Learn About African Dance
African dancing has both historical and social traditions that reflect more significance than those of many other cultures. The dances help celebrate not only special events and festivals, similar to other cultures, but often tell the stories of the nation's history. Unwritten oral history, passed through generation before writing became part of the culture, often included African dance as part of the process.
These dances were not only celebratory they were also instructive and were used to teach the younger generation about morals and values. They were also used to praise and pray to the gods and give thanks for a bountiful harvest or a successful hunt.
Many tribes trained singers to provide the music for the African dance. They produced intricate harmonies and set the rhythmic pace for the dance. While most of the music came from vocals, often drums accompanied the singers to provide heavy rhythms for the dancers. The bougaragou, on of the drums used, is by far the most popular, although there are dozens of others.
The dance of Africans is one method the cultures had of passing on their histories and beliefs. African dancing holds more significance than the dance steps of other cultures, since it part of their oral history tradition rather than just for social entertainment. The dance passed down each tribe's beliefs and history long before they had written records. It is part of the oral history of each tribal nation.
Unlike many European or Latin dances, traditional African Dance is a collective experience. There are normally no partners, hand-holding or passionate embraces. In short, African Dancing is about the entire community rather than just a single couple. Many times dancers are actually separated by gender and age to symbolize the different stages of life.
The African culture and morays explain the lack of couple dancing and close contact. In the early African culture, it was immoral for men and women to display public contact, let alone dance together. It explains why most African dances tend to be specific to a gender and when both genders are dancing, they often don't touch.
There are a few extremely popular traditional dances from Africa, which held their place through time. Even though more exist, these are samples of those dances.
The warrior dance is a wild and violet dance that prepared the men for battle. As the dance continued, the fervor of the dancers increased in violent actions and mimicked those movements found on the battlefield.
Dance of Love: A slow dance that is performed to acknowledge and celebrate special occasions like weddings or anniversaries. It is often danced only by the women.
When a child passed into adulthood, the tribe also celebrated that occasion. The coming of age dance was part of the celebration.
While there are other important dances in the African culture, these few mentioned are often included in many tribal celebrations. The steps of the individual African dances might be different but the meaning it held remained the same and showed solidarity of the people of Africa.
You can learn more about African dance by watching the African Side movie to see some great African dancing. Visit the African Side website today to obtain your copy.
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