African dance

African dance refers mainly to the dance of Sub-Saharan Africa, and more appropriately African dances because of the many cultural differences in musical and movement styles. These dances must be viewed in close connection with Sub-Saharan African music traditions and Bantu cultivation of rhythm. African dance utilizes the concept of polyrhythm as well as total body articulation.[1]

Dances teach social patterns and values and help people work, mature, praise or criticize members of the community while celebrating festivals and funerals, competing, reciting history, proverbs and poetry; and to encounter gods.[2] African dances are largely participatory, with spectators being part of the performance. With the exception of some spiritual, religious or initiation dances, there are traditionally no barriers between dancers and onlookers. Even ritual dances often have a time when spectators participate.[3]

Characteristics

There are no singular definitions of African dance: Africa, a continent three times the size of the United States, is ethnically and culturally the most diverse on the planet. Though similar themes may be found throughout dances across the many countries and landscapes, each has its own history, language, song, background, and purpose and cannot be translated to another dance of the same culture much less another dance from somewhere else on the continent.

Society

African dance at Dakawa, Morogoro, Tanzania

Traditional dance in Africa occurs collectively, expressing the life of the community more than that of individuals or couples. Early commentators consistently commented on the absence of close couple dancing: such dancing was thought immoral in many traditional African societies.[4] In all sub Saharan African dance there seems to be no evidence for sustained, one-to-one male-female partnering anywhere before the late colonial era when it was apparently considered in distinctly poor taste.[5] For the Yoruba, to give a specific example, touching while dancing is not common except in special circumstances.[6] The only partner dance associated with African dances would be the Bottle Dance of the Mankon People in the Northwest Region of Cameroon or the Assiko from the Douala people that involves interaction of Man and Woman and the way that they charm each other.

Emphasizing individual talent, Yoruba dancers and drummers, for example, express communal desires, values, and collective creativity. Dances are often segregated by gender, reinforcing gender roles in children and other community structures such as kinship, age and status are also often reinforced.[7] Many dances are performed by only males or females, indicating strong beliefs about what being male or female means and some strict taboos about interaction. Dances celebrate the passage from childhood to adulthood or spiritual worship.[8] Young girls of the Lunda of Zambia spend months practicing in seclusion for their coming of age ritual. Boys show off their stamina in highly energetic dances, providing a means of judging physical health.[7]

Master dancers and drummers are particular about the learning of the dance exactly as taught. Children must learn the dance exactly as taught without variation. Improvisation or a new variation comes only after mastering the dance, performing, and receiving the appreciation of spectators and the sanction of village elders.[9] "Musical training" in African societies begins at birth with cradle songs, and continues on the backs of relatives both at work and at festivals and other social events. Throughout western and central Africa child's play includes games that develop a feeling for multiple rhythms.[10] Bodwich, an early (circa 1800) European observer, noted that the musicians maintained strict time (i.e. concern for the basic pulse or beat), "and the children will move their heads and limbs, while on their mother's backs, in exact unison with the tune which is playing."[11] The sounding of three beats against two is experienced in everyday life and helps develop "a two-dimensional attitude to rhythm".

The most widely used musical instrument in Africa is the human voice.[12] Nomadic groups such as the Maasai do not traditionally use drums yet in villages throughout the continent the sound and rhythm of the drum expresses the mood of the people. In an African community, coming together in response to the beating of the drum is an opportunity to give one another a sense of belonging and of solidarity, a time to connect with each other and be part of a collective rhythm of the life in which young and old, rich and poor, men and women are all invited to contribute to the society.[13]

Shoulders, chest, pelvis, arms, legs etc., may move with different rhythms in the music. Dancers in Nigeria commonly combine at least two rhythms in their movement, and the blending of three rhythms can be seen among highly skilled dancers. Articulation of as many as four distinct rhythms is rare.[14] They may also add rhythmic components independent of those in the music. Very complex movements are possible even though the body does not move through space.[15] Dancers are able to switch back and forth between rhythms without missing movements.[16]

The drumming represents an underlying linguistic text that guides the dancing performance but most meaning comes from nonverbal cues and metalanguage of the performers. The spontaneity of performance creates an impression of extemporaneity, yet it is not to emphasize the individual and bolster her or his ego but to preserve the community and mediate the audience and the performer interaction.[17]

Examples

Different parts of the body are emphasized by different groups. The upper body is emphasized by the Anto-Ewe and Lobi of Ghana. Subtle accent of the hips is characteristic of the Kalabari of Nigeria. In Agbor, strong contraction-release movements of the pelvis and upper torso characterize both male and female dancing. The Akan of Ghana use the feet and hands in specific ways.[18]

