African Dance Types

Africa is a vast continent, consisting of many countries and hugely diverse cultures. African dance mainly refers to the collective dance type of the Sub-Saharan Africa, which is the African tribal dance. There are many aspects that affect the African dance types. Here are some glimpses of African dance types...

African dance types are distinct from each other because of the diversity, of the nomadic groups and the indigenous tribes, that practice them. The African dances symbolize social structure and traditional values of the people related to them. These dance types help the African people to praise, criticize and even work with each other. African dances heavily rely upon the African music, which is a very interesting form of music, despite the fact that in many African tribal languages, there is no particular word for 'music'.

African Dance Peculiarities

In most African countries, music is an essential part of people's daily life. The two basic and very important musical components in African culture are human voice and the drums. It is also true that many African tribal dance forms, such as the Masai, don't use the African drums. In native language African drums, known as Djembe symbolize people's day-to-day life. The drum beats explain the mood of the tribal people and evokes the deepest emotions.

African dances tend to explain the lives and feelings of an African individual, a couple or an entire community. The African dances are classified on the basis of gender and deeply reinforce certain community structures like age, status, context and kinship. In African dance, men usually expend jumps and leaps while women dancers perform crooked knee positions and bent body postures. The most recognized dancing method is a group of dancers dancing in a circle with a drummer in the middle.

The African attitude towards music is said to be "two dimensional", the tribal Africans supposedly follow the "three against the two" beats of the drum. Drums always accompany them at every occasion in their life. African dance includes cross-rhythms of the musical instruments along with total body movements. Different body parts are highlighted in different tribal groups. To be more precise, subtle movement of the hips is emphasized in the Kalabari dance form of Nigeria, whereas upper body movements are essential part in the dance form of Ghana, named Anlo-Ewe.

African dance is mainly a sort of public event, where there are lesser number of spectators and more of performers. So, in dance forms like Yoruba, people touching each other while dancing was not so appreciated. Their main dancers and master drummers are very particular about the correctness of the dancing postures. There are not many lyrics but there are nonverbal clues and the lyrics are explained through the beats of the drums and intense humming and other such type of sounds.

African Dance Types

African tribal dance or African folk dance is performed on almost all the occasions in the people's everyday life. The African folk dance is nothing but a cultural activity that is followed sincerely, almost as a ritual. African people dance on all the occasions like childbirth, various festivals, marriages, recalling certain experiences in the past, funerals and also to worship Gods.

Welcome Dance
These dances are performed to please the visitors and show them the happiness that the tribe is feeling on their arrival. The other reason to perform welcome dance is to show the guests, how versatile and talented the villagers are.

Celebration or Love Dance
These dances are performed on certain festive and really very happy occasions like weddings, various tribal festivals and anniversaries.

Coming of Age Dance
This dance is performed to celebrate 'coming of age' of the young men and women. It is a rite of passage that many tribes follow and celebrate. The dancers perform in front of all the tribal members, which gives them immense pride as well as confidence.

Warrior Dance
Warrior dances are performed at various cultural events and occasions. The warrior dance movements are a fusion of warfare movements such as stabbing with the artistic movement of the body, according to the drum beats. The dance steps also consist of 'turn with phrase endings' and various other aggressive body movements.

Summoning and Possession Dance
Summoning and possession are the most common African folk dances and are also very important in many indigenous religions. This dance is performed in almost all tribes for 'calling a spirit'. The spirits are the ones that are worshiped by that specific tribe. The summoning dance is also performed when there is a drought or a war.

African Tribe Dance Trivia

African tribal dances totally differ from their counterparts all over the world. In some African tribal dances, certain impressive dancing properties are also used to entertain the guests. For example:

• Yabara dance: Yabara is dance form from Nigeria or the western African region. In this dance, "The Beaded Gourd Rattle" called Shekere in native language, is thrown in the air to indicate the rhythm changes.
• Agbekor dance: This dance is originally the dance of 'Ewe' and 'Foh' tribes from western African region. This dance is peculiarly performed with horsetails, at the times of funerals.
• Adumu dance: The Maasai people perform their traditional dance called 'Adumu'. This dance is performed at the coming of age ceremony of the warriors.
• Kpanlogo dance: This African folk dance belongs to the Ga ethnic group from Ghana. This dance is performed with certain conga like drums that are called Kpanlogo. The dance is also known as African drum dance.
• Umteyo dance: This dance is also referred to as shaking dance, as the dance involves peculiar movement of the pectus region of the body. This dance is specifically performed by the South African Xhosa tribe.
• Indlamu dance: This dance is best known as African Zulu dance. It is performed by the Zulu tribes of South Africa. In this dance the dancer lifts his one leg to the height of his head and bangs it down hard against the ground. This dance is also referred as Zulu war dance and is mainly performed at the Zulu weddings.

There are numerous different African folk dances, as there are a lot of tribes present in the continent. African tribe dances like 'Tamenaibuga', 'Amaggunju' and 'Bwola' from Uganda, 'Makosa' from Zaire and many other dance forms are still practiced in Africa.

Due to globalization and several other reasons, like extinction of certain African tribes, the traditional African tribe dances are on the verge of quenching. There are several famous African nationals who are constantly trying to save and make the types of African dance popular all over the world.