A publication of the
Association of Dance Scholars and Practitioners of Nigeria
June 2015
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
DANCE JOURNAL OF NIGERIA (DJN)
Volume 2, June 2015
Journal of the Association of Dance Scholars and Practitioners of Nigeria 
(ADSPON).
ISSN: 2315-6317
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DANCE JOURNAL OF NIGERIA (DJN)
Editorial Consultants
1. Prof. Dele Layiwola -  University of Ibadan
2. Prof. Zikky Kofoworola -  University of Ilorin
3. Prof. (Mrs) Folabo Ajayi -  U.S.A
4. Prof. Francis Nii Yartey -  University of Ghana.
5. Prof. Emurobome Idolor -  Delta State University, Abraka
6. Prof. Ayo Akinwale -  University of Ilorin
Editorial Board
Editor in-Chief: Prof. Ojo Rasaki Bakare, Department of Theatre and Media 
Arts, Federal University, Oye
Editor: Dr. Arugha A. Ogisi, Department of Music, Delta State
University, Abraka
Associate Editor: Dr. Daniel Omatsola, Department of Theatre Arts, University 
of Abuja, Abuja.
Associate Editor: Dr. Cyrus Damisa Suru, Department of Theatre and Cultural
studies, Nasarawa State University, Keffi.
Associate Editor: Dr. Felix D. Emoruwa, Department of Creative Arts, 
University of Lagos, Lagos.
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VISION AND MISSION STATEMENTS
Vision
Dance Journal of Nigerians strives to become the flagship journal of dance in 
Africa and an authoritative scholarly journal in dance globally.
Mission
• To be a medium for intellectual discourse relating to the Dance Art in 
Nigeria.
• To provide a forum for the dissemination of research findings pertaining to 
the Dance discipline in Nigeria and Africa.
• To be a means of promoting the Dance Art in Nigeria
BRIEF NOTES TO CONTRIBUTORS
Dance Journal of Nigeria publishes two issues a year: in January and in July. 
Papers are expected to be between 4,000 and 6,000 words using the MLA reference 
style. The title page should contain the title, name(s), affiliation, email and 
telephone number of author(s). The paper should begin in the second page with 
the title, abstract, keywords and followed by the entire paper. Sections of a paper 
should be clearly separated by headings. Enquiries about details format should be 
directed to the editor at: madamedun@yahoo.com
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
FROM THE EDITORIAL SUITE
It is with great pleasure that I present the second edition of Dance Journal o fN igerl 
a publication of the Association of Dance Scholars and Practitioners of N igerJ 
The papers contained in this issue, results from the Association's Conference hd| 
at the University of Benin, Benin City from 8th to 11th October, 2014.
The papers derived from the timeless theme of Dance and National Developing^ 
from which the contributors took their trajectories. It is hoped that the content q 
this volume will be for our readers a harvest of ideas.
I thank members of the Editorial Collective and the Association's Executnl 
Committee for their support and encouragement.
Thank you.
Arugha A. Ogisi
Editor.
TV
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. One Hundred Years of Nigeria's History:
Dance and Society in an Era of Instability. - Prof. LAYIWOLA 1
2. A Ritual for Survival: Questions of Identity and Politics
in One Hundred Year of Nigerian Dance - Kene IGWEONU 19
3. African Contemporary Dance1 In Nigeria: History And Praxis
- Casmir E. ONYEMUCHARA & Chris NWARU 38
4. African Dance, Choreography and the Process of Evolving
an Applicable Dance Notation Model - Adeiza Peter BELLO 52
5. An Exposition of Contemporary Dance-Rudolph KANSESE 63
6. Challenges Of Dance Practice And Studies In Nigeria
- Cyrus Damisa SURU 74
7. Dance And The Child's Cognitive Development
- Temitope Bunmi ADEDOKUN-RICHARDS 84
8. Dance As A Creative Strategy For Television Advertising:
A Semiotic/Structuralist Reading And Analysis Of Guinness 
Televisual Commercials - Daniel OMATSOLA 97
9. Dance, The Female Body And Power In African Societies
- Gladys Ijeoma AKUNNA & Mariam Asabe IYEH 114
10. Development Of 'Stick Figure' Notation For African Dances
- Felix A. AKINSIPE 131
11. Managing the Challenges and Prospects of Dance as a Profitable
Vocation in Nigeria.- Stanley OHENHEN 145
12. Preliminary Observations On The Role Of Nta 24 In Preserving
And Promoting Nigerian Dance - Sunday Akpobo EKERIKEVWE 156
13. Reality Tv Shows And The Commodification Of Dance In Nigeria
- Ofomegbe Daniel EKHAREAFO & Oghenemudiaga
Praise AKPUGHE 169
14. Dance Education and Child Development
-Joseph Agofure IDOGHO 183
15. The Sono-kinetic Interface of Popular Dance In Nigeria: 1945 -  2015
- Arugha AboyowaOGISI 201
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Keynote Address
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF NIGERIA'S HISTORY: DANCE AND 
SOCIETY IN AN ERA OF INSTABILITY.
