Tosin Kooshima, Tume (Ph.

D) Dance and its many Faces in the Nigerian Worldview

Dance and its many Faces in the Nigerian Worldview

Tosin Kooshima, Tume (Ph.D)

Department of Theatre and Media Arts
Federal University Oye-Ekiti, Nigeria
kooshima.tume@fuoye.edu.ng
+234 803 668 1039

Introduction
Several scholars have offered various definitions regarding the art of dance, and in spite of their
diverse perspectives on the subject, their agreement on the essence of dance has been constant. No
matter the standpoint from which dance is viewed, it remains a universal art which exists in every
culture of the world. However, the meaning and use of dance may vary across cultures and social
contexts. Apart from being a living culture which compresses the collective experience of a people
in rhythms and movements, dance lends itself to expression in other elements depending on the
culture involved. The practice and functional values of dance have direct bearing with the socio-
aesthetic and cultural sensibilities of the given society from which it emanates (Ododo & Igweonu,
54). This is because the socio-cultural values of each clime are factors which influence their
dances.

An insight into the nature of dance is provided by Ufford-Azorbo when she asserts that “dance in
Nigeria is shaped through the way a Nigerian think, feels, believes, and reacts to the physical
resources which surround the dancer and her intangible cosmos” (11). Ufford-Azorbo’a assertion
foregrounds the premise of this article. Though dance is a cultural activity and a global
phenomenon, the article situates the concept of dance within the worldview of Africa in general,
and Nigeria in particular. The paper views dance from the lens of African dance practice and
scholarship. It specifically gives meaning to dance from the perspective of its nature, functions
and identity in Nigeria.

The Nature and Functionality of Dance

Dance serves multiple purposes in the African socio-cultural milieu, permeating the personal,
political, social, religious, and spiritual spheres of human life. Though its many functions are
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broadly categorised into three: “social, ritual, and artistic”, dance has been practiced throughout
history for artistic, educational, therapeutic, social, political, religious and other purposes” (Grieve,
1; Bresnahan,1). It has also been said that societies deploy dance for their “spiritual, physical,
socio-political and economic advancement” (Uji & Awuawuer, 251). This segment of the article
discusses the traditional roles and functions of dance.

Communication: One of the fortes of dance is its expressive value. It is an art imbued with
elements which consciously or unconsciously communicate the ideologies, fears, hopes and
aspirations of its creator, performer, and even audience. Sorell (9) asserts that “dance is as old as
man and his desire to express himself, to communicate his joys and sorrows, to celebrate and to
mourn with the most immediate instrument: his body”. Bakare’s (1) definition of dance as “the
rhythmic movement of the body in time and space to make statements”, also suggests that the
primary aim of dance is to communicate. In fact, all the theories the origin of dance (ritual,
evolution, and behavioural) confirm that dance serves as a tool to express emotions, and also
functions as a physical response to the environment and situations. As an expressive non-verbal
art form, dance communicates both cognitively and affectively (Ajayi, 11).

Worship: In almost every culture of the world and in most religions, dance is usually deployed
as a tool of worship. It is a vital ingredient at spiritual gatherings where rituals are performed.
Specifically, in African dance discourse, the functionality of dance is considered from “either
secular or sacred performance” purviews (Emoruwa, 37). As posited in the ritual theory of dance,
once the early man acknowledged the existence of a superior being, he created dance as a means
of paying obeisance to him. The various deities that exist in the different cultures of the world are
worshipped through the dance medium. This is why pictorial evidence from the early carvings
and painting art works of various civilizations such as the Greek, Egypt, and Benin depict people
in varying degrees of dance actions. This is a pointer to the fact that dance has always been an
integral aspect of rituals and worship. It is during worship of deities that African traditional dances
are performed in their purest and original forms.

