By Rebecca Davis '15
Siena College takes pride in teaching its students about diversity. Learning about the richness of other cultures doesn’t always take place in the classroom, sometimes it happens on an impromptu dance floor. The Damietta Cross-Cultural Center and Black and Latino Student Union recently welcomed Caro Diallo, master instructor of west African dance, to campus. It did not take long for Diallo to get students on their feet and following his expert choreography during a night of energetic and educational fun.
“I just think it’s so important that we have nights like this on campus,” said biology major Travis Pyka ’18. He added that campus activities like this are great ways to get involved and meet new people. “We can really immerse ourselves in other cultures this way, by celebrating how people around the world express themselves differently,” Pyka said.
Diallo, who has taught in Senegal, Italy, Spain, Poland and Germany, begins his dance class with an hour long warm up to get everyone loosened up and familiar with the body movements. Adding to the atmosphere is live African drumming, played by Jamurrell Stanley, Wayne White, Gabrielle Tigris and Michael Burstein. The guest drummers welcomed management major Michael Cesario ’16, who brought his own drum, to join them in playing.
Diallo gradually increased the difficulty of the steps as he taught and before long, the students were skillfully following his choreography. By the end of the night, the students learned an entire dance and got a sense of the vocabulary of many of the dance movements.
Accounting major Solange Mandevu ’15 is originally from the Congo and has experience with African dance.
“I’m familiar with central and eastern African dance, such as that from Rwanda and Burundi, but this was great because I got to learn about western dance, which is different,” says Mandevu. “After a long day of exams, now I feel refreshed. This was a lot of fun and just a great learning experience.”
Diallo continues to teach all over the world, mostly at churches and college campuses, to spread his knowledge of dance and share his choreography. He knows how to inspire students with his limitless vigor and enthusiastic encouragement, and in the process, Diallo reinforces the importance of immersing yourself in different cultures and new activities.
