
Danças afrodiaspóricas em contextos urbanos - contribuições para a formação em dança no tempo presente
Roberto Rodrigues
Florianópolis, v.3, n.56, p.1-22, dez. 2025
uma pessoa mestre define uma batida central e as outras interpelam
ritmos adicionais em torno dessa batida;
- Pantomima - muitas danças africanas refletem os movimentos da vida.
Os movimentos das danças podem, de forma estilizada, imitar o
comportamento animal, como o voo da garça, reencenar tarefas
humanas, como bater arroz, ou expressar o poder dos espíritos em
movimentos giratórios e fortes.
- Algo em mãos - muitas danças rituais africanas utilizam objetos
especiais, incluindo máscaras e fantasias, bastões, batedeiras, pedaços
de pano e outros itens;
- Competição - competir através da dança é um costume muito
difundido na África Ocidental e Central (Glass, 2007, pp. 16-17-18-19, grifo
nosso) 9.
Citar tais características é um modo de compreender como muitos dos
traços presentes nas danças afrodiaspóricas constituem modos singulares de
relações entre as pessoas, seus saberes-fazeres e suas corporeidades. Quando
contrastamos tais características com os elementos presentes nas danças ditas
acadêmicas, que em grande parte são provenientes do conhecimento centrado no
continente europeu, percebemos que as conexões entre musicalidades, modos de
9 - African Movement Vocabulary. African dance moves all parts of the body, in contrast to many European
forms that rely mostly on arm and leg movement. Angular bending of arms, legs, and torso; shoulder and
hip movement; scuffing, stamping, and hopping steps; asymmetrical use of the body; and fluid movement
are all part of African dance.
- Orientation to the Earth. The African dancer often bends slightly toward the earth, flattens the feet against
it in a wide, solid stance, and flexes the knees. Compare this to traditional European ballet’s upright posture,
with arms lifted skyward and feet raised up onto the toes. The African stance also reflects work postures,
especially agricultural labors.
- Improvisation. Within the patterns and traditions of age old dance forms, an African felt free to be creative.
A dancer could make an individual statement or give a new interpretation to a familiar gesture. Ajayi explains
how this trait surfaces in Yoruba dance: There is ample room for spontaneous and personal improvised
movements, as long as the improvisations are in rhythm with the music and in consonance with the overall
content of the dance.
- Circle and Line Formations. Many African dances are performed by lines or circles of dancers, as with the
vigorous, fast moving circles and sinuous lines of Dogon dancers in the Dama as well as the slow procession
of Egungun dancers in Yorubaland. In North America, some of these traditions coalesced in the Ring Shout.
- Importance of the Community. Traditional African culture values individuality much less than stratified
European society. To live in an African village is to let go of much of the need for privacy and the focus on
the self that we find everywhere in western society.
- Polyrhythms. African music included several rhythms at the same time, and Africans could dance to more
than one beat at once,
- Percussion. In much of Africa, percussion dominates the music, and in many cases the drum is the leading
instrument. Often, a master drummer sets a central beat, and other drummers interpolate additional
rhythms around that beat.
- Pantomime. Many African dances reflect the motions of life. Dance movement may, in a stylized fashion,
imitate animal behavior like the flight of the egret, reenact human tasks like pounding rice, or express the
power of spirits in whirling and strong movements.
- Something in Hand. African ritual dance makes use of special objects, including masks and costumes, staffs,
whisks, pieces of cloth, and other items.
- Competition. Competing through dance is a widespread custom in West and Central Africa” (Glass, 2007,
p.16-17-18-19). (Tradução nossa)