Prof. O. O. LAYIWOLA
Institute of African 
University of Ibadan, Nigeria. *(i)
INTRODUCTION
This year's theme of the Association of Dance Practitioners and Scholars 
Nigeria -  "One Hundred Years of Nigerian Dance" presupposes two hypothes
(i) The first seeks to re-establish the indissoluble connection of Niger I
history with one of the oldest of its art forms: the Dance.
(ii) Whilst the second reminds us of the conceptual fact that a nation-st^ 
derives her identity from the documentation of her heritage.
In addressing both hypotheses, it is necessary to establish a new framework < 
methodology for the perception and understanding of our art and our herita^ 
By so doing we re-emphasize what the humanities do for the conscientization < 
people and a nation. Somehow, I shall crave your indulgence to dwell a li: 
more on the second hypothesis -  the heritage of Dance, Drama, 'Play' 
'Meditation' -  rather than on the history of the nation that practices it. After i 
we know or apprehend what dance itself is, it is the Nigerian version of it in 
last century that we seek to probe and contextualize.
If we proceed from a definition which sees the dance as the rhythmic movement 
the human body and mind in time and space, we instantly realize that both 
physical, cultural and spiritual components of (wo)man are implied and 
heuristically, history, science and philosophy are conceptualized in the art 
Curt Sachs has thus portrayed:
The dance is the mother of the arts. Music and poetry exist 
in time; painting and architecture in space. But the dance 
lives at once in time and space. The creator and the thing 
created, the artist and the work are still one and the same 
thing. Rhythmical patterns of movement, the plastic sense 
of space, the vivid representation of a world seen and 
imagined -  these things man creates in his own body in the 
dance before he uses substance and stone and word to give 
expression to his inner experiences. (Sachs, 1937:3)
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Prof. LAYIWOLA
This instantly echoes Rumi, the Persian dervish poet who intones that 
"whosoever knoweth the power of the dance dwelleth in God."
In this context, we extrapolate that the dance phenomenon, from the beginning of 
time, had always been tied to life and the rites of passage. Specifically to our 
Nigerian origins we tend to examine more the art of dance on the three major rites
of passages:
>Birth, Rebirth or Festivals 
> Coming of Age and Marriage 
>Death and funerary celebrations
But you could not identify the three major rites of passage without reference to 
religion, art, craft, costume and masking traditions; essential aspects of culture. 
Here, I seek to go a step further from the poetic exclamation of Geoffrey Gorer, in 
his book Africa Dances, that:
Africans dance, they dance for joy and they dance 
for grief.
They dance for love and they dance for hate.
They dance to bring prosperity and they dance to 
avert calamity.
They dance for religion and they dance to pass time.
The observation of Gorer is matched by the description of seventeenth and 
eighteenth century Igbo Society by Olaudah Equiano in his narratives first 
published in 1789 and excerpted in a book of West African narratives edited by 
Philip Curtin and jointly published by the Universities of Wisconsin and Ibadan 
in 1967. These are the words of Equiano on the Cultural importance of the Dance 
in early Igbo society:
The observation of Gorer is matched by the description of 
seventeenth and eighteenth century Igbo Society by 
Olaudah Equiano in his narratives first published in 1789 
and excerpted in a book of West African narratives edited 
by Philip Curtin and jointly published by the Universities 
of Wisconsin and Ibadan in 1967. These are the words of 
Equiano on the Cultural importance of the Dance in early 
Igbo society:
We are almost a nation of dancers, musicians, and poets.
