AFRICAN DANCE

African dance mainly refers to the dance forms of ‘Sub Saharan Africa’ and is performed mainly by different indigenous tribes. All the dances are different to each other because of the different cultural influences on them as most African dance forms show the social patterns among the tribes. Another thing that created differences in the dances is the differences in melodic and movement styles. The dance form displays the lives of the community and their values and believes rather than those of individuals. Almost all African dances are accompanied by constant rhythmic music that typically includes the constant beating of different types of drums, vocals and stomping of the feet.

History

African dance is polycentric, which sets it apart from most other dance traditions in the world. This means that the dancer has to isolate different parts of their body into separate areas of movement and each area should be able to move to the different rhythms within the music.

Most African villages had a "dance master" who taught the members of the tribe from a very young age how to perform the various dances. It was very important that these dances be performed exactly as taught, with no room for improvisation or ornamentation until complete mastery of the form was achieved. While almost all of the dances are polycentric in some way, different areas of Africa have very different dances. The Masai are known for leaping high in the air, for example, while the Kalabari emphasize hip motions. In all cases, the movements are very precise, and the same dances you see today have most likely been danced the same way for centuries.

 

African Dance and the Slave Trade

The 1500s saw the beginning of slave labour as Africans were brought to North and South America and the Caribbean. Hundreds of different African dance styles, from various ethnic groups, were merged together, along with styles of European dancing. Many Africans that were enslaved carried of dancing throughout their slavery as it had a huge importance in their daily lives; it was also a way to keep their cultural traditions alive and kept them connected with their home.

Enslaved Africans that were taken to colonies in South America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal were given much more freedom to carry on their dance traditions than those who were brought to North America. Sadly, many of the North American slave owners prohibited Africans from performing most of their traditional dances.

 

However, the importance and spirit of dance were not stopped by this restriction. African slaves found ways to adapt their dancing and continue their traditions in secret, causing changes in the dances. For example, since slaves were prohibited from lifting their feet, they created moves that included shuffling the feet and moving the hips and body.

 

Music

Music in African dance is really important. The drum is one way to set the mood and brings everyone together as a community. There are also many other instruments used as well, such as gourds strung with beads. Clapping, stamping feet, and most of all singing also create rhythmic music for African dance. As dancers move in an expression of their inner feelings, their movements are generally in rhythm to the music. It is the sound of the music and the rhythms that are played that provide the heartbeat of the dance. The music and dance are considered inseparable, two parts of the same activity.

 African music is a huge part of African culture so this research is really important as it gives me an insight to the world of the play that we are doing and the concept that we as a company are trying to give to the audience. African dance is also used a lot in trances and rituals and the music helps people to get lost in the trances. In our version of The Tempest, Prospero is not a magician but a witch doctor and puts spells on the other characters by drugging them, those characters then go into a trance like state, by looking at African dance it shows us how they loose themselves and how they act when in a trance-like state. By studying and experiencing African Dance as actors we would be able to go back into that state and to bring that to life on stage and have something to relate to when we need to connect and be real to that state.
Also African Dance is all about the body and connecting to the rhythm of your body and letting that be in control and lead your movement not your mind. This is really important for our characters, especially for the characters that are originally from Africa or Sierra Leone as this would be  natural movement for them, meaning that in general they would be more connected and in tune with their body, this cold affect the way that they move or walk or the way that they hold themselves. Also just as actors using African Dance is a really good way to connect with our bodies and to be able to understand and feel our bodies so that they can become a part of our characterisation and a way of letting that lead our acting and consequently becoming our characters.
As our piece of theatre is about colonialism and the start of the end of slavery and even more so questioning whether this was the end of slavery or just another branch of it. Because of this it is really important to understand how slavery changed African Dance as this form of dance will be the one that we will be taken part in as our piece is just post slavery. Also it helps us to get an idea of the different ways that people were suppressed in slavery, it shows how far the suppression goes into their culture.