EUGENE–Guest artists Mabiba Baegne and Fred Simpson of Salt Lake City will top off a week-long residency in the University of Oregon Department of Dance with a showcase performance at 8 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 10, at the Dougherty Dance Theatre in Rooms 353-354 of Gerlinger Annex, 1484 University St.

Sharing the program will be members of Dance Africa, a student touring company founded in 1993 by its director, Rita Honka, a UO adjunct instructor of dance.

The troupe will perform Baegne’s Congolese dance, as well as Honka’s setting of a Bassar ceremonial dance from northern Togo, which demonstrates young girls’ readiness for marriage. They also will perform Honka’s popular version of the Gumboots dance from South Africa.

Three original Dance Africa members–Pollyanna Lind, Allison Rickenbaug and Julie Deskin–will join current company members in Gumboots.

Admission is $6, with additional contributions welcome. The concert is a fund-raiser for Dance Africa, which has earned praise from its tours to public schools in Oregon, where the members not only dance for but also interact with the students. Honka has received a gallery of written and illustrated responses from kindergartners and older students, thanking the performers for an exciting and fun exhibit of dancing energy and information.

Funds raised at the Nov. 10 performance will help pay expenses for Dance Africa’s concert tour travels around the state. They also will be used to enrich and expand the diversity of the repertoire with future residencies from teaching performers.

During Baegne and Simpson’s residency, they will teach Congolese dance and drumming. Baegne will set a work of Congolese dance for this year’s student members of Dance Africa, while Simpson will work with Dance Africa’s drummers and assist Baegne. In addition, he will teach master classes, dance and drum in the concert, alone and with the Dance Africa drummers.

Baegne’s grandparents initiated her dancing at age 8, and at age 20 she began seven years of international touring with the National Ballet of the Congo. A UNESCO grant sent her to Paris to study the dance techniques of American dancers Merce Cunningham, Katherine Dunham and Martha Graham. She has expanded her repertoire of African styles, incorporating aspects of dance in Guinee, Mali and Senegal, and has taught for eight years in many cities in Europe, including four schools in Paris.

Simpson, a native of San Francisco, began dancing at an early age, started drumming at 20 and accompanied modern dance classes at the University of California at Santa Cruz, the New York University School of the Arts, the Dance Theatre of Harlem and Clark Center. He performed with the Tanawa Congolese Dance Ensemble in New York City for five years, then returned to the Bay Area where he joined the Ceedo Senegalese Dance Company in 1986.

For information about the Nov. 10 concert, call the UO Department of Dance, (541) 346-3386.

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