Thus every great event, such as a triumphant return from
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One Hundred Years o f Nigeria's History: Dance and Society in an Era of Instability.
battle, or other cause of public rejoicing, is celebrated in 
public dances, which are accompanied with songs and 
music suited to the occasion. The assembly is separated 
into four divisions (or age grades), which dance either 
apart or in succession, and each with a character peculiar to 
itself. The first division contains the married men, who, in 
their dances, frequently exhibit feats of arms, and the 
representation of a battle. To these succeed the married 
women, who dance in the second division. The young men 
occupy the third; and the maidens the fourth. Each 
represents some interesting scene of real life, such as a 
great achievement, domestic employment, a pathetic 
story, or some rural sport; and, as the subject is generally 
founded on some recent event, it is therefore ever new.
This gives our dances a spirit and variety which I have 
scarcely seen elsewhere. We have many musical 
instruments, particularly drums of different kinds, a piece 
of music which resembles a guitar, and another much like a 
stickado. These last are chiefly used by betrothed virgins, 
who play on them on all grand festivals.
On Definitions and Nomenclature
It is clear that in Curt Sach's interesting attempt at a panoramic documentation of 
his world history of the dance as a long standing and established form of human 
behaviour; he reiterates that in most human communities, the dance, as an event, 
is perceived as both the affective and cognitive bridge between the physical and 
the supra-physical worlds. In establishing this fact, he describes the phenomenon 
but not the actual historical sequences of societies nor the development of the 
phenomenon in time and space. However, his is a valiant effort that, apart from 
the flashes of insight achieved, also raises profound epistemological questions. 
One of them which I consider most poignant poses the question of whether the 
dance is an exclusively human phenomena. He narrates three instances of 
scientific documentation which prove that birds and apes observe dance 
movements and some rudimentary, 'cultural', performative behaviour. On 
account of the importance of this observation, I shall like to quote him at length:
In the Roroima district of British Guiana, Appun saw a 
"group of some twenty mountain chickens of a brilliant 
orange-yellow color, gathered together in a kind of dance
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Prof. LAYIWOLA
characteristic of these beautiful birds. In the center one of 
the cocks executed the dance-like movements, as he 
hopped about the open place with wings extended and tail 
out-spread. On the branches of the bushes round about, the 
others sat and expressed their admiration of the dancer 
with the strangest sounds. As soon as one cock was 
exhausted, he joined the spectators, uttering a peculiar cry, 
and another took his place".
In Cape York in northeastern Australia, Maclaren 
witnessed a dance of the stilt birds. "The birds, of a kind 
known locally as Native Companions, were long-legged 
creatures, tall almost as storks, and white and grey of 
feather; and the dance took place in the center of a broad, 
dry swamp, from the edge of which, in a place of 
concealment, we watched. There were some hundreds of 
them, and their dance was in the manner of quadrille, but 
in the matter of rhythm and grace excelling any quadrille 
that ever was. In groups of a score or more than advanced 
and treated, lifting high their long legs and standing on 
their toes, now and then bowing gracefully one to another, 
now and then one pair encircling with prancing daintiness 
a group whose heads moved upwards and downwards 
and sidewise in time to the stepping of the pair. At times 
they formed into one great prancing mass, with their long 
necks thrust upward; and the wide swaying of their backs 
was like unto the swaying of the sea. Then, suddenly, as in 
response to an imperative command, they would sway 
apart, some of them to rise in low, encircling flight, and 
some to stand as in little gossiping groups; and presently 
they would form in pairs or sets of pairs, and the prancing 
and the bowing, and advancing and retreating would 
begin all over again."
