10/28/17 O&A NYC GOING BACK TO AFRICA WITH WaleStylez: Top 10 Best Traditional African Dances

African traditional Dances refers mainly to the dances performed by the cultural communities found in continent. Communities use these dances to teach, to socialize, ceremonies and for celebrating festivals and moaning funerals while Some dances are exclusively used for spiritual or religious practices.

Top 10 Best Traditional African Dances

Top 10 Best Traditional African Dances

10. Agbadza
Agbadza is among the oldest musical types performed by the Southern Ewe of Ghana, Togo, Benin, and parts of Southwestern Nigeria. Agbadza is derived from an older war dance known as Atrikpui.

9. Muwogola dance
Muwogola dance originates from the Baganda tribe of Uganda and is performed by both men and women.

8. Chakacha
Chakacha is a traditional music and dance style of the Swahili people of coastal Kenya and Tanzania, it is originally associated with weddings and performed and watched by women.

7. Pat Pat dance
The Pat Pat dance is the traditional dance of the Jola people of Senegal Gambia. It involves rhythmically patting the body and fast leg movements.

6. Eskista
Eskista is a traditional Ethiopian dance performed by both men and women that is known for its unique emphasis on intense shoulder movement. The dance is characterized by rolling of the shoulder blades, bouncing the shoulders, and jilting the chest. Eskista is typically performed to traditional Ethiopian music, but can often be incorporated into modern forms of music.

5. Aduma dance
This Maasai dance is performed by the men who leap into the air to show their strength and stamina as tribal warriors.

4. Indlamu
Indlamu is a traditional Zulu dance from South Africa where the dancer lifts one foot over his head and brings it down hard, landing squarely on the downbeat. Typically, two dancers in warrior’s pelts perform indlamu routines together, shadowing each other’s moves perfectly. Also often referred to as a Zulu war dance and is often performed at weddings.

3. Umushagiriro/Umushayayo Dance of Women
The Dance of Women is more gentle and graceful and unusual in Africa. Its strength is the graceful movement of Rwandan women highlight kindness, goodness, purity and the radiant beauty of what many consider Africa’s most beautiful women- even though as often is the case the Women’s Dance is based upon the movement of Ankole Cattle.

2.  Adowa
Adowa is by far the most widespread and frequently performed social dance of the Akan people of Ghana. The Akan are located in Ashanti, Brong Ahafo, Eastern, Central and parts of the Volta Regions of Ghana. It is best described in Akan musical traditions as a women’s dance because they dominate the performance.

1. Zaouli
Zaouli is a traditional dance of the Guro people of central Ivory Coast. The Zaouli mask, used in the dance, was created in the 1950s, reportedly inspired by a girl named “Djela Lou Zaouli (meaning “Zaouli, daughter of Djela”). However, stories on the origins of the mask are varied, and each mask can have its own symbolic history.

 

 

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