Entertainment: Among all the living art forms, dance has the highest entertainment value. It has
been a form of entertainment and expression since the beginning of time, from medieval times

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Tosin Kooshima, Tume (Ph.D) Dance and its many Faces in the Nigerian Worldview

through the renaissance (humankinetics.com). For a long time in the theatre, dance was used only
as entertainment and interlude during drama performances. However, dance has now gained an
autonomous recognition among art forms. In social gatherings, dancers are engaged because dance
is a vital ingredient in recreation and facilitating social bonds. Its entertainment value is also being
deployed as a marketing tool. This explains why dance is now increasingly being used in
commercials to advertise goods and services (Tume, 1). It is important to note that in Africa, an
event or occasion is hardly complete without the use of dance as entertainment.

History Documentation and Culture Preservation: Dance functions as an archive which

incorporates elements of the lived experiences of a people. It has also been described as “a well
from which various shades of historical experiences are drawn” (Ediri, 122). It has an expressive
and appealing nature which makes it one of the most viable art forms to codify and showcase the
variegated aspects of culture (Tume,1). It therefore serves as a powerful agent of culture
preservation. Ufford-Azorbo (3-11) elaborates that:

Among the artistic forms common to Nigeria, dance is one of the most popular as
it encompasses language, social custom, family structure, political orientation,
religion, economy, philosophy, belief and value systems of the people...It houses
the totality of life and culture expressed in pure visible form.

The continuous practice of a dance preserves the cultural heritage of the people who own it.
Therefore, the easiest and fastest way to know and understand a people is to see their dances.

Vocation: From time immemorial, dance is acknowledged as a profession. Today, it is a viable

source of livelihood to many dance artistes across the world. Every weekend in all corners of
Nigeria, events such as wedding and burial ceremonies occur, and in most cases cultural dancers
are usually engaged to provide entertainment to liven up these occasions. A high percentage of the
artistes employed in the various State Councils for Arts and Culture in Nigeria are primarily
dancers (Tume 2). Also, regardless of the genre of music, most popular music videos prominently
feature dancers. The evolution of the internet has also brought about an increase on the
consumption of dance products through social media platforms and other virtual means.

Culture identification and promotion: Dance harnesses and encodes the various aspects and
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elements of culture in the most expressive manner. It “can easily become an effective instrument
for identity formation” (Utoh-Ezeajugh & Offorbuike 61). Odunze (26) states that “the symbolism
of dance must not only aim at evoking emotions, but (it) must be culturally relevant to be
understood.” She reiterates that dance movements and expressions tell specific stories that are
based on the life and beliefs of the community from which the dance emanates, thereby enabling
the dance to effectively interpret the feelings and expectations of the members of the community.
The cultural relevance of dance therefore makes it a useful tool in defining and promoting a
people’s ethnic identity.

Communal Edification: Dance is a vibrant art that permeates every aspect of the African life.
Unlike other forms of dance, African dance is not detached from the lives of the people who own
it, as it projects their beliefs and situations (Fodeba, 20; Emoruwa, 37). John Blacking asserts that:

Dance is part of the basic infrastructure of life in Africa… African

societies treat dance as a foundation of social life, which enables individuals to
discover and develop their human potential, to reaffirm their relationships with
each other, to sharpen their sensibilities and educate their emotions (cited in
Awuawuer, 191)

It is a light which illuminates and articulates the totality of people’s lives, level of development,
cultural bonds, and cohesiveness (Suru, 2). Without any doubt, dance holds a highly sentimental
value for Africans, and the above positions describe how it moulds and reflects the African way
of life. Since time immemorial, societies have used dance validate social institutions and to enforce
conformity to social and cultural norms. This is because dance performances usually ignite in the
audience a mental reaction, either in agreement or dissent with the message of the performance.
When an audience is receptive of the message of a dance performance, it works on their psyche,
and it may begin to reflect in their social interactions. This point is aptly captured in Ufford-
Azorbo’s (22) assertion that dance is a device which furthers the maintenance of group solidarity
while presenting itself through the creative use of movement for aesthetic activity.

Nation Building: Dance is a powerful tool, suitable for social engineering, national cohesion and
unity. It is an important instrument for “awakening the national psyche” (Udoka, 218). Utoh-
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Ezeajugh and Offorbuike’s (61) buttress this point in their assertion that:

National identity is not an inborn trait, rather it is a direct result of the presence of
elements from the shared activities, practices and other common factors in people’s
daily lives such as national symbols, language, colours, dance culture, history, dress
culture, and consciousness, as well as ethnic bonding, music, food, arts, craft, and
so on.

