Centering African Traditional Dance Principles in Contemporary Dance

This article interferes with the problems posed by contemporary dance
paradigms rooted in dominant Western epistemologies as illustrative of a
persistent ethnocentric and narrow discourse that portrays imperialist
ambitions and related exclusionary practice, which triggers skepticism
amongst Africans. Alternatively, it suggests that contemporary dance be
conceptualized as a cosmopolitan dance form influenced by a variety of
geocultural dance styles, amongst which African traditional dances, as a
perspective for circumventing and decentering this domination.
Grounded in qualitative research supported by Fanon’s postcolonial
cosmopolitanism, the paper models what colonial contradiction reading
might offer, showing how once trash and outlawed African traditional
dance principles were transposed into contemporary dance. Results show
the destabilization of Africans to connect with contemporary dance is
rooted in Western hegemony that disempowered African traditional
dances during colonization. However, the integration of these traditional
dance principles confirms African presence in contemporary dance and
more importantly challenges the dominant Western epistemology. As
such, from colonialism to cosmopolitanism, both African and Western
cultures are interconnected in the fashioning of contemporary dance. The
presence of heterogeneous dance aesthetics in contemporary dance
establishes a flexible counter-discourse of this practice which owes its
legacy to the global human community with which it shares a history
entrenched in cosmopolitanism. Thus, a sense of belonging is important
to engage Africans in the canon, and the fact that the characteristics of
contemporary dance are also embedded in African traditional dances
could strengthen communities, distance Africans from the many quarrels
linked to this denomination, and push them to dig more into the richness
of African dances to question the new Africa and join the new
cosmopolitan project of cultural globalization.

Key words: contemporary dance; African traditional dances; postcolonial
cosmopolitanism; decolonization; aesthetics