1500 essay opening draft:1

‘Discuss your chosen area of investigation, demonstrating your knowledge and understanding of the
contextual underpinning of the style and why this is of interest to you at this stage of the course.’

My whole unit depends on what style I choose to learn and teach my class in a workshop. I want to
step out of my comfort zone and learn something completely new to challenge myself to become a
more versatile performer. Weekly, I train in contemporary techniques such as Cunningham and
ballet as well as baragynatium and other Indian styles, I haven’t yet had the time or inspiration to
learn a new style, so I am looking forward to the challenge. My initial idea was breakdancing as I
thought it would be a good way to challenge my body strength and improve my tricks. But after
attempting some online tutorials I came to the decision that I didn’t have enough time to learn this
new style and teach others, I also didn’t have the upper body strength and, in the time, given I
decided that this style wouldn’t be possible, so I decided to change to African. But I look forward to
training my upper body strength and give this a go one day. This style really interests me because of
the culture and the history of Tribe dances being passed down through generations to how African
dance is viewed today and how traditions of tribes have been passed down through generations and
how they have been modernized and linked and influenced urban and street styles. So, I am excited
to study the development of how African dance developed into how we view it today. I would love
to work on a new style so that I can become a more diverse dancer and choreographer. Learning
African dance will help my rhythm as well as performance skills it will also give me more experience
in working with a lower sense of gravity whilst using upper body for chest isolations, all whilst
staying in rhythm. Also, African/Afro dance has always been popular, but it has become more
recognised as a dance form and been included in some dance school's modules such as, London
Contemporary dance school, Trinity Laban, and Northern Contemporary dance school. When I went
on an open day to Northern School of Contemporary Dance, I viewed an African class and this was
the first time that I had seen this style live and I thought it was so fun and rhythmic, it made me
want to join in, this gave me an insight into what I might learn in the future at dance school. In my
NYDC audition the workshop included hip hop and Afro and I think this is one of the main reasons I
switched from breakdancing to African because I had done a workshop in a similar style, and I really
enjoyed it. For our Final Major Project, we are looking at doing a strictly themed night, and it would
be interesting to see some traditional African dance in a Strictly ballroom setting. This idea really
excites me as I’d love the chance to show people African dance in a more traditional light.

Most African dance styles originated years ago from tribes and has been passed down through
generations. Each dance style and tradition are typically accompanied by vocals and percussive
music such as fast phase drumming. The traditional tribe dances mainly fall into three separate
categories, Ritual (religious), Ceremonial, and Griotic (storytelling). Black Africans brought their
dances to North, Central, and South America, during the slave labour, starting in the 1500s. Dancing,
moving and preforming rituals is how Africans connected with their homeland keeping their cultural
traditions alive. I have really enjoyed looking into African dance and giving it a go myself, during my
practical research and study I began to understand the stylistic features of African dance. African
dance is very grounded with a low sense of gravity, but it has a very bouncy dynamic quality at
times. It includes a lot of chest movements and chest isolations; this is something that doesn’t come
naturally to me as most of my training is contemporary and I have never had to use my chest. There
is also a lot of simple foot work which is mainly flat footed, like stomping for example. One thing I
love about African dance is the element of call and response and the relationship with the music,
rhythm, and other people in the tribes. African dance shows a real sense of community, but some
styles are competition based, such as, Zaouli and Adumu. I decided to investigate both of these
styles as they show two very different ideas of dance in Africa.
Zaouli is an African dance style that is traditional to the Guro people. Each Guro village has a dancer
that represents the village, this dancer is always male. This dance is traditionally preformed at
celebrations and funerals, it is also a symbolism of unity for the villages. It includes an incredible
amount of leg/foot work, and their upper body is practically still, it almost appears as if the dancer
only moves their legs without moving the upper body at all. Zaouli originates in the region of Bouaflé
on the Ivory Coast. Until the formation of Zaouli the Guro culture was relatively obscure on the map
of Ivory Coast. To perform this dance the male dancers must wear a mark, metal bells and raffia
around the ankles. Adumu is a different traditional dance followed by the Maasai tribe people of
East Africa. This traditional dance is a jumping competition between all the men in the village, this
dance is also only performed by men. The aim of this dance is to jump the highest, and however
does wins. Adumu is a Maasai word for jump and used in certain contexts it means to jump up and
down in dance. To perform the Adumu male dancers form a circle, one or two at a time will enter
the circle and begin jumping while maintaining a narrow and stiff posture. It is very important that
they never let their heels touch the ground. members of the group will raise the pitch of their voices
based on the height of the performers jumps. What I found interesting about both traditional African
dance styles/traditions, was that they are only ever preformed by men, this is unusual for me to hear
as in England dance is inclusive for everybody and it seems quite sexist for only men to participate.
Where I am from in England it is more popular for females to dance then men, so I find it really
interesting that males dancing is very popular in parts of Africa.
One of the main influences on African dance is music, rhythm, and vocals. African music includes
several rhythms at the same time, and dancers often dance to more than one beat at once. This
rhythmic complexity, with basic ground beat and counter beats, forms the basis for African dance. In
a lot of Africa, percussion often dominates music and in many cases the drum is the leading
instrument. In America, enslaved Africans created a broad range of percussive instruments such as
hand clapping, foot tapping, and body patting, which became just as important percussive sounds as
drumming. Many African dances reflect the motions of life. Dance movements can often imitate
animal behaviour, or everyday movements such as farming and holding a basket or express the
power of spirits. African ritual dance makes use of special objects such as, masks and costumes.
Competing through dance is very popular in West and Central Africa such as Adumu.
African dance has always been popular, but it is becoming more and more recognised as an Art form
and even being incorporated into dance schools such as Trinity Laban, Northern contemporary
dance school and London contemporary dance school. I have really enjoyed researching this new
style and I look forward to starting my FMP.

I plan to link my research and practical understanding of African dance to my FMP by creating a
piece that involves African style as well as another style such as contemporary or hip hop, I would
find it interesting to combine a style with African dance. I want to do this because I think it will push
me as a choreographer and performer and I haven’t ever really tried to fuse styles together in my
choreography.I plan to show the traditional African dance style as in performances such as ‘Strictly
come Dancing’ they showcase a more modernised version of African dance. Although I agree that
dance styles are becoming broader and each style links to another, I think it is important to keep the
history and the culture of African dance. In my FMP, because music and rhythm have a big impact in
African dance, I would love to have the opportunity to work collaboratively with some of the music
students and have live music in my FMP.