African dancing has both historical and social traditions that reflect more significance than those of many other cultures. The dances help celebrate not only special events and festivals, similar to other cultures, but often tell the stories of the nation’s history. Unwritten oral history, passed through generation before writing became part of the culture, often included African dance as part of the process.

Many of the dances taught the young about social morays and values, others were simply for the joy of celebration. Some of the dances were tributes of thanks to the gods for helping the tribe achieve success on a hunt or harvest.

Many tribes trained singers to provide the music for the African dance. They produced intricate harmonies and set the rhythmic pace for the dance. While most of the music came from vocals, often drums accompanied the singers to provide heavy rhythms for the dancers. The bougaragou, on of the drums used, is by far the most popular, although there are dozens of others.

The drum is often seen as a sign of vitality and life and is considered the heartbeat of the tribe or village. Oftentimes the beating of a single drum will serve the same purpose as a bugle call in the military – it lets the community know that it is time to get up and gather together. The drum is also a symbol of solidarity in African music and Dance and lets people know that they are all different but connected. They are all cut from the same cloth.

European and Latin dancing often are about partners and highlight the abilities of the two. It involves the relationship of the dancers and shows with the passion of their embrace and the hand holding postures. African dancing, however, often separates not only the sexes but also the various ages. It is more about community and telling the story of different life stages.

The African culture and morays explain the lack of couple dancing and close contact. In the early African culture, it was immoral for men and women to display public contact, let alone dance together. It explains why most African dances tend to be specific to a gender and when both genders are dancing, they often don’t touch.

The following is a list of some of the most popular traditional African dances:

The warrior dance is a wild and violet dance that prepared the men for battle. As the dance continued, the fervor of the dancers increased in violent actions and mimicked those movements found on the battlefield.

European dancers, displayed affection with a touch and an embrace. This is not typical of African dancers where social morays condemned the display of public touch. The culture maintains that moral value in their dance. This explains why most dances are gender specific, don’t have the dancers touching and are often relegated to specific age groups. Some examples of the African dance help to display the information on its history and tend to be typical of the types of dance used by the many tribes.

Coming of Age Dance: Performed to mark the passing of a young person from childhood into adulthood.

Other African dances besides these mentioned hold a hold a high place in the tribal traditions. The dances display important cultural morays and play a big role in understanding the culture and history of the tribes.

You can learn more about African dance by watching the African Side movie to see some great African dancing. Visit the African Side website today to obtain your copy.

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