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Not every love story has a third character, but in the case of N\u2019Goma and Normadien Woolbright,<\/a> there was one, and he was a force of nature: Chuck Davis, who brought African dance traditions to the United States and founded the DanceAfrica festival. It was his idea that the couple \u2014 his friends and colleagues \u2014 would marry on the stage of the Brooklyn Academy of Music at the annual festival in 1983.<\/p>\n \u201cLife is love,\u201d Davis says in a video shot at the wedding, crossing his arms across his chest before reaching them broadly to either side. \u201cLove is all.\u201d<\/p>\n The wedding was a lavish occasion, but it was more than a theatrical staging of a ritual. DanceAfrica, the vibrant festival now in its 47th year, is as much about building and honoring a community as it is about showcasing artistic forms. Personal moments like the Woolbrights\u2019 marriage ceremony are part of its texture.<\/p>\n Davis brought the couple \u2014 N\u2019Goma, 80, is a drummer and Normadien, 71, a dancer \u2014 together by bringing them into his world. They have been involved with the festival since its inaugural presentation, first as performers and now as fixtures behind the scenes. At DanceAfrica, N\u2019Goma is a stage manager; Normadien is assistant stage manager.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n N\u2019Goma first met Davis while working for the New York Transit Authority. Davis\u2019s musical director worked there too, N\u2019Goma said, and he \u201cwanted me to come down to a dance class with him because I told him I played the drums. I went down to play and Chuck said, \u2018Welcome aboard.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Up till then, N\u2019Goma imagined his life would be \u201cworking a regular 9 to 5,\u201d he said \u201cThat was my life \u2014 what I projected for my life anyway. But I found the dancing so interesting that I changed course. I still was working, but I just started doing more with Chuck. My whole life changed.\u201d<\/p>\n That was before N\u2019Goma met Normadien, who first encountered Davis when she was in high school and he set a dance on students. She went on to join his company; when her dancing career was over, she transitioned to stage manager. They left the city in 1988, moving first to North Carolina and then to Florida. Each year, they travel to New York for the festival, which Davis directed until 2015. (He died in 2017<\/a>.)<\/p>\n DanceAfrica\u2019s current artistic director, the choreographer and dancer Abdel R. Salaam, spoke about the wedding in a video program shot with the couple during the pandemic. \u201cThis was not just N\u2019Goma and Normadien getting married,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cthis was our<\/em> wedding. It was our marriage. It was our community renewing our love and our spirit and our vows to the culture.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n