July 2007
On Sunday July 22nd we presented a mind-bending convoy of electric, life-enhancing art.
Amabutho African Dancers
Founded by NESAS (North East Southern African Society), Amabutho African Arts performs traditional Zulu dance and the ‘Gum Boot’ dance, accompanied by drumming. Our original members are 6 men, and now women and young people are joining in.
We have performed at functions and festivals, and deliver activities to schools, supported by a grant from Newcastle City Council.
Perhaps the most intriguing dance we perform is the ‘Gum Boot’ dance, which originated in the gold mines of South Africa during the time of the notorious Pass Laws of the oppressive Apartheid system. Here, black labourers worked in appalling conditions, and in pitch darkness, for 3 months at a time. The workers were chained to their work stations and forbidden to talk to each other.
Infected water, which reached up to their knees, caused skin diseases and ulcers, resulting in lost work time. The ‘bosses’ discovered it was cheaper to provide them with Gum boots (Wellington Boots) than to drain the mines. The miners started to use the Gum boots as a method of communication, by slapping their boots and stamping their feet and rattling their ankle chains.
This created the miners ‘uniform’, consisting of Gum boots, jeans, bare-chest and bandanas to absorb eye-stinging sweat. During their free time, the miners would sing, dance and drink together and remember their families a thousand miles away.
And so the tradition of Gum boot dancing was born…………
Stuart Freeland
Stuart began his formal music education in his hometown of Bangor, County Down.It was at this time, while volunteering for the Drake music project in Ireland, that he was introduced to the use of sensory equipment for music making.
Stuart continued his formal education (incorporating further development of knowledge, skills and experience in sensory music) in Newcastle/Gateshead. After graduating in 2000, he began conducting workshops for various community arts organizations within the North East region, where he continues to live.
Shubunkin (Stu) performs playing a style of music that is constantly evolving due to the way that it is composed and performed through live interaction with electronic devices. Using movement sensors to play notes, melodies, manipulate and trigger samples. Shubunkin is developing an individual act demonstrating how a digital artist is able to engage physically with the music creating a live element to the performance. Recently he has been working on adding image projection to the mix, using movement sensors that would enable both images and sound to be controlled by movement.
