A-Feeree is a physical language developed by
Bakari IfaSegun Lindsay
to be used as a training method by dance practitioners working in an Africanist movement aesthetic. This physical language is meant to serve as a resource, enhancing already developed skills or to assist in navigating through the physical aesthetics of African and African Diasporic dance cultures. The name A-Feeree comes from the Manding word "Feeree" that means training or method, and draws from the physical aesthetics of Traditional West African dance culture of the Séné-Gambian region and Caribbean Indigenous Folk dances from Trinidad and Tobago. A-Feeree — The Physical Language identifies muscular development, body attitude, shape, rhythm and pulse as essential elements within these dance cultures, emphasizing their muscular usage in day-to-day activities and how these movements manifest themselves into what we understand or label as “African of Afro-Caribbean dance language. A-Feeree is fueled by years of personal experience and ethnographic research by Bakari Ifasegun Lindsay, examining Sénégalese and Caribbean societies where movement serves a function (e.g. harvesting, washing, cooking, chopping wood, etc.) and dance reflects life. Within these societies, the people dance the way they live and if we are to study the dances of these cultures, along with embodying the cultural context of their movement, it is extremely important , that we also prepare physically. A-Feeree is a physical language developed towards that preparation, and is guided by seven (7) principles, which are Polyrhythm, Polycentrism,Curvilinear, Demensionality, Epic Memory, Repetition and Holistic. A-Feeree is not intended to be a replacement for current African and African Diasporic systems of teaching and learning (oral tradition). It must be acknowledged that A-Feeree — The Physical Language could be mistaken as a formula for the study of African and African Diasporic dance culture and a departure from traditional values. Limited in its development, A-Feeree does not speak for all the voices within the African continent or the African Diaspora. However, it is a place where several conversations can begin.