The most valuable document, however, comes to us from 
the laboratory for the study of anthropoid apes in 
Teneriffe, where a number of chimpanzees with no 
previous contact with mankind were brought up under 
scientific observation. The psychologist Wolfgang Kohler,
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One Hundred Years of Nigeria's History: Dance and Society in an Era o f Instability.
for six years in charge of this laboratory, also maintained in 
his reports to the Prussian Academy of Science the 
astonishing fact that the anthropoid apes dance. He tells of 
a female chimpanzee, who, when he once appeared 
unexpectedly, began to hop first on one leg, then on the 
other, in a strangely excited manner. We might, indeed we 
must, relate this with what investigators occasionally 
report: that when these so called natives saw white men 
coming, they danced in extreme excitement "from one leg 
to the other." In both cases the dancing is caused by a state 
of tension and fear. Kohler further observed a rapid 
whirling with arms stretched out horizontally. Now and 
then the apes combined with the whirling "a forward 
movement with the result that as they rotated they moved 
across the clearing." Finally there was a genuine round 
dance.
"In mock fighting two of them drag each other about on the 
ground until they come near a post. Their frolicking and 
romping quiets down as they begin to circle about, using 
the post as a pivot. One after another the rest of the animals 
appear, join the circle, and finally the whole group, one 
behind another, is marching in orderly fashion around the 
post. Now their movements change quickly. They are no 
longer walking but trotting. Stamping with one foot and 
putting the other down lightly, they beat out what 
approaches a distinct rhythm, with each of them tending to 
keep step with the rest. Sometimes they bring their heads 
into play and bob them up and down, with jaws loose, in tie 
with the stamping of their feet. All the animals appear to 
take a keen delight in this primitive round dance. Every 
now and then there are variations. (1937:9 -11)
The place of etymology and theory
The implications of the scientific observations described above instructively 
guides our attention to a re-examination of the definition, pattern and theory of 
dance as a phenomenon. Lincoln Kir stein (1935:1) observes that the English and 
French words dance and danse derive from the ancient German word danson, 
which means to 'stretch' or 'drag'. There are other European variants like dands,
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Prof. LAYIWOLA
danca, danza and tanz. All these would seem to derive from the Sanskrit root word 
tan which means 'Stretching' or 'tension'. But if we search further in the Greek 
concept of the term, it would seem to refer to the concept of art and representation 
of forms. This latter observation is more relevant or closer in meaning to the 
definition and understanding of the dance when it gradually became a court and a 
folk art. For example a very early study of the form by Thoinot Arbeau called 
L'Orchesographie (1583,1588) which is a treatise on 16th Century dancing, fencing, 
piping and drumming gives a broad insight into the form and performance of the 
art. He describes dance as the product of all kinds of movement including 
jumping, hopping, prancing, straddling, limping, squatting and curtseying. 
Consequently, he annexes dancing to the art of musical rhythms:
Dancing of saltation is an art both pleasing and profitable 
which confers and preserves health, is adapted for the 
youthful, agreeable to the aged and very suitable for a ll... 
depends on music because, without the virtue of rhythm, 
dancing would be meaningless and confused, so much so 
that it is necessary that the gestures of the limbs should 
keep time with the musical instruments...(Arbeau, 1583:
20; Kraus and Chapman, 1981:6)
Other authorities who have emphasized the concept of beauty, elegance and form 
rather than those of tension, stress and stretch are: John Weaver who wrote in 
1721 that:
Dance is an elegant, and regular movement, harmoniously 
composed of beautiful attitudes and contrasted graceful 
posture of the body, and parts thereof. (Chapman and 
Kraus, 1981:6; Chujoy, 1948:125)
Jean Georges Noverre, in 1760 that:
Dancing is the art of composing steps with grace, precision 
and facility to the time and bars given in the music, just as 
music itself is simply the art of combining sounds and 
modulations so that they afford pleasure to the ear. 
(Chujoy, 1948:125)
Diderot (c. 1772) that:
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One Hundred Years of Nigeria's History: Dance and Society in an Era of Instability.
