African Drum Notes

The chapter called “Interrelations of Music and Dance” in the book “The Music of Africa” briefly explains about the form of dance moves and its relationship with the African music. After thoroughly reading this chapter, I was able to know the importance of African dance in African music by realizing cultural differences behind the various kinds of African dance and the meanings of the moves in the African music. First, I was able to learn the various kinds of African dance moves based on different kinds of African cultures behind them. Before reading this passage, I assumed all of the African dance moves in African countries might be similar since these countries are located in the same continent. Especially, Asian countries such as Korean, Chinese and Japanese dance moves are similar in moves even though they wear different traditional clothes and have different meanings and different cultures implied into the moves. However, totally different from what I expected, Nketia explains that African countries try to differentiate themselves from other African countries in not only the moves but also quality, timing and flow of the movements due to different norms and cultures they pursue. For instance, they have different tempos, postures of body, and the body part they use for the dance. Therefore, I felt it might be important to know the cultural background behind Ghana dance we are learning during the class and the difference in moves from the other countries’ dances. Moreover, I was able to know the meanings of the moves in African music. Since Korean dance reflects the story through dance moves, outfits and make-up, we are able to easily know the purpose of the dance. However, in African dance, based on different postures, facial expression, and occasions, they could imply different meanings into the dance moves. For instance, according to the author, holding both of the arms high to the sky means they honor the God. Also, placing the right forefinger under