With the power to induce possession, dance and music allow people not only to imagine the nation,
but to have the experience of being part of it (Njidda, 71; Turino, 174). Turino (56) reiterates that:

The special power of participatory music and dance to create group unity and
identity is due to their nature as inclusive, collective activities that place the subtle
signs of social interaction and relationships in the foreground.

Turino’s position aligns with Awuawuer’s (192) view that:

Indeed, this is often why dance is regarded as a potent tool for shaping and re-
shaping the history of different cultures all over the world… As one of the
potent instruments for communication and nation building, dance has been used
to symbolize unity thereby aiding societal and behavioural changes.

These persuasive attributes of dance have also been deployed by the state as a catalyst for national
orientation, identity, and unity. For example the dance performances at the National Festival of
Arts and Culture (NAFEST) provide edifying experiences which can be used to engineer social
change and to condition the mindset of people towards national integration.

The Many Faces of Dance in the Nigerian Worldview

In the worldview of Nigerian cultures, dance embodies a whole range of concepts, and means
various things to the diverse cultures within the nation. This segment of the paper highlights the
various identities of dance within the Nigerian worldview.

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Dance as Art: It has been asserted that dance is one of the oldest forms of all arts
(windycityweddingdance.com, kirbykendrick.com). Mcfee (86-89) clarifies that for anything to be
considered as art, it must be subjected to a battery of concepts which include interpretation,
appreciation, artistic judgement of the aesthetic value of the art. He further articulates that:
...‘art’ is an institutional concept, with a constructed, conventional character.
Further, works of art, such as dances, are essentially interpreted objects; indeed,
this is part of what it means to speak of them as objects of artistic (rather than
aesthetic) judgement... In contrast to visual arts like painting and sculpture, which
are atemporal, performing acts like dance take time, not just in the trivial sense that
it takes time to see or experience them, but in the more profound sense that they
centrally involve events, which are in the flow of time, occurring at a particular
moment.

Mcfee’s submissions are echoed in Siegel’s (1) position that, “dance is an event that disappears in
the very act of materialising... (it) exists at a perpetual vanishing point, for at the moment of its
creation it is gone”. Abbe (1) similarly views dance as a “universal art form...whose sole existence
is in performance”, while Ufford-Azorbo (7) describes it as an “elusive art” which is ephemeral in
nature. Though, ephemeral and transient in nature, the expressive value of dance makes its effects
tangible and long-lasting. As an artistic re-enactment of the tangible and intangible fragments of
culture in a visual form, dance is first and foremost an art. It is a performing art that employs
beautiful movements of the body and other theatrical elements to express feelings and
communicate subliminal messages. Unlike the visual art works which are fixed, the fluid and
transient nature of dance demands that it be performed for it to be experienced. Nevertheless, for
the purpose of preservation, dance can be recorded, documented, or re-performed. Thus, its nature
is both evanescent and permanent.
Dance as Movement: Among the definitions given dance is that of Anderson (9) who claims that
it is a “movement that has been organised so that it is rewarding to behold”. Likewise, Bakare (1)
sees dance as the “rhythmic movement of the body in time and space to make statements”.
Copeland (13) declares that “in dance, movement is declared autonomous of meaning”, while

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Arnold Udoka, in an interview declared that “movement is the primary ingredient of dance”. Dance
has also been described as an “art which is concerned with conveying emotions and meaning to its
viewers through body movements” (Tume, 4), while Ufford-Azorbo (1) explains that dance
“brings into manifestation the rhythmic movement of the human body in time and space”.

The above viewpoints seem to lend credence to the popular opinion that dance is basically a
movement which communicates. However, these stances should not suggest that the element of
movement in dance is absolute, self-sufficient and needs to bear no meaning, as that would
undermine the other theatrical elements such as music, props, make-up, and costumes, which are
harnessed into the dance art. In African climes, dance is much more than mere movement.
Movement is only an aspect of the totality of the dance art.

