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The ancient tradition of African dance has influenced dance styles all over the world. It is used to commemorate many annual ceremonies and activities, such as rites of passage and the harvest, and it is also an important form of recreation, religious expression, and storytelling. In African Dance, Second Edition, the varied cultures of Africa and their respective dances are explored, along with the effects that colonialism had on the art form.
Umfundalai, a Kiswahili word meaning "essence" or "essential", is now also the name of an innovative dance technique discovered and developed by the author of this book to enable anyone to perform traditional African dances. In 1970-71, as an eager young student, the author set about organizing the complex multiplicity of rhythms and movements displayed in the various traditional dances still practiced in rural villages throughout the continent of Africa. In the process, she isolated the elements essential to all African dances: the circle (the earliest form of dance, symbol of the unified whole); repetition (a necessary extension of rhythm); rattling and ululation (natural accompaniments of...
A collection of essays by distinguished writers, critics and artists which addresses the discipline of African dance both on the continent and in the wider Diaspora. Includes a contribution from the distinguished Jamaican choreographer Sir Rex Nettleford.
Africa, according to the contributors to this anthology, is one cultural river with numerous tributaries articulated by their specific responses to history and the environment. They concentrate on the similarities in behavior, perceptions, and technologies of African culture that tie those tributaries together. The fourteen original essays by leading scholars of African studies are organized in four general divisions which consider the ethno-cultural motif, the artistic tradition, concepts of cultural value, and cultural continua.
Kariamu Welsh Asante examines and celebrates the ethnic diversity of Zimbabwe and the survival and endurance of the Zimbabwean national character. She emphasises how the former colonial power had proscribed indigenous cultures.
The popularity and profile of African dance have exploded across the African diaspora in the last fifty years. Hot Feet and Social Change presents traditionalists, neo-traditionalists, and contemporary artists, teachers, and scholars telling some of the thousands of stories lived and learned by people in the field. Concentrating on eight major cities in the United States, the essays challenges myths about African dance while demonstrating its power to awaken identity, self-worth, and community respect. These voices of experience share personal accounts of living African traditions, their first encounters with and ultimate embrace of dance, and what teaching African-based dance has meant to them and their communities. Throughout, the editors alert readers to established and ongoing research, and provide links to critical contributions by African and Caribbean dance experts. Contributors: Ausettua Amor Amenkum, Abby Carlozzo, Steven Cornelius, Yvonne Daniel, Charles “Chuck” Davis, Esailama G. A. Diouf, Indira Etwaroo, Habib Iddrisu, Julie B. Johnson, C. Kemal Nance, Halifu Osumare, Amaniyea Payne, William Serrano-Franklin, and Kariamu Welsh
In Caribbean and Atlantic Diaspora Dance: Igniting Citizenship, Yvonne Daniel provides a sweeping cultural and historical examination of diaspora dance genres. In discussing relationships among African, Caribbean, and other diasporic dances, Daniel investigates social dances brought to the islands by Europeans and Africans, including quadrilles and drum-dances as well as popular dances that followed, such as Carnival parading, Pan-Caribbean danzas,rumba, merengue, mambo, reggae, and zouk. Daniel reviews sacred dance and closely documents combat dances, such as Martinican ladja, Trinidadian kalinda, and Cuban juego de maní. In drawing on scores of performers and consultants from the region as well as on her own professional dance experience and acumen, Daniel adeptly places Caribbean dance in the context of cultural and economic globalization, connecting local practices to transnational and global processes and emphasizing the important role of dance in critical regional tourism.
A historical rationale and the proper translations and usage of African names from the four comers of the continent
This new collection of essays surveys the history of dance in an innovative and wide-ranging fashion. Editors Dils and Albright address the current dearth of comprehensive teaching material in the dance history field through the creation of a multifaceted, non-linear, yet well-structured and comprehensive survey of select moments in the development of both American and World dance. This book is illustrated with over 50 photographs, and would make an ideal text for undergraduate classes in dance ethnography, criticism or appreciation, as well as dance history—particularly those with a cross-cultural, contemporary, or an American focus. The reader is organized into four thematic sections whi...
The author has written this book entitled 'Afrocentricity' especially for those Africans still in a confused state in order to show them the way to peace. Further he indicates that the book has created its own supporters and detractors and has also been at the core of intense debates about the de-colonizing of the African mind, the dismantling of America, and the destabilizing of the Eurocentric hegemony. This book is not meant to be unread, un-remarked upon, or unheard. Afrocentrists have multiplied in the theaters, universities, unions, political organizations, schools, and corporations. The challenge to the white racial hierarchy has been intense and severe; there can be no hiding from the agency of awakened Africans. In the next few decades it is anticipated that a mighty revolution of values, symbols, and actions might bring about a more equitable society. This revolution for justice and liberty shall be led by the aroused black nation committed to a world of peace.