African dance, performance art deeply woven into the social fabric of Africa and often involving aspects of music and theater as well as rhythmic body movements. See also African music and mask.
African dance refers primarily to sub-Saharan African dance and, more appropriately, to African dances because of the many cultural differences in musical and movement styles. These dances must be seen in close connection with the musical traditions of Sub-Saharan Africa and with the cultivation of the Bantu rhythm. African dance uses the concept of total body articulation.
Traditional dance in Africa takes place collectively, expressing community life more than that of individuals or couples. Early commentators consistently commented on the absence of a close pair of dances: this dance was considered immoral in many traditional African societies. In all of Sub-Saharan African dance, there seems to be no evidence of a sustained, one-on-one partnership between men and women, anywhere before the end of the colonial era, when she was apparently regarded with a distinctly poor. For the Yoruba, to give a specific example, playing while dancing is not common, except in special circumstances. The only partner dance associated with African dances would be the Mankon People's Bottle Dance in the Northwest Region. of Cameroon or the Assiko of the Douala people, which involve an interaction between a man and a woman and the way in which enchant.
Emphasizing individual talent, Yoruba dancers and drummers, for example, express collective desires, values and creativity. Dances are often sex-segregated, where gender roles in children and other community structures such as kinship, age and political status are often reinforced. Many dances are performed only by men or women, which is partly due to many dances developed in association with occupational activities and beliefs in gender roles and expressions of gender. Dances celebrate the transition from childhood to adulthood or spiritual worship. The girls from Lunda in Zambia spend months practicing in seclusion for the coming-of-age ritual. Boys display their stamina in highly energetic dances, providing a means of judging physical health.
Dances teach social standards and values and help people work, mature, praise or criticize the community members while celebrating festivals and funerals, competing, reciting history, proverbs and poetry; and find gods. [2] African dances are largely participatory, with spectators being part of the performance. With the exception of some spiritual, religious or initiation dances, traditionally there are no barriers between dancers and spectators. Even ritual dances usually have a time when spectators participate
Index
In African societies, dance serves a complex diversity of social purposes. Within an indigenous dance tradition, each performance usually has a principle as well as a number of subsidiary purposes, which may express or reflect the communal values and social relations of the people. In order to distinguish between the variety of dance styles, therefore, it is necessary to establish the purpose for which each dance is performed.
There is often no clear distinction between ritual celebration and social recreation in dance performances; One purpose can merge with the other, as in the appearance of the great Efe mask at the height of the ritual festival of Gelede in the Ketu-Yoruba villages of Nigeria and Benin. At midnight the mask dramatically appears to the expectant community, its wearer uttering powerful incantations to placate the witches. The dancer then moves in a powerful stamped dance in honor of the great Mother Earth and the elderly women of the community. The dance continues as the performer pauses to sing the praises of people in rank, carefully observing their order of seniority. In this way, a ritual act becomes a social statement, which then flows into recreation while the formal dance of Gelede's team gives way to the free participation of spectators until the beginning of the Sun. The great Efe occupies a central position, entertaining its audience with stories that make comical and satirical references to irregular behavior within the community over the past year.
Gelede mask, wood and pigment, Yoruba culture, Nigeria, late 19th or early 20th century; at the Brooklyn Museum in New York. 29.8 x 23.5 x 30.5 cm.
Photograph by Katie Chao. Brooklyn Museum, New York, 1922 Museum Expedition, Robert B. Woodward Memorial Fund, 22,227
The more significant the concept expressed in a dance, the greater the audience's appreciation and the more insistent their demands for skillful performance and for movements that fit their purpose. Dance is enjoyed as a social occasion, but it is simultaneously enjoyed as an activity in itself, entertaining and pleasing as an expression of community life.
Traditional thought systems of African cultures are rooted in a worldview in which there is continuous interaction between spiritual forces and community. Spiritual beings can inhabit natural or animal elements and can also take hold of human mediums. This possession of people is usually temporary and confined to rituals, as when the priest of the Yoruba god, Shango, dances in a trance state. deep into the annual festival, expressing the thunder god's wrath with the lightning speed of his arm gestures and the mighty roll of his shoulders. In Zimbabwe, spiritual mediums from Mhondora, who relate the Shona people to the guardian spirits of the dead, enter in a trance through the music of the lamellarphone mbira, to which they sing while performing simple and repetitive foot patterns. Thus, the dances of priests and mediums confirm their ritual leadership.
Dance is used as therapy by ritual societies in many cultures. Hausa women, for example, find healing through dance and spirit possession in the Bori cult. Among the Jukun of Nigeria, a similar organization is called the Ajun, whose elders deal with hysterical disorders in women by exorcising evil spirits in initiation ceremonies. Over a period of three months in a home sanctuary, the sufferer is taught songs and dances that have a therapeutic function. which culminates in a ceremony in which the initiate publicly joins the members of society to perform the dance of Ajun-Kpa. The female spiritual mediums of the Kalabari in the Niger Delta, using dance and music as an essential part of their therapy, are also credited with healing powers.
Many African religions are based on a bond of continuity between living ancestors and their ancestors, who, in some cultures, return as mask interpreters to guide and judge the alive. The complex web of human relationships is continually renewed and reaffirmed in ritual festivals through the arts.
Subscribe to our email list and receive interesting information and updates in your email inbox
Thanks for signing up.