Dance as language: Dance is a non-verbal art which has the capacity of communicating and
prompting responses from its viewers. Bakare’s (76) holistic definition of dance is that it is “a
language which expresses the geographical locations, biological temperament, religious beliefs,
political and historical experiences, social practice and economic peculiarities of the people that
own it”. Tume (62) also described it as “a universal non-verbal language through which culture is
expressed, interpreted, transmitted, and nurtured”. Obafemi’s (26) position that language is
fundamental as cultural vehicle of expression, thought, ideas, and invention, can be further
illustrated with the dance art. Ugolo (286) reiterates this fact thus:

The dance art in Nigerian traditions and cultures harmonises and domesticates the
other art forms in its expression. It is at once utilitarian in its expression, and it
combines and aggregates, thereby making its language highly symbolic and
abstract.

In essence, dance is a globally accepted language, and all forms of it communicate one idea or the
other. The vocabularies of dance communicate deeper than words, as they are self-expressive and
ultimately need no interpreters.

Dance as Ritual: Rituals are conceived to regulate the relationship between members of the
society and the supernatural powers who are strongly believed to be in control of human activities
(Ojuade, 240). Traditional African societies thrive on rituals to perform various functions such as

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evocation, invocation, deification, and cleansing, at rites of passage like age-group initiation,
wedding, naming, and burial ceremonies. During these rites, dance and music are used as either
accompaniments or as a component of the rituals. Explaining the phenomenal connection between
dance, and rituals, Ajayi (186) affirms that dance is a means of sacred communication recognized
within the (African) culture, and is able to effectively fulfil the multi-faceted functions of religion
and bridge the chasm between this world and the other, and between the deity and its worshippers.

Ritual observances in Africa, and indeed Nigeria, are incomplete without their dance contents.
Hence, religious ritual remains one of the major sources of dance in Nigeria Ojuade (240). Typical
cases of the many dances in this group are Amiri ritual dance segment of the Oyarore festival of
the Alago people, Ivia Egben dance of the Ovia Osese rites of the Ogori Magongo people, Iria and
Oruseki dances of the Kalabaris in the Southern Nigeria, Tsav Utu dance of the Tiv people, Icica
dance of the Idoma people, and the Bori spirit possession dance of the Hausa people, among others.

Dance as Festival: Dance is one of the most iconic activities in African festivals. Ugolo (286)
states that:

In many Nigerian traditional festivals, ceremonies and performances, the artistic

expression that becomes very obvious to the onlooker is the dance art which
manifests in movement, mimesis, songs, music, and the plastic arts in terms of the
masquerade traditions that abound in many cultures across the Nigerian landscape.

Apart from the fact that dance is a vital aspect of most African festivals, research shows that several
traditional dances in Africa derive their names from the festivals during which they are performed.
A few examples of dances in this category are: the Olokun dance of the Olokun festival of the
Benin people, Bata Yemoja dance of the Yemoja festival of the Yoruba people, the Odu dance of
the Odu festival of the Alago people, and the Aringinya dance of the Aringinya festival of the
Akoko people.

Dance as Masquerade: Masks and masquerades are central to African festival performance. Apart
from the costumes, the art of masquerading is brought to life with the unique dance movements of
the masquerade and his followers. Dance movements are usually used to identify each masquerade,

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so much that most African masquerades bear the same name with their dances. As in the case of
Odu dance of the Odu masquerade, Owa dance of the Owa masquerade, Mami water dance of the
Mami water masquerade, and the Kwagh hir dance of the Kwagh hir masquerade, among others.

Dance as Costume: Dances are usually closely connected with the costumes with which they
are performed. Yerima (124-127) who recognises dance as identity, traditional values, and
language of the people, further expatiates that dance as language can be broken into four different
subjects: symbol, images, music, and costumes. He submits that:

The colour of dance is in the costumes worn by the dancers. Each dance has its own
specific costumes. These costumes add to the symbolic images of the dances. They
adorn the dancer, and add to the character of the dancer. They place the character
within the milieu of the dance.

