Darian Parker teaches how to become a vessel of the spirit
by Amaany Clarke
Darian Parker became obsessed with African dance at 19 years old after witnessing a moving performance as a sophomore at UCLA. Instantly, he knew that this would be a life calling.
“If you’ve never seen her dance, there’s no way I can put it into words,” he describes witnessing for the first time Nzingha Camara dance. “When people dance, I can always see an aura around them. When I saw her dance, I had never seen an aura that big. It looked like streaks of silver lightning were coming off of her body and filling up the entire room.”
Growing up as a kid in North Carolina, Street dance was a part of his life and culture. Even today, he has reverence for dance forms like NYC’s Litefeet as well as Krumping and Clowning, which developed in California as an emotional response to police brutality in the 90’s.
During his time at UCLA, however, Black students like him were finding new ways to connect with their African roots. For Darian, West African dance was his link. Camara’s introduction to the art inspired him and as a result, he studied with her for four years.
One of the most impactful takeaways Parker talks about from his experience studying under Camara, is understanding where you have to go mentally and spiritually to manifest the magic of dance. She would always tell her students to take their troubles and hang them at the door when it’s time to dance or perform. In his early 20’s, Parker did not yet grasp what this meant. But later he grew to understand that a good dancer must make themselves a clear vessel for the spirit.
“As a dancer, you crave that outer body experience when something else takes over. Even when Nzingha would mark a step, her aura was big and bright. When she would walk down the hall, you would see a string of spirits walking behind her. And technically, everything she did was perfect as well. I knew instantly that I wanted to be inside of that magic.”
After graduating from UCLA, Parker moved to New York City and immersed himself in the dance world. He was taking classes eight times a week, dancing and performing with four different companies and teaching at four studios and programs. But he still enjoyed his 20’s and 30’s on dance floors in New York clubs. Dance was his life. He eventually honed in on Malian and Guinean styles of West African dance because the movement spoke to his soul. When he thinks of Malian dance, he thinks of the rhythms and spirit of African American Hip-Hop and Soul.
As a teacher now, he enjoys working with people who have never danced. He is tickled watching adults turn into big kids again because they feel so free and light after one of his classes. His favorite part about teaching at Cumbe is “family.” He says at Cumbe he and his students feel supported and nurtured because the staff go above and beyond to ensure that their needs are met.
In addition to teaching at Cumbe, Parker is an adjunct professor of West African dance at The New School and Sarah Lawrence College. He is also an adjunct professor at NYU, where he teaches cultural anthropology and critical thinking. Parker earned his Ph.D., M.Phil from Yale University, an M.A. in sociocultural anthropology, and a B.A. in English literature and anthropology with Highest Honors from UCLA.
You can experience Darian’s Malian and Guinean West African dance class with Cumbe every Sunday at 1pm ET online. Come to be inspired!