Few traditions run as deep in Brooklyn as DanceAfrica. For 49 years, BAM’s longest-running program and the nation’s largest competition of African dance and tradition has remodeled BAM and its surrounding streets right into a gathering place for African and diasporic traditions, bringing collectively artists, audiences, and purveyors of African, Caribbean, and African American artwork, vogue, meals, and tradition from all over the world over Memorial Day weekend.
On the coronary heart of DanceAfrica 2026 is the headline dance efficiency sequence held within the BAM Howard Gilman Opera Home, working Could 22–25. Underneath the inventive course of Abdel R. Salaam, this yr’s theme is Uganda: Umoja/ Mirembe/ Obulungi (Unity/ Peace/ Magnificence)!. Uganda’s Ndere Troupe returns to BAM following earlier visits in 2001 and 2007, joined by Asase Yaa African American Dance Theater, celebrating their twenty fifth anniversary with a newly revamped model of The Revival: Djembe within the New Millennium (2010), The DanceAfrica Spirit Walkers, and The Billie’s Youth Arts Academy Dance Ensemble (YAA). Preserving with custom, a libation ceremony on the steps of the Peter Jay Sharp Constructing precedes the opening efficiency (Friday, Could 22), honoring those that have handed on to the ancestral grounds. Every efficiency will embody the normal DanceAfrica greeting, welcoming ritual, the calling of the names of the Ancestors and a procession that includes the DanceAfrica Council of Elders, the DanceAfrica Candlebearers, and YAA.
“I’m honored to share extra of those historical dances and songs, blended with shades of up to date visions of East Africa, vis-à-vis the spirited artistry of the Ndere Troupe,” stated Inventive Director Abdel R. Salaam. “Following the success of bringing East Africa’s The Track & Dance Firm of Mozambique in 2025, we traveled to Uganda to convey extra of the very best from this area to our viewers. After spending time with Ndere Troupe, we felt the enjoyment and impassioned dedication to their tradition and custom because it aligned with the resurgence of their conventional African id in Uganda.”
Based in 1984 by inventive director Dr. Rwangyezi Stephen, the Ndere Troupe is a celebrated Ugandan ensemble devoted to preserving and sharing the nation’s wealthy cultural traditions. By dance, music, and storytelling, the troupe showcases the depth and variety of Uganda’s many ethnic teams, emphasizing neighborhood, heritage, and pleasure. Their performances are each a cultural archive and a dwelling expression of up to date Ugandan id, providing audiences a chance to attach with Africa’s dwelling traditions.
This yr’s program presents a rigorously curated choice of dances representing Uganda’s extraordinary cultural range, spanning courtship and celebration, non secular ritual, and percussive, hip-driven motion that speaks throughout generations. The haunting sound of the Agwaara, a picket trumpet, ushers in a festive procession dance, of the identical title, from the Alur folks of Northwestern Uganda, bordering the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. The music that embodies cross-cultural respect, collective spirit, and communal pleasure. Bakisimba, from the Baganda folks of Central Uganda, is an expression of peace, tranquility, and fertility, historically danced in celebration of abundance. Tamenhaibuga, from the Basoga folks close to the supply of the world’s longest river, the Nile, is an ecstatic celebration dance whose frenetic power invokes pure pleasure.
Orunyege is a love and courtship dance from Western Uganda on the foot of the Rwenzori Mountains, paired with Ekaaro, a courtship dance from the nomadic Karamojong folks of Northeastern Uganda. Echeevugo, epic poetry and arguably the traditional starting of recent rap music, is intertwined with Echitaaguriro dance to have fun the distinctive great thing about the long-horned Ankole cattle. The Adungu dance, named for the Adungu African bow harp, is a vibrant social celebration and a reminder to at all times respect even essentially the most weak in society. Larakaraka, from the Acholi folks of Northern Uganda, is a dance of courtship, frugality, and peace rooted within the perception that concord comes when communities take solely what they want and punctiliously steadiness choices affecting humanity. Echizino, the high-energy dance of the Bachiga folks from the mountainous Kigezi area—house of the uncommon mountain gorillas—in Southwestern Uganda, is accompanied by the Enanga, a near-extinct instrument whose type is distinct in blues music, and celebrates bodily energy and communal spirit.
DanceAfrica 2026 extends past the stage with dance courses, movie screenings, visible artwork, and neighborhood programming introduced in collaboration with the Billie Vacation Theatre at Restoration Plaza, Weeksville Heritage Heart, Mark Morris Dance Heart, the Museum of Up to date African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA), and the African Movie Pageant.
The DanceAfrica Bazaar, one among Brooklyn’s most beloved open-air marketplaces, returns to the streets surrounding BAM, bringing collectively over 150 African, Caribbean, and African American artisans, designers, cooks, and entrepreneurs celebrating Black tradition by vogue, meals, artwork, and neighborhood.
FilmAfrica, curated by the African Movie Pageant, returns with a choice of movies from throughout the continent, deepening the competition’s exploration of African and diasporic tradition. Dance courses provide hands-on engagement with African motion traditions taught by members of Ndere Troupe, co-presented by BAM and Mark Morris Dance Heart.
For the total DanceAfrica 2026 lineup, tickets, and registration without cost occasions, go to BAM.org.
