WHY DO AFRICANS DANCE?

As a point of clarification, permit me to state Africans have been moving to music since the beginning of time, but they did not call it dance as a word that specifically defines these movements, as dance does not exist in a number of African languages. It is the western world, the colonizers who forced colonialism on Africa, who defined these movements and named them dance, danse, or ballet. Essentially the term “dance” is derived from the French and English languages. The colonizers believe that movement to music was called dance in their societies, so it must be the same for African movement to music.

Keita Fodeba defined African movements (danse) as a spontaneous emanation of the people that is part of their everyday lives. Albert Mawere Opoku often said that African dance was about a people and their culture. Therefore it had to be preserved in the same fashion that the people ordained it as the first conveyors of their culture. His greatest fear was once these dances were exhibited outside their traditional settings, they would be devalued and misinterpreted. Accordingly he brought Labanotation to the campus of the University of Ghana at Legon so the dances could be written on paper providing written documentation of these oral traditions.

What are the reasons behind these movements called dance? Where are these dances created? What is the subject matter or theme behind these movements called dance. These questions were an integral part of my investigations into the raison d'etre of African dance, and were posed to my cultural informants from Tanzania to Senegal.

The investigation yielded the following information. The standard lifetime activities of birth, death, puberty, initiation, circumcision, naming ceremonies and rites of passage, (Traditional dances) all have established routine dances for these events of life. Sometimes they are referred to as prescription dances. According to Maurice Sonar Senghor, creator of the National Dance Company of Senegal, and Africa's first theater director, he verified that an event must occur before a dance is created. Without an event or happening that the people choose to remember and record as movement set to the indigenous music of the people, no dance can be created. The theme or source of these events of causation can be anything such as the movements executed in work ultimately become the movement of the dance, such as the Fisherman's dance of Nigeria. The first sighting of an airplane that flew overhead of a marching band in Ghana led to the creation of the dance Agahu or Gahu. The pounding of 'foodstuff' so fine that it resembled sugar led to the creation of the popular dance Ziglibiti performed in Ivory Coast. The act of welcoming strangers into a village is the event of causation that is the theme behind the dance Fanga that was researched in Liberia by the late Dr. Pearl Primus and brought back to the States. In the dance Fanga the performer says I welcome you with open arms and my hands do not contain any implements that can cause you harm. This is clearly indicated in the movement where the dancers extend their arms with open palms. Each movement in this dance denotes a gesture of friendliness. It is most unfortunate that a number youth of Africa were not raised in the royal court where dance and music are part of their every day lives. Therefore they do not know the traditions as well as their ancestors. The quest to preserve these dances has been undertaken by scholars in the West who are dedicated to preserving these oral traditions. Consequently, written notation has been applied to African dances so they can be preserved for future generations. The following is an example of written notation as it was applied to the dance Fanga. The music is NOT included because according to the late Dr. Pearl Primus, the music was lost in Customs.

notation of Fanga opening Step

.
Normally these dances are created in the bush and are rarely seen in entirety by the public. After independence of African nations, many countries formed National Dance Companies that traveled on international tours. Their dances were taken from the villages, shaped and molded and adapted to the stage. As such these dances were taken outside the context of social ceremony for which they were originally created. This act transferred them from Traditional dances into neo-traditional dances. Nevertheless, these stylized versions of movements are still pieces of history that is communicated by the musicians to the dancers, who act out the movement according to the music sounded. When we view these dances, we must remember these dances represent the culture of a people who are the first conveyors of that culture. In essence they are giving you a glimpse into the history of their world. The fact that these percussive sounds are coded messages based on the indigenous language of the people and communicated by the musicians to the dancers is the main reason why it is impossible for outsiders to create African dances. Even Africans from one country in Africa who are not versed in the language cannot create dances for Africans of another country merely because they do not speak that particular language.

The fact that African dances are rooted in the indigenous language of the people that is communicated by the instruments of the ensemble to the dancers who act out the movements, makes African dance one of the most misunderstood art forms in existence.

Africans dance because it is a way of life that expresses the people and their culture. Africans always dance to some form of musical accompaniment be it the voice, handclaps, or ensembles of percussive instruments. Although the term “dance” is now associated with African movement to music, their reasons for dancing are different and the choreography is based on acts of reality.