African Dance
Sharing Culture Through Dance
World dance – also known as national dance, folk dance or ethnic dance – is threaded through the fabric of cultures around the globe. People dance in temples to honor their gods. They dance in fields to make their work go faster. They dance at festivals to greet guests, initiate adolescents into adulthood, celebrate weddings and memorialize the dead. Choreographers within a culture theatricalize their heritage and bring it to the public. Choreographers of concert dance blend national traditions with ballet and modern dance styles.
African dance is inseparable from African drumming. Responding to the pulsing rhythms of hand drums, barefoot dancers in tribal costumes stomp the earth with muscular movements. Their bodies bend forward, their arms fly, their hips sway, their voices break into exuberant call-and-response chants. African tribal traditions preserved by cultural companies strongly influence the work of today’s African-American choreographers.
Indian dance
The meticulously preserved classical dance styles of India date back centuries to rituals in ancient Hindu temples.
The barefoot dancers wear exotic makeup, sparkling jewelry, vivid silk costumes and tinkling ankle bells. With stylized gestures, codified facial expressions, intricate movements of the hands and pounding footwork, they tell stories from mythology, convey emotions and perform pure movement to the rhythmic accompaniment of small hand drums and spoken syllables. In the modern era, classical traditions are fused with belly dance and Western pop styles to form the Bollywood film dance genre.
Irish step dancers perform rapid rhythmic patterns in hard-soled shoes or soft slippers. Soloists compete to achieve precision, clarity, speed and elevation. While their feet and legs move swiftly, their arms are held rigidly at their sides. Lines of dancers do unison steps to the rhythms of jigs and reels played by fiddles, pipes, whistles and drums. Female dancers, their hair curled into bouncy ringlets; wear modest dresses with long sleeves. Men are costumed in shirt, tie, vest and kilts or trousers. Irish dance extravaganzas such as “Riverdance” preserve traditional steps and rhythms. But the dancers move their arms, wear glamorous costumes and perform to music that combines traditional and electronic sounds.
In the ancient dynasties of China, groups of dancers costumed in silk pajamas and embroidered slippers performed with swords, fans, bamboo sticks and long ribbons. Men executed powerful sequences relating to martial arts. Women did graceful movements evoking elements of nature. Traditional Chinese dance plays a major role in Beijing Opera, which tells stories of the Monkey King and other mythical characters. Contemporary Chinese dance blends traditional movement and music with classical ballet, modern dance and Western music.
Flamenco, the music and dance of the Gypsies, is rooted in the culture of southern Spain. Flamenco singers pour out their souls in wailing tones. Their mournful songs are punctuated by the rhythmic clapping of hands, beating of wooden boxes and stomping of dancers’ heels. Flamenco guitars provide throbbing accompaniments and play passionate solos. The female flamenco dancer wears a tight ruffled dress topped with a fringed shawl. She arches her back, moves her arms sinuously and pounds the earth with low-heeled shoes. The male soloist wears tight pants, boots and a wide-brimmed hat. He carries himself proudly and burns up the floor with fiery heelwork. When a man and a woman dance together, they make eye contact but rarely touch. At the end of a flamenco show, each member of the ensemble takes a solo turn.
At PlayhouseSquare’s Dance Showcase on September 9, look for cultural dances from African Soul International and Shri Kalaa Mandir.
To find out more about appreciating dance, please visit playhousesquare.org/danceedu.
Written by Wilma Salisbury, Plain Dealer dance critic (retired)
Tags: African dance, appreciating dance, China, dance, Flamenco, India, Irish step dancers, PlayhouseSquare, world dance