The costume adorned by a dancer to perform any dance, is automatically part and parcel of the
dance performance. Costumes evoke the images of a dance, as the colours and the designs of
costumes are interwoven with the essence of the dance. This point of view takes root in examples
such as the red and black Utogho costumes for Idoma dances, A’nger, Viavtyor, Gberwha and
Agbendekuru costumes for Tiv dances, Sanmiyan, Alaari, Etu, Asooke, and Adire costumes for
Yoruba dances, and the Okpa costumes for dances of the Alago people. Akin to the case of
festivals, some dances bear names which are synonymous with their costumes. A few examples
of dance costumes in this category are the very flamboyant Abang costumes of the Abang dance
of the Efik people, and the Odum costume of the EgwuOdum dance of the Igbo people.

Dance as Performance: Dance as a living art, is an activity which has to be performed as an

artistic presentation for it to be experienced. In the African worldview especially, dance in its
entirety is a total package of various arts. The various arts do not function just as embellishments,
but as performative elements intricate to the dance art. The treatment of dance as performance is
in the recognition of the value of dance as a holistic art, which encompasses all the elements of
theatre. This may explain why the word ‘performance’ is synonymous with dance in almost all the
Nigerian languages. The word ‘dance’ bears performance-inclined nomenclatures such as ‘ereʹ’ or
‘areʹ’ in Yoruba, ‘wasa’ in Hausa, ‘egwu’ in Igbo, and ‘ishol’ in Tiv languages.

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Dance as Music: In Africa, dance and music enjoy a symbiotic relationship. Enekwe (26) observes
that “music does not merely accompany the dancer; both encounter each other, sometimes in a
dialectical sense”. Nwabuoku (2) observes that, in Nigeria, music equates dance… (and) dance
occupies a central place in Nigerian music. Echoing this point, Tume (169) submits that culturally
speaking, neither music nor dance can exist on its own for they both go hand-in-hand. She explains
that music is the rhythmic accompaniment (and punctuation) for dance, while dance is the
interpretation of music through body movements. Likewise, Terez’s (3) averred that:

In many cultures, the connection of music and dance are powerful, ingrained in
everyday life and countless ceremonies. To this day, many African cultures do not
have a word for music and dance as a separate entity. (Dance) movement to music
is innate and unquestioned.

Speaking on a personal experience of dance without music, Terez further clarifies:

Dance without music reduces my enjoyment of the experience. Yes, the silence can
be employed to prove a point… but do not ask me to embrace an entire ballet
without music. It would leave me feeling only half-nourished.

All the above positions are summed up in Ugolo (286) position that:

Encased in expressionism, the human body (during dance) becomes a vehicle of

emotional outbursts seeking outlet in dynamism of rhythmic movements that ride
on musical sound and song expressions. Thus, in Nigeria, the concept of the dance
art encapsulates and aggregates centuries of musical tradition.

Of a truth, the close connection depicted in various African dance performances, demonstrates that
African dance is one and same with its music.

Dance as Drama: This is the form of drama that is conveyed by dance movements and is usually
accompanied by dialogue (www.merriam-webster.com). Also popularly referred to as dance-
drama, dance in this form is a combination of dance movements, spoken text, and dramatic actions
(www.oxfordreference.com). Bakare (10) defines dance drama as a type of dance which “narrates

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a coherent story through a sequence of actions and movements”, and in so doing pays attention to
“characterisation, mood, spatial relationships, and exaggerations of actions, body shape and
stance”. In this case, the dance forms a part of the drama.

Dance as Theatre: Ojuade’s (232) views dance as an art form which involves the rhythmic
movement of the body to music especially with a view to expressing an emotion, or an idea, or to
narrate a story. This standpoint implies that traditionally every dance tells a story. Molokwu’s
(242) posits that dance theatre is the art of telling a story through dance. He states that “the dancers
under the direction of the choreographers tell a story using body movements”. Though theatre in
this form relies on movement as its principal medium of communication, its experimental nature
jettisons the restrictive nature of traditional dances, and allows the totality of the message in a
dance story to be communicated in terms of body movements, music, costumes, make-up, props
and other elements. Dance theatre is therefore a by-product of modern and contemporary dance
forms, which encourages freedom of expression and storytelling.

