GAAF: Dance as Living Archive and Diasporic Governance

GAAF: Dance as Living Archive and Diasporic Governance is a year-long public humanities residency led by Maryan Yusuf and Nadira Hussein (The Saanta Collective). The project centers the Somali dance community in Minnesota and examines how Somali dance functions as a living archive—carrying memory and authority through embodied practice.

GAAF operates through intergenerational rehearsals, dance workshops, buraanbur circles, community circles, archival documentation, and performances at sites including the Barker Center for Dance. The residency will expand this work by consolidating a community-rooted archive of recorded movement, oral histories, and choreographic variations. All while creating a sustained space at The Hub for rehearsal laboratories, and public dialogue.

The project unfolds across two public iterations. The first, GAAF, returns to the Barker Center for Dance. The second, GAAF: The Prelude, turns to buraanbur as its central investigation: demystifying the form as a site of women's resistance and reclamation. The Prelude weaves in the Somali folkloric figures of the Qumayo and Araweelo. GAAF: The Prelude; aims to reframe those labels historically used to demonize and marginalize women. Asserting them as lineages of refusal and power through live buraanbur, film, and archival testimony from women practitioners.

The project culminates in an iterative performance and cultural heritage showcase integrating live dance, archival materials, and structured conversation about migration and authority in diaspora.