 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
Africa Most African dances are performed as masquerade. The
masqueraders can represent ancestors, gods, animals and other important things
in African culture. For thousands of years tribes across Africa have used dance
to pass down the history and beliefs of their peoples. As you may already know, since the early 1400’s Europeans have captured Africans as slaves and brought them back to their home country to sell. African traditions were not lost during this dark period but incorporated into cultures around the globe. Haitian and Cuban dance not only have African origins in their religious representation but their steps and rhythmic patterns are very similar too. If you were to visit the Wolorf peoples of Senegal you might see a dance called Woulousdong. One of the interpretations of this dance is slaves as they walk up the gang plank.
West African Dances The Funga is a welcome and harvest dance from the Vai people of Liberia. It is made up of two dances brought to the West in the 1930’s and 1940’s by Pearl Primus. It is the "Swan Lake of African Dance" because it is the most widely known and done of the African dances."Samba KI Kongo" has samba dances from Bahia, Brazil. The steps can also be traced back to Angola. The samba is the national dance of Brazil with each house or family line making steps that reflect their ancestry. The house of Ki Konga presents an amazing samba. The Masisigonya (or dunde) is a river dance done only by the women. It tells the story of the significance of the river in their lives. The Boot Dance is named after the Wellington gum shoes that miners wore in South Africa. They traditionally performed this dance as a form of self-entertainment and friendly competition. "A Suite for Nina" is named this in honor of Nina Simone. It represented the world of struggle of African American women. A portion of the suite was first seen in Karamu’s 1st annual Joyve Whitley Fesival of New Plays in Cleveland, OH. The Suite opens with the music of folk singer, Odetta.
|
|
This site was developed for ThinkQuest Junior by Team J002266. © Copyright 2000. Email us with questions, comments or suggestions. |