The stance of this paper aligns with Ufford-Azorbo’s (13) explanation that:

Dance theatre…could employ the use of other art forms like music, costume, make
up, lighting and mime in its presentation. Dance has excelled and claimed its place
in theatre, making it possible for one to appraise a performance as dance theatre.
This state of dance is a correction to the erroneous classification or use of dance in
the past as sub art form.

Igweonu (2) maintains that dance (theatre) is geared towards reasserting the position of
contemporary African dance as a distinct artistic genre that has potentials, not just for spectacle,
but as a perfect tool for didactics. In this sense, traditional dance movements could still function
effectively when refined to address topical contemporary issues, and transported from their cultural
space. An example of this is the NAFEST stage which features dances that have evolved from the
traditional festival arena to the modern or contemporary stage or performance space. Thus, dance
theatre has come to be known as the conception and expression of ideas and thoughts in a theatrical
experience, through the medium of dance in the holistic sense.

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The Dance-Drama versus Dance Theatre Debate: A Clarification

There have been significant debates as regards what constitutes the theoretical frames of dance-
drama and dance theatre. To confute Bakare’s (10) stance, Ododo and Igweonu (53) assert that
what he (Bakare) defines as dance drama “could still pass for drama” due to the “heavy presence
of oral resources which are the chief communicative vehicles of drama”. Similarly Ugolo (39 - 40)
decries the confusion between the concepts of dance-drama and dance theatre thus:

To put together the two words “dance” and “drama” seems to me like putting okra
in Ogbono soup- dance being Ogbono, while drama is okra. In whatever way you
look at it, the product of such mixture is a slimy soup popularly called the Ogbono
soup. The okra helps the Ogbono to become more elastic or slimy.

In what Emoruwa (54-56) criticizes as “poor adjudication scenarios in Nigeria”, he advocates for
a clear definition of the boundaries between dance-drama, dance theatre and pantomimic
dramatization.

From a logical progression of the above discourse, we perceive a confusion of the term ‘narrative’
to mean verbal narration only. In as much as the dance art could in rare situations employ speech
in performance, the use of speech in dance performances is usually very limited. Thus, the dance
art is not in any way dependent on speech for message dissemination. However, since every dance
and indeed every art communicates, what we find lacking in the above positions is a proper
articulation of the experimental nature of dance theatre which jettisons the restrictive nature of
traditional dances. This study finds instructive, Ododo and Igweonu’s (54-55) submission that:

Dance theatre is therefore a deliberate attempt at distinguishing between dance as

a traditional/cultural entertainment form and dance as a theatrical aesthetic
form…The motivating factor is the belief that dance just like drama (and music)
should be able to sustain itself in a meaningful communicative hold without
inevitable dependence on vital dramatic and musical resources. This is essentially
the essence of a dance theatre… the presentation of a dance performance that does
not rely essentially on the use of song and music, serious costume or scenography

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Tosin Kooshima, Tume (Ph.D) Dance and its many Faces in the Nigerian Worldview

to advance its plot, but may employ them as embellishment, is therefore what
qualifies as dance theatre and distinguishes it from dance drama.

Our point of agreement with Ododo and Igweonu is that dance theatre, is an emergent form of
dance which is different from using dance as pure entertainment. However, we also recognise that
dance as an art does not exist in a vacuum. Therefore, going by the nature of African dance which
encourages the support of music, costumes, props and other theatrical elements, these also could
be employed to contribute greatly to the enhancement of meaning in the creation of a dance theatre.
We conclude that the distinguishing feature of dance drama is the enactment of drama with the
heavy support of dance, while for dance theatre, an entire story is told through the dance medium.

Conclusion

This paper has broadly treated the nature, functions and identities of dance within the context of
the Nigerian worldview. It identifies communication, worship, entertainment, education, history
documentation, culture identification and promotion, communal edification and nation building as
some of the main functions of dance in Nigerian societies. The paper also lists art, movement,
music, language, ritual, festival, masquerade, costume, performance, music, drama, and theatre as
ways of identifying dance in Nigeria. These various functions and identities of dance affirm it as
an invaluable art whose maximum potentials are yet to be fully explored. In conclusion, we
recommend a more versatile use of dance to properly reposition it among the performing arts.

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