Dancing is ordered movements of the body, leaps, and 
measured steps made to the accompaniment of musical 
instruments or the voice. (Chujoy, 1948:125)
Hugh Clapperton (1829: 53) recorded in his Journal o f  a Second Expedition into the 
Interior o f Africa that the people of Oyo did acrobatic dances as if there were no 
bones in their bodies. This is on account of a performance he witnessed in the 
court of the Alaafin of Oyo on Wednesday, 22nd February in 1826.
Again there are other historians of the dance, music and drama who emphasize 
the concept of pleasure and relaxation; the idea of entertainment after intensive 
labour or agricultural harvest. For example Sheldon Cheney (1929) and John 
Middleton (1985).
Dance Classifications
In a rather general way Paul Spencer (1985) has done an anthropological 
classification of the dance into about six distinct categories and functions which 
may help our understanding of the phenomenon in the context of human 
communities in and outside of Africa:
(i) The Cathartic theory of dance
(ii) The Educational role of the dance
(iii) Interactional role of the dance
(iv) The theory of self generation
(v) Theory of competition and boundary display
(vi) Dance as ritual drama
I crave your indulgence to add a seventh one,
(vii) Dance as a form of artistic representation.
It had always been a moot point that African (and Nigerian) dances cannot be 
fully studied without due consideration given to other forms of artistic 
representation, especially of sculpture and other three dimensional 
representations (Layiwola, 1997). Take for instance the architectural consequence 
of the Igbo Ijele masquerade dance; the Epa, Gelede and Egungun head dresses 
and masks of Yoruba masquerade dancing and such other display of artistic 
balance in the manipulation of the Eben at Igue festival of the B in! It is almost 
always clear that beyond the Rudolf Laban and Rudolf Benesh notation methods 
of European ballet, the conceptual notation of African dances are key to a further 
understanding of their cultural life and cosmos. The Ivorian dancer and 
practitioner, Alphonse Tierou describes this sculptural dance form as Doople.
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Prof. LAYIWOLA
Tierou believes that the discipline that classical dance imposes on the body 
'represents an asceticism whose object is to wrench man from the ground and 
from gravity1 whereas he believes that much of African dance seeks a cosmic, 
anthropomorphic reconciliation with the force of gravity. This is an important 
point of departure which highlights the two convergent, parallel description of a 
basic dance posture as represented by Kwabena Nketia (1975):
The postures that are assured in these dances are directly 
related to the way the body is used and moved. Certain 
movements are more easily executed from a position in 
which the back is slightly bent with the knees slightly 
dropped and the arms held loose, than from a rigid erect 
posture (1975:2010) 
and Tierons himself:
Than dancer is standing, his knees are bent and the thighs 
are not held close together. His feet placed parallel and 
flat, kept close to the ground and are wide apart by 
between thirty to forty centimeters according to the length 
of the dancer's feet.
The torso bent slightly forward, forms with the pelvis an 
angle of about 135 degrees.... The gaze fixed on the horizon 
(1992:53)
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One Hundred Years o f Nigeria's History: Dance and Society in an Era o f Instability.
In addition to the description of posture, rhythm would seem to be the one major 
factor that delineates African classical dances from those of European classical 
dances which rely on linear flow and space construction. They are usually 
geometric in their aspiration and rely on a different form of architecture that 
builds a complete Ijele or the complex Agbegijo dances of Oyo as described by 
Hugh Clapperton. Both Kwabena Nketia (1975) and Robert Farris Thompson 
(1974) made fundamental observations when they described African dancing as 
multimetric or polyrhythmic. These forms of dance methodology will not readily 
respond to the proto-linear Laban or Benesh notations. The polyrhythm of the 
music refer to the movement and isolation of different muscles at the same time in 
relation to percussion and drum rhythms which make for a complex 
interpretation of culture, environment and art.
