All around the world, music and dance have got people getting down. Who can resist grooving to a good beat? No need to speak the same language, just let your body do the talking. Dance the day away with these ten styles of dance around the world.
Cumbia – Cartagena, Caribbean coast, Colombia
The art of seduction through cumbia dancing in Cartagena
The precise origins of cumbia remain a mystery. Along the Caribbean coast of Colombia, various cities from Barranquilla to Cartagena dispute the title of cumbia creators, performing for curious spectators the different regional styles of the dance. One thing is certain, cumbia – imported from the Guinean dance form cumbe – is a cocktail of heritage from the indigenous people, African slaves, and colonial Europeans.. Cumbia is about seduction, about courtship. With sensual hip movements, a flirty lift of the skirt, and perhaps a candle in her hands, the woman executes short steps barely lifted off the ground while her partner dances around her fanning the flames. In short, cumbia is caliente (hot!).
Zaouli mask dance – Manfla, Ivory Coast
A Gouro man showing off his Zaouli mask and dance
The music of flutes and tom-tom drums begins, and the masked dancer jumps in front of the crowd, stamping his feet wildly. Beneath the shaking raffia and colourful mask is a man from the Gouro community in Manfla, central Ivory Coast. Each village of the Gouro ethnic group has its own dancer that performs at celebrations and funerals in hopes to strengthen productivity, togetherness, and, why not, peace.
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Frevo – Olinda, Pernambuco state, Brazil
Boiling frevo dancers bounce around Olinda © Prefeitura de Olinda
Sounds like fever and comes from the Portuguese word ferver – meaning to boil – frevo is as hot as it sounds. Light on their feet and heels, the frevo dancers align about 120 different moves incorporating acrobatics, leg shifting, and capoeira (Brazilian combat dance) steps. You can find the passistas (dancers) in full display of skills complete with skimpy outfits and little red, blue, yellow, and green umbrellas around the state of Pernambuco, especially during carnival in the city of Olinda.
The origins date back to the early 20th century but it’s frevo master Nascimento do Passo that brought it to popularity in the 1950s. The ultimate consecration was its recognition as intangible cultural heritage of humanity by UNESCO in 2012.
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Kathakali – Kochi, Kerala region, India
Kathakali protagonists Pacha and Minukku tell their story through dance
A bit of acting, a bit of dancing, and a lot of makeup is the recipe for a well-balanced kathakali show. Near the Chinese fishing nets of Fort Kochi, the kathakali performers float across the stage to the rhythm of percussions, decked out in elaborate costumes, executing each body movement with great precision and elegance. The hour and a half used for makeup is not taken for granted; with just the slightest use of eye and mouth movements, the dancers interpret nine facial expressions to evoke strong emotions like fear, love, anger.
In the 17th century, the dance-drama often took place in candlelight, all night long, until the wick drowned in the melted wax. Thankfully, nowadays you can enjoy an abbreviated version at the Kerala Kathakali Centre in Kochi.
Hopak – Kiev, Ukraine
Young hopak dancers jumping with pride © U.S. Army Europe Images
Get your legs ready to put the ‘hop’ in hopak – Ukraine’s national dance. Derived from the Ukrainian term hopaty which means “to jump”, this dance has got Russians and Ukrainians hopping since the 16th century. Performed in military communities, victorious soldiers would often celebrate by reenacting battle scenes through dance punctuated with acrobatic leaps. Once a solely masculine display of testosterone and pomp, the modern day hopak includes women in traditional clothing dancing in unison while the men do their characteristic split leaps and squats.
Adumu – Kenya and Tanzania
The higher the better during the adumu ceremony
How high can you jump? For the men of the Maasai tribe, the adumu, or “jumping dance”, is part of a coming of age ceremony – the higher they jump, the stronger (and desirable) they are perceived as. The men form a semi-circle, each jumping as high as they can, without their heels touching the ground, encouraged by the high pitched calls of their fellow comrades. Although fierceness is key in their semi-nomadic quotidian of cattle herding and lion hunting, elegance, accentuated by their red robes and beaded necklaces, is pivotal during adumu.
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Footwork – Chicago, Illinois, USA
Footwork dance crew THE ERA move their feet to the beat © Wilson Lee
The name of the dance speaks for itself. The Chicago born-and-raised footwork dance is all in the feet since its birth in the 1980s. The perfect soundtrack for footwork is characterized by high speed BPMs, choppy sampling, and pounding bass produced by Chicago juke artists. Names like RP Boo and the late DJ Rashad, respectively pioneers in footwork dance and music, are undeniable legends in the footwork scene still today. The dance knows no boundaries – dance crews like THE ERA spread the footwork word, performing their intense moves globally. Practice makes perfect if you want to master the “mikes”, the “running mans”, or the “skates”, only few of the footwork steps. With a similar spirit to break dancing, footwork battles often break out, so get on the dancefloor and show the Chicago kids how fast your fancy feet can move!
Ote’a – Tahiti, French Polynesia
Polynesian dancers on a Tahitian beach
As the saying goes, hips don’t lie, and in Tahiti they don’t lie still. The Tahitian traditional dance Ote’a, with its vigorous hip shaking to spirited percussions, re-enacts stories of everyday life with their hands while their hips are in constant motion. This technique is most impressive when the dancers maintain their hips shaking while executing the formation changing choreography. If you’re itching to get shaking, ask a sun-kissed Polynesian to help you out. You might even be lucky enough to try the floral or plant fibre skirt costume on for size, complete with tassels and elaborate headpieces. Sway like a palm tree and let your hips do the talking.
Viennese Waltz – Vienna, Austria
Elegance and poise during a Viennese waltz
The Viennese waltz brings to mind the music of Vienna born Johann Strauss, composer of over 500 waltzes in characteristic 6/8 time or 3/4 time. Often categorized as a competition ballroom dance, the Viennese waltz comes in handy when impressing the guests at formal occasions. Exceedingly elegant, the graceful dance, when properly executed, gives an impression of lightness and floating as the pair glides across the floor.
The Viennese waltz wasn’t always considered a high society dance; traces of the dance can be found in publications in 1774 as being danced by country folk in a lodge in the German countryside. Nowadays, exhibit your skills at one of the hundreds of balls hosted in Vienna, the city that made the dance famous.
Moshing – Washington, D.C. , USA
Elbows out, head down, brace yourself, and mosh!
Don’t be fooled, moshing is as scary as it looks. No need for technique, moshing is a case of push and shove in the centre of a concert crowd, letting your body follow the impulse of the likes of punk, metal, or rock music. The term is said to come from Washington, D.C. in the 1980s in the song Total Mash by the hardcore band SCREAM, encouraging their fans to “mash it up” and dance violently. Mash turned to mosh, and the dance inspired the formation of “mosh pits”, naturally formed moshing circles near the stage, at concerts across Southern California where American hardcore was gaining momentum. Anything goes so let loose and give it a try. If you’re not keen on being elbowed in the ribs or haphazardly punched in the nose, try crowd surfing across the mosh pit. In all cases, going home fully functional isn’t guaranteed.
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