AFRICAN HEALING DANCE

"In your backbone you feel a pointed something

and it works its way up.

Then the base of your spine is tingling, tingling,

tingling, tingling, tingling, tingling, tingling ...

And then it makes your thoughts

nothing in your head"

_San description of a trance dance

Dance is a universal human expression. It has many purposes from the ceremonial to the artistic. To refer to dance as African is quite a generalisation on a continent with over 1000 languages and perhaps as many different dance patterns and styles (Hanna 1973). However in African dance we can see clear examples of dance used as a means healing from which we can learn the value of dance in this context. African dance serves both individual and community healing (Monteiro and Wall 2011). The most well-known example is the Trance dance of the San which warrants its own research topic (B. Keeney 2003; 2005; 2010; H. Keeney, Keeney, and Boo 2016). These dances do not exist in isolation and dance as a social activity engaged in a group context increases its efficacy (Hanna 1978).

Often these dances are intricately woven into the cultural and social life of particular communities. While researching this wealth of knowledge is a worthwhile endeavour the danger would be to remain at a superficial level and fail to explore a deeper understanding of the role dance and movement have in African healing traditions. To do this we also need to explore African dance within the context of an African worldview or perspective.

When early missionaries, anthropologists and scholars encountered dance in Africa at best they found it difficult to categorise as dance as it did not look like formal dance such as ballet; at worst it was conceived with horror and moral judgement especially where trance or ecstatic dance was association with local deities or rituals of abandonment (Hanna 1973). Nowadays with different perspectives it is possible to see the role of the body and especially movement play an important role in the African healing practices (Sandlana 2014).


From an African perspective physical and mental illness are not seen in isolation as an individual’s problem that needs to be healed. Illness and health are conceptualises not only as integration of the physical and mental but also of the social and spiritual realms. The traditional healing dances are often a community affair and address the problem of the individual and the community simultaneously. This demonstrates a perspective that incorporates community, body and mind in a holistic structure. General health is usually related to achieving balance and harmony between these various realms (Monteiro and Wall 2011; Vinesett, Price, and Wilson 2015).

While traditional African healing dances are part of a larger social and spiritual system it is possible to extract those characteristics that are universal and incorporate them into our Conscious Dance practice. Principle among these is the recognition that we are integrated human beings and that mind and body are not separate entities. Our being is an integrated system which includes body, mind, emotion and spiritual connection. Looking at this from a therapeutic model, dance which is integrated psychically into the individual and community can be used in three ways (Hanna 1978). Firstly it serves as a method to prepare individuals for the impact of anticipated emotional impact serving as a way of learning and practicing how to negotiate these. Secondly as a safe way in which to dissipate emotion and energy experienced by the individual or community by providing a safe environment in which to revisit and transform these. And thirdly, the dance offers a way of recognising and integrating conflicting emotions, thoughts and patterns of behaviour arising out of situations of cognitive dissonance.

Another danger when conducting such research is the issue of cultural appropriation (Glasser 2019). The aim of research such as this is not to copy rituals and dances; neither is to ignore the context within which they are located. Both music and dance have universal structural elements that transcend both time and location (Egermann et al. 2015; Fritz et al. 2009; Winkelman 1986; 1993). It is possible to identify these and use dance as a way to promote the integration of a person’s emotional, mental, physical and spiritual well-being. Based on the belief that the body, mind and spirit are interconnected it uses the body’s intelligence by bringing attention and intention to our dance practice. This ancient path of human expression and healing as evidence in African healing dances is open to all who venture and explore.

REFERENCES:

Egermann, Hauke, Nathalie Fernando, Lorraine Chuen, and Stephen McAdams. 2015. “Music Induces Universal Emotion-Related Psychophysiological Responses: Comparing Canadian Listeners to Congolese Pigmies.” Frontier in Psychology 5: 1341. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01341.

Fritz, Thomas, Sebastian Jentschke, Nathalie Gosselin, Daniela Sammler, Isabelle Peretz, Robert Turner, Angela Friederici, and Stefan Koelsch. 2009. “Universal Recognition of Three Basic Emotions in Music Report.” Current Biology : CB 19 (April): 573–76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2009.02.058.

Glasser, Syliva “Magogo.” 2019. TRANCformations and TransFORMations: Southern African Rock Art and Contemporary Dance. South Africa: Staging Post.

Hanna, Judith Lynne. 1973. “African Dance: The Continuity of Change.” Yearbook of the International Folk Music Council 5: 165–74. https://doi.org/10.2307/767501.

———. 1978. “African Dance: Some Implications for Dance Therapy.” American Journal of Dance Therapy 2 (1): 3–15. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02579589.

Keeney, Bradford. 2003. Ropes to God: Experiencing the Bushman Spiritual Universe. Philadelphia: Ringing Rocks Press with Leete’s Island Books.

———. 2005. Bushman Shaman: Awakening the Spirit through Ecstatic Dance. Rochester, Vermont: Destiny Books.

———. 2010. The Bushman Way of Tracking God. New York: Atria Books.

Keeney, Hillary, Bradford Keeney, and Kunta Boo. 2016. “The ‘Trance Dance’ of the Ju/’hoan Bushmen (San) of Southern Africa: Implications for Hypnotic Means of Healing.” International Journal of Health Promotion and Education 54 (3): 137–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/14635240.2016.1142063.

Monteiro, Nicole M., and Diana J. Wall. 2011. “African Dance as Healing Modality Throughout the Diaspora: The Use of Ritual and Movement to Work Through Trauma.” The Journal for Pan African Studies 4 (6): 234–52. http://www.jpanafrican.org/docs/vol4no6/4.6-13AfricanDance.pdf.

Sandlana, Nonkululeko Sheilla. 2014. “Umoya: Understanding the Experiential Value of Traditional African Dance and Music for Traditional Healers.” Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences 5 (3): 541–47. http://www.mcser.org/journal/index.php/mjss/article/view/2173/2160.

Vinesett, Ava L., Miurel Price, and Kenneth H. Wilson. 2015. “Therapeutic Potential of a Drum and Dance Ceremony Based on the African Ngoma Tradition.” The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 21 (8): 460–65. https://doi.org/10.1089/acm.2014.0247.

Winkelman, Michael. 1986. “Trance States: A Theoretical Model and Cross-Cultural Analysis.” Ethos 14 (2): 174–203. www.jstor.org/stable/639951.

———. 1993. “The Evolution of Consciousness?  Transpersonal Theories in Light of Cultural Relativism.” Anthropology of Consciousness 4 (3): 3–9.