In regard to the above, Nigerian dancers, choreographers and dance scholars owe 
the late Peggy Harper a world of gratitude in her efforts to document Nigerian 
dances for the understanding of European scholars and practitioners. Hers 
remains the furthest attempt at Dance Notation for the dances of Nigeria. She 
notices that the use of off-beat or syncopated rhythm is common to Nigerian 
dances and that the use of professionally made films is still the best option for a 
faithful recording of Nigerian and African dances. This rather lengthy quotation 
more than captures the point:
At present, professionally made film is the best available 
method of meeting the requirements of accuracy and 
accessibility. Dance notations, forms of symbolic 
transcription, are extensively used in Europe and America 
to record dance. However, these transcriptions are too 
reliant upon personal and cultural factors to be trusted as a 
recording technique in Africa where a vast amount of 
material of great variety needs to be recorded in field 
conditions. At this stage, when dance studies are being 
initiated in Africa, transcriptions needs to be referred back 
to as near an exact reproduction of the original material are 
possible. An exact reproduction must obviously be in the 
same terms as in the original material and dance as a 
kinetic art, inseparably bound to aural accompaniment, 
can only be comprehensively and adequately recorded in 
terms of an audio-visual medium. Film is accessible to 
scholars in different fields and countries, whereas a
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notation, as a complex symbolic language, is accessible 
only to those conversant with the particular technique.
The present notation systems are further unsuitable 
as a basis for analytical work in Africa because the 
assumptions on which they are based result from the study 
of European dance and its derivatives and from the 
acceptance of the cultural concepts of time and space 
implicit in these forms. For example, the most common 
techniques of notation use staff lines and spaces which 
reflect the European obsession with geometric design and 
are unsuitable for recording or analyzing those forms of 
African dance in which the rhythm of the movement is 
common to all performers while the spatial design and 
dynamic remain open to personal interpretation within the 
limits of the particular style. Those recording and 
analyzing dance should be keenly aware of the cultural 
implications of the techniques which continuously 
questions the basic assumptions of the forms of analysis.
Where possible traditional African dances should be 
filmed in their authentic setting where they perform the 
function for which they came into being. An artificial 
separation of function and form can be deleterious to the 
performance particularly in ritual and ceremonial 
contexts. (1968:2003:52-53)
Dance as Spectacle and Theatre
In much of African culture dance has established itself as an indispensable 
medium of the theatre and as an aspect of the total theatre experience and of 
festivals. It is dialogue carried to the infinitive nth degree where the process of 
communication is refined and etherealized. As with other indigenous forms of 
non-secular art, it is the documentation of non-material phenomena. It is, to 
borrow Soyinka and Oyin Ogunba's, phrase - 'a movement of transition1. It is 
movement in multi-meter and the idealization of movement to the point of the 
intangible. For this reason, there is no true dance event without a definitive story 
line. Any composer or choreographer who writes or conceptualizes a dance text 
without a story line can only be an amateur, or at best a dilettante.
In one or more enactments, the dance may represent the history or the story of
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------------7  * ----- y - j v v A t *  ( / <  • « >  i . ; a  I f O i a i l i i i f f -
origin of particular aboriginal communities. At other times it may depict the 
representation of a communal experience in time and space. The dance is. 
therefore, an ageless archive for re-enacting experience through forms other than 
bare words. It is often a codified or a mimed elaborate gesture. This is one of the 
major reasons why literal documentation like those of Laban and Benesh will not 
suffice for an African or Nigerian choreographer. For how do you notate in lines, 
staves and dots the story of origin, mythology or allusions underscoring the 
description of metaphoric movements, autochthonous incarnations in time and 
space. Even words are often unable to bear the weight of those cultural and 
anthropomorphic or zoomorphic re-enactments. Let us illustrate this theoretical 
assertion with four dance performances around the geographical zones of 
Nigeria before and in the context of the last century.
The first would be Ikaki: the Tortoise dance of the Kalahari Ekine society as 
described by Robin Horton. The Kalahari believe that the dance steps of their 
masquerades are taught to the dance protagonists by water spirits who inhabit 
the depths of the water front in the Creeks of the Niger Delta. In the content of 
storytelling Ikaki is regarded as a fictional character symbolized as a totemic or 
archetypal tortoise, but in the context of masquerade dancing he is regarded as a 
nature spirit. This is strikingly similar to the Egungun masquerades of the 
Yoruba. The fictional character under the mask is made to dance and entertain the 
audience often to the accompaniment of drumming, music and poetry but the 
masquerade itself is believed to be the materialization of an ancestral or nature 
spirit with definitive character and characteristics. They can either be enacted or 
invoked. In both the Egungun and Ekine societies any new stories, dramatic or 
dance events that feature in the repertoire must first acquire a legendary or 
mythical charter or currency (See Horton, 1981:493) before a secular version of the 
story or the event emerges (see Layiwola 1995: 111, 118).
