African Dance Celebrating Black History Month

To celebrate Black History Month, we invited the Zamble African Dance Company to teach students traditional West African dances and explore the history behind them.

In total 160 students volunteered across Years 7 to 12, with 40 students attending each session. Two different routines were taught in each setting and each group managed to learn and perform at least one of those routines.

The significance of the choreography behind both these dances were explained to the students. One routine was based on farming the land and another based on the exhibition of jewellery and gold of rich inhabitants. Mr Colly, from the Company, explained how this particular dance was only allowed to be performed by those who were above a certain level of wealth!

All the students were thrilled and intrigued to find out about the historical stories behind the dances and were amazed at the differences in African dance to other cultural dances from around the world. The relevance of the relationship between dance and music was explained and the importance of the use of the drum during African dances.

Overall the whole day was a great experience for the students to be involved in. They all left with excitement and it has been an integral talking point since.

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