Africa Dance Notes
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Geography
o Focus on West Africa
o Influences can be seen on South/Central America due to the slave trade
Dance in Africa is a constant of the tribal culture
o Tribal culture – consideration of the group as a whole
o No choreographers
 Art or dance is considered far more important than the creator
Oral Tradition
o In the West, we write things down (value in written word)
o In Africa, many traditions and history were kept by oral tradition
Dance Classifications
o Harmonious
 Specifically address a group need or celebration with an inclusive feeling…
such as wedding, funeral, or coming of age. It may also include witnessing
an action so the dancer performs for the group’s fascination.
 Circle is a common formation
 *Celebration with an inclusive feeling
o Ecstatic/Trance
 Still benefiting the tribe, ecstatic dances involve the possession of a dancer
or altering of his/her normal state. They are dependent on commitment and
deep belief of the dancer to manifest more than stylized movement.
 *Involve the possession of a dancer or altering his/her normal state.
o Mimetic/Image
 Specifically mime an object or situation
 Ex: animal, fertility, initiation, funeral, weapon, masked
 *Portrays a specific animal, person, or spirit
o Imageless
 Dancer is dancing as themselves
 Ex: fertility, war medicine, initiation, marriage, funeral
 *Dancer represents him/herself
Music Traditions
o Membranophones: drums
o Idiophones: rattles, sticks… resonant materials – rhythm
o Fipple Flutes: whistles, horns, recorders, flutes – add tone
o Voices: add melody and words
o Body: clapping, stomping – sound
o String instruments with resonant base or membranophone type base are linked to
the banjo as…
o The music acts as a guide for the dancer. The drum is the most important
instrument.
 Drum censorship – the music acts as editor
 The “talking drum” of the Asante
Africa: Dance as an integral part of a changing/moving life
Group Dance Formations
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o Circle – connects a group as equals or highlights a specific person, character, or
group by surrounding them. (Can also act as protection)
o Serpentine – “S” shape dances are used to cover ground and/or move through an
area to purify or honor it
Funeral Dance
o Take up to 2 weeks to complete
o The time to transfer to the spirit world is a precarious time for the family/clan left
behind.
o The beginning of the period is often used for mask/prop maintenance.
West African Tradition: Griot & Griottes
o Masters of words and music
o Keepers of history – oral tradition
o Sometimes historians, entertainers, storytellers, singers, genealogists
o Traditionally appeared at ceremonies and parties
o Profession is often inherited passed on from one generation to the next
Nigeria
o People – Yoruba
o Geography – Nigeria
Egungun Festival
o Egungun Festival – devotion, through dance and music, to previous generations
and figureheads from the past who have departed the “real” world.
 Egungun Festival entreats spirits of the ancestors to inhabit the bodies of
the dancers.
 Egungun dancers are all male (male society)
o Egungun – the spirit/dancer
 The dancer acts as the intermediary between life and the spirit/ancestral
world.
 This is a masked dance with added height given to the face of the mask.
 Dancers were long strips of cloth and sometimes monkey skulls
Yoruba Traditional Religion
o Many deities called Orishas
o Often associated with forces of nature
o Dance and music as ways to communicate with them
Osun
o Osun is the goddess of the river and protector of children
o Tradition of honoring Osun includes going to the river with a member of the
community as the chosen representative.
Egungun & Osun Review
o Yoruba – culture, language is an umbrella term the applies to several tribes of
Nigeria
o Traditional religion – ancestral reverences and reverence to deities called orishas
o Geography – Western Nigeria also called Yorubaland
Ghana
o People – Asante
o Geography – Ghana
Dance of the Asante People: Court Dances
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o Court dances – dances for the royal court/king
o The Asantehene, the king, is a figurehead who leads many small tribes under a
democratic government
 The king acts as the owner and guardian of the cultural treasures…. dance,
music
o Dance and music serve as cultural bond
o Court Dance is highly improvised…. more image-less dancing than mimetic
o Drum Censorship – drums stop if the dancing is inappropriate
 Also use “talking drums” that mimic words in their language
History of the Asante People
o The kingdom of Asante has a long history of imperialist tendencies
o Centuries ago, there were trade relationships with Europe before the time that the
Western powers began to control Africa
o Weapons were bought with gold from the Gold Coast of Africa
Dance Costumes
o Dancer costumes are their most beautiful clothes
o Men wear a wrap of cloth around the waist (and sometimes a layer of cloth strips
underneath)
o Women wear a wrap of cloth that extends over the shoulder (and sometimes a
head wrap)
o The Asante weave their own fabric with beautiful prints
Africa: Dances WITH the Earth
o Previous capsules of dance in Indian and in Japan have revealed reverence to the
Earth… closeness to the ground
o Several African tribal dances involve the Earth as a decorative element, symbol of
pride… It can also serve as a method to create atmosphere and to include the
audience
African Mask Dances
o People: Mossi, Bwa, Bobo, Nuna, Winiama
o Geography: Burkina Faso
o Religion: Both elements of animal worship and reverence to ancestors
Masks (continued)
o Nuna
 The masks are created with care to give a representation of a particular
animal
 Uses sticks and often does a head tossing movement to represent animals
o Winiama
 More abstract interpretation of spirits combining animals and/or other
motifs
o Bwa
 Enormous plank masks with brilliant geometrics
o Mossi
 Ancestral reverence like Yoruba culture; several styles include tall plank,
face plate with whistle, or crest headpieces such as the “horse antelope”
o Bobo
 Masks honor the creator of the universe, Wuro
Painted with brilliant colors and augmented with dyed grasses – hemp or
raffia
 Uses the mask as a prop and costume. The dancer will disengage the mask
and spin it around his head and then replace it back.
Pleasure Dances of Chad
o People: Djaya
o Geography: Chad
o Dance aesthetics
 Highly choreographed
 Full of rhythm
 Usually circular
 Often one sex encircles the other
 Youth oriented for social gatherings
Botswana
o People – San
o Geography – Botswana
o Trance dance for healing - focus is on the matriarchal qualities of many tribal
rituals, includes the use of tactile purification
 Women are central; Elder men encircle as protection during the ritual
People - Dan, Gere, (Baule?)
o Geography - Ivory Coast
o Stilt dance – encourages crops and growth of trees, grasses, and brush
o Combination of trance/harmonious
People – Guro
o Geography – Ivory Coast
o Snake dance – originally was to ward off snake bite, now as a rite of passage for
little girls and young men
Pan African Dance: Eno Washington
o His first teacher was Ahmed Sahir in 1967
o He made important historical connections between the African traditions and
popular American dances
o …such as the Charleston and Mashed Potatoes ballroom/night club dances were
directly connected to warrior dances in Gambia.
o Pan African dance is the active preservation of African heritage, culture, and
tradition through dance, music, costumes, and vocalizations.
o Pan African dance was developed by Eno Washington in the mid 1970s . Part of the
fuel for this movement was the very active civil rights movement in the 1960s.
o A combination of many styles of dance drawing from both continental African as
well as African Diaspora including:
 Jamaica
 Cuba
 Haiti
 Brazil
 United States
Labanotation
o Science of recording movement in graphed patterns on paper
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o Rudolph Laban – developed the system as a dancer/choreographer and movement
analyst (early 20th century)
o Odette Blum, who recorded dances with the use of a graph system developed by
Rudolph Laban
Other things to look at: Ode Blue – Adawa tribe extinct
Critical reading in Literature
o Author’s background, view, & opinion
 Are the reference points appropriate?
 Are there details that make the information clear?
 What is the author’s background?
 Maybe study the bibliography