Dance Purpose Country / Tribe of Origin
Adowa Ghana / Ashanti
Agbaja Ghana / Ewe
Agwara Courtship Uganda / Alur
Akogo Courtship Uganda / Iteso
Amaggunju Uganda / Buganda
Ambas-i-bay Celebration Cameroon
Bakisiimba Celebration Uganda / Buganda
Bikutsi Celebration Cameroon
Bwola Celebration Uganda / Acholi
Coupé-Décalé Celebration Côte d'Ivoire
Ding Ding Uganda / Acholi
Ekitaguriro Uganda / Banyankole
Ekizino Courtship Uganda / Bakiga
Entog Gaze Uganda / Lugbara
Entogoro Gaze Uganda / Banyoro, Batooro
Gombey Harvest Senegal
Kete Ghana/ Ashanti
Kakilambe Fertility ritual Guinea or Mali/Baga people
Kwassa kwassa Celebration Congo (DRC)
Lamban Celebration Guinea, Senegal, Mali
Larakaraka Courtship Uganda / Acholi
Makossa Celebration Cameroon
Mapouka Ceremonial Côte d'Ivoire
Mwaga Courtship Uganda / Bagisu
Ndombolo (Soukous) Courtship Congo (DRC)
Owaro Uganda / Samia-Bugwe
Runyege Celebration / Courtship Uganda / Banyoro, Batooro
Sabar Celebration Senegal/ Wolof people
Sunu Wedding Guinea, Mali / Mandinka
Tamenaibuga Friendship Uganda / Basoga
Zouglou Celebration Côte d'Ivoire

References

  1. Kariamu Welsh-Asante, African Dance, Chelsea House Publishers, 2004, p. 28. ISBN 0-7910-76415
  2. Jacqui Malone, Steppin' on the Blues, University of Illinois Press, 1996, p. 9. ISBN 0-252-022114
  3. Welsh-Asante (2004), African Dance, p. 35.
  4. Jacqui Malone (1996), Steppin' on the Blues, p. 16.
  5. Julie Malnig (ed.), Ballroom, Boogie, Shimmy Sham, Shake. A Social and Popular Dance Reader, p. 132. ISBN 978-0-252-03363-6; ISBN 978-0-252-07565-0
  6. Omofolabo S. Ajayi, Yoruba Dance - The Semiotics of Movement and Body Attitude in a Nigerian Culture, Africa World Press, 1998, p. 34. ISBN 0-86543-563-4 ISBN 0-86543-563-4
  7. 1 2 Henry Louis Gates, Anthony Appiah (eds), Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, Basic Civitas Books, 1999, p. 556. ISBN 0465000711
  8. Welsh-Asante (2004), African Dance, pp. 19, 21.
  9. Kariamu Welsh-Asante, Zimbabwe Dance, Africa World Press, Inc. 2000, p. 60. ISBN 0-86543-492-1
  10. Jacqui Malone (1996), Steppin' on the Blues, p. 21.
  11. Eileen Southern, The Music of Black Americans: A History, W. W. Norton & Company, 1997, p. 22. ISBN 0-393-02156-4
  12. Jacqui Malone (1996), Steppin' on the Blues, p. 17.
  13. Sebastian Bakare, The Drumbeat of Life, Geneva, Switzerland: WCC Publications, 1997.
  14. Jacqui Malone (1996), Steppin' on the Blues, p. 16.
  15. Archived December 8, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
  16. Welsh-Asante (2004), African Dance, p. 34.
  17. Archived September 7, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
  18. Malone, Steppin' on the Blues (1996), p. 13.
  19. Hugh Tracey, African Dances of the Witwatersand Gold Mines, Cape Times Ltd, 1952, p. 4.
  20. "Maa - Categories". Darkwing.uoregon.edu. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
  21. "dfltweb1.onamae.com – このドメインはお名前.comで取得されています。". Laleyio.com. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
  22. Tracey (1952), African Dances of the Witwatersand Gold Mines, pp. 9, 10.
  23. Tracey (1952), African Dances of the Witwatersand Gold Mines, p. 11.
  24. 1 2 Welsh-Asante (2000), Zimbabwe Dance, p. 56.
  25. Mamady Keïta, A Life for the Djembe - Traditional Rhythms of the Malinke, Arun-Verlag, 1999, p. 50. ISBN 3-935581-52-1
  26. "Our Instruments". Zimbamarimbaband.com. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
  27. Welsh-Asante (2000), Zimbabwe Dance, p. 74.

See also

Bibliography

External links

Listed in alphabetical order

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