Auditions and Initial Choreography

General Information about Item:

• Genre: Customary Folklore: Rituals

• Language: English

• Country: United States of America

Informant Data:

Raegina Hill, aged 21, is a Director of Ujima who joined the group her freshman fall (2014). She is a senior at Dartmouth College majoring in Anthropology with a concentration in Biological Anthropology and minoring in Theater. Raegina was born, raised, and currently lives in Cleveland, Ohio. Before Ujima, Raegina had six years of dance experience with hip hop, theatrical dance, high stepping, and cheer.

Contextual Data:

• Social Context: The entire team participates in Auditions and Initial Choreography. Both occur at the beginning of the school year in the fall in the Alumni Gym and other practice rooms, such as Sarner and Wilson 301. The ritual originated at the group’s founding, and Raegina first learned of it when she participated during her freshman fall.

• Cultural Context: During their audition process, Ujima works as a team to accept new members. By ensuring that each preexisting member has a say in the selection process, Ujima utilizes auditions to advance the group’s culture as a democratic organization. Furthermore, by pairing old members with new members to teach choreography, Ujima effectively reflects the value they place on mentorship and closeness.

Item:

Every fall term, Ujima hosts auditions with three other dance groups in order to gain new members. The entire team is involved in the audition, callback, and final decision process. After new members are initiated, old members teach new members choreography by pairing up with them one-on-one. Initial choreography may also involve a dance choreographed entirely by new members.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file): Video

Transcript of Associated File:

“Ujima’s actually the oldest dance group on campus—it was founded in 1985. And I don’t really know much about their old traditions, but I know that we used to have auditions independently. And so, to gain more members, we started doing them with the other dance groups, and that definitely has helped in terms of members and just getting a more dynamic group. Dance auditions happen every fall with four groups, so its Ujima, Sheba, Sugarplum, and Fusion. And its a group audition, and so if you have no idea what group you want to be in, you get to experience all four groups at once and then you get to pick your preference after callbacks and things like that.

And typically, the first week is just teaching old dances just so they can get used to the style. And choreography-wise, we often pair new members up with old members so they’re just not jumping in right away and it makes it a little easier. And some of the new members will just go off and do it by themselves. I did my freshman year, I just was like, ‘I’ll try!’ And it was a lot of members’ favorite dances, so it was nice.”

Informant’s Comments:

Although Ujima prefers to pair old members and new members while teaching choreography, they also emphasize a preference for openness and creativity by allowing new members to choreograph their own pieces.

Collector’s Comments:

It is interesting to note that Ujima’s audition process has changed over time. Initially an independent tradition, Ujima now takes part in joint auditions in order to better reflect their new values of diversity and inclusivity.

Collector’s Name: Marcus Reid

Compiled/Analyzed By: Shinar Jain

Tags/Keywords:

• Ritual
• Dance
• Team