Dance for Haiti
Andrea Watson
Issue date: 3/1/10 Section: Features
Having sufficient training in Haitian dance, modern/contemporary, and experience in other professional African diasporic forms, Dr. Celia Weiss Bambara doesn't fall into the typical box that most professors do.
Bambara works under the African American Studies Department as a Postdoctoral Fellow and she seems to enjoy what she does.
She says, "I decided to go into a master's degree in dance at UCLA."
Bambara had previous dance experience before college-mainly in Modern. It wasn't until a close friend convinced her to take a Haitian dance class that she realized how much she loved the art form.
"I got involved by a good friend of mine, a dance artist from all over, who taught Cuban, Brazilian, and African; I was a dancer already, but I got to college and wanted to get serious about my studies," she says, "My family was very serious about education."
"My family didn't know what I was doing; they of course loved me, but [they] didn't know dance studies was a field," she says.
Dr. Bambara is an active person and her work outside the classroom is mostly directed towards Haiti and Chicago.
As a trained dance artist, she has had the opportunity to work with dance companies such as JAKA, which is in Haiti, and Martin Dancers, in Los Angeles, but these are only a few. Her work has been shown in Los Angeles, Chicago, Iowa, Haiti, and Cuba. Her work doesn't end here, though. She and her partner, Christian Bambara, decided in 2006 to form the CCBdance Project, which is an African based?contemporary dance company.
"I met Christian at a friend's wedding where we both danced solos; it was interesting because I later found out that he was an African contemporary dancer," says Bambara.
Christian Bambara helped push Celia to make her dreams happen. She had always wanted to start her own company, but it wasn't until she met her husband to be that she actually went through with the process.The two collaborated well-he brought his modern and contemporary Caribbean and African dance to the table, and she brought her modern and contemporary Haitian dance (along with others).
Bambara works under the African American Studies Department as a Postdoctoral Fellow and she seems to enjoy what she does.
She says, "I decided to go into a master's degree in dance at UCLA."
Bambara had previous dance experience before college-mainly in Modern. It wasn't until a close friend convinced her to take a Haitian dance class that she realized how much she loved the art form.
"I got involved by a good friend of mine, a dance artist from all over, who taught Cuban, Brazilian, and African; I was a dancer already, but I got to college and wanted to get serious about my studies," she says, "My family was very serious about education."
"My family didn't know what I was doing; they of course loved me, but [they] didn't know dance studies was a field," she says.
Dr. Bambara is an active person and her work outside the classroom is mostly directed towards Haiti and Chicago.
As a trained dance artist, she has had the opportunity to work with dance companies such as JAKA, which is in Haiti, and Martin Dancers, in Los Angeles, but these are only a few. Her work has been shown in Los Angeles, Chicago, Iowa, Haiti, and Cuba. Her work doesn't end here, though. She and her partner, Christian Bambara, decided in 2006 to form the CCBdance Project, which is an African based?contemporary dance company.
"I met Christian at a friend's wedding where we both danced solos; it was interesting because I later found out that he was an African contemporary dancer," says Bambara.
Christian Bambara helped push Celia to make her dreams happen. She had always wanted to start her own company, but it wasn't until she met her husband to be that she actually went through with the process.The two collaborated well-he brought his modern and contemporary Caribbean and African dance to the table, and she brought her modern and contemporary Haitian dance (along with others).
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