If all dance events are stories, what medium do they adopt? This is what Janheinz 
Jahn observes:
Only in the unity of the mask and dancer, only in action is 
the Muzimu (the departed) mask the carrier of 
supernatural forces which the dancer conjures up in a 
disguised voice. Every pagan is fully aware that here is a 
human being under the mask. (Jahn, 1961:171)
This shows clearly that the purpose of the masked dances is to resolve ambiguity 
in social relations and in epistemological categories. But sometimes the dance
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Prof. LAYIWOLA
drama is made elaborate when the masked dancer claims to represent Ikaki, a 
man with a hunchback and an elephantiasis of the scrotum. At other times, Ikaki 
might be an unscrupulous trader or oil merchant pretending to be a king's 
creditor. He is a motley figure indeed.
In one particular dance scene, the character dreams big by aiming to kill an 
elephant and thereby earn the Peri title. He circles the field and the master 
drummer beats the head-hunting rhythm:
A body, a body; a body with the strong arm, with the 
strong arm; a body for peri.
As he dances to the strong rhythm of the drum beats, he circles the elephant, closes 
in on it and beheads the elephant. Meanwhile, the elephant is represented by a 
log of banana stem the Ekine members have put in the dance arena as a fictive 
representation of the elephant. He picks up the 'severed head' of the elephant and 
dances up to the Amayanabo (king) for acknowledgement and for communal 
solidarity. The drum frenzies up and the entire audience cheers him as he is 
moved by the spirit of departed titled men. This reinforces the exploits of 
yesteryears and the fact that dead heroes are remembered and re-enacted. This 
connects with the past and the community achieves an imaginative link between 
the past and the present. Sometimes contrasting balances in the temper of the 
episodes between the, tragic and comical are carefully laid out. Swipes are also 
directed at such clever exploitative neighbours as the Igbo or the Ikwerre.
In arriving at the metaphor that the dance employs, Horton has made very 
brilliant deductions on the psychological import of Ikaki dance drama. Folk 
dances, by their very nature, are narratives which take their point of reference 
from the history or anthropography of its people. That is why this paper has 
affirmed earlier that each dance event must have a storyline; each dance concept 
tells its own story to assert its pedigree.
For this same reason Robin Horton was able to elicit that the modern versions of 
Ikaki dance theatre is distilled from an atavistic, destructive origin of something 
that originally caused death when enacted. The artistic conversation of a death­
dealing force has helped its victims convert itself to a life-giving force for the 
ultimate survival of society. Essentially, metaphor is the method by which the 
dance ensures the survival potential of human communities. For instance Horton 
observes that Ikaki is not only an animal or a nature spirit, it is also a modern day 
transposition of a complex personality. In the case of the Kalahari the example of
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One Hundred Years of Nigeria's History: Dance and Society in an Era of Instability.
an 'amoral, psychopathic trickster -  the type who accepts society only in order to 
prey upon it'.
It is easy for us to deduce from this dance narrative that if we look deeply into 
Kalahari history and society, they had been victims of exploitative persons or 
conmen who had exploited and terrorized their communities. Sometimes these 
trickster figures have appeared as traders or entrepreneurs. This is how Horton 
puts the representation of Ikaki figure in folk dances:
In Kalahari metaphor, he is also a certain type of 
personality amply represented in present-day society. This 
is the amoral, psychopathic confidence trickster -  the type 
who accepts society only in order to prey upon it. Kalahari 
have a very real fear of the human tortoise; so much so that 
they are reluctant to contract marriage alliances with 
certain houses in which he is believed to abound. In the 
intelligent plausible psychopath, that universal threat to 
the fabric of the community, we can surely see the sources 
of the idea of Ikaki as the fascinating yet deadly old man of 
the forest. (1981:492)
But the most profound inference which creates a meeting point between art and 
psychoanalysis, and which bears out the genius of Robin Horton as an 
anthropologist is that which states that the Kalahari uses the medium of the dance 
as a social and educational phenomenon to bring the deadly phenomenon of Ikaki 
close to themselves, study him, contemplate the type in tranquility and thereby 
tame him. The dance theatre of the Ikaki is therefore a therapeutic medium for the 
purging of a community from its own excesses and pent-up emotions. We must 
also note that this has always been the role of festival dances in many African 
communities since the period when humans have settled down for the purpose of 
governance and institution building. This phenomenon is the alchemy that had 
redeemed many societies from boredom and extinction.
There are two further illustrative examples from other parts of Nigeria in this 
regard. The first is the Kwagh-hir dances of the Tiv of North Central Nigeria. 
Iyorwhuese Hagher and Edith Enem have described the social and political 
impact of Kwagh-hir among the Tiv. The film strip made by Frank Speed and 
Tunde Adeniji had also documented this vibrant cultural event. One of the 
highlight of the Tiv performance is the scene which portrays the fear and
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domestication of wild animals which ravaged the communities during the 19th 
century. Two of the animals -  Bugas and Ikoko constantly preyed on members of 
the community as they returned from the stream or from the markets. The beasts 
would simply ambush their victim from the forest and devour him or her. These 
tragic events became a great sources of worry to the Tivs that they chose to 
represent these as episodes in their animal dance events. In the film by Frank 
Speed the animal, clothed in palm fronds was shown in spectacular relief and the 
victim danced in elaborate detail to narrate to the community and audience how 
the animal swallows or devours its victim in the grim encounter. The victim calls 
for help all through the tragic episode until the last bit of his/her body enters into 
the jaws of the rapacious animal.
Another scene reveals the hunter as he dances, almost with the accuracy of 
Ikaki's mincing steps towards the Ikoko carefully aiming his arrow at the monster. 
He stylistically and gracefully falters until by an admixture of skill and courage, 
he is able to subdue the wild animal. The danced event reveals in detail the ordeal 
of the victim and the victor in this 'ritual' and the subsequent need to overcome the 
terror of the beast that threatens the group solidarity of the human community. 
This is the essence of the dance event and the festival.
The Kwagh-hir of the Tiv is an example of a composite art because the 
medium of sculpture and puppetry are also brought to bear on the story telling 
performances. For this reason it had been a vibrant medium of pantomime and 
satire. The poignancy of this cultural event is represented by Edith Enem thus:
The puppets especially, are in different styles. Some are 
naturalistic, others are grotesque and ridiculous, but all 
reflecting the moral prejudices and sanctions of the 
community. Historical awareness is shown in some 
puppets which represent events such as when the first 
motorbike was ridden in Gboko or the first policewoman 
emerged or when modem dress styles of European design 
gained local acceptance (1981:250)
Topical events and brilliant social and political commentary, with precise details, 
are highlighted in such a way that only an Ombudsman could have done:
For example, in the vignette of the execution of an armed 
robber by a firing squad, an actual shot is fired and at the 
same time the criminal's head jerks suddenly and drops to 
one side. An ironic edge in that situation is pointed by the
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One Hundred Years o f Nigeria's History: Dance and Society in an Era of Instability.
presence of his helpless relations (presumably his parents) 
at his execution... The mad man who is always beating his 
wife without respite is armed with a club which descends 
at intervals on the woman's head. (1981:251)
The second example here is that of a legendary dance revue which Ulli Beier 
recorded in Ede, Southwestern Nigeria in 1959. The dance tells, not a mythical 
story, but of an archetypal historical event which serves to remind the community 
of the way in which a migrant hero settled and subjugated the aborigines he found 
on the land. The metaphorical spectacle adapted the conflict between the priests 
of two gods whereby the priest of the younger god captures and subjugates that of 
the elder deity from the palace and a ransom had to be paid for his release by the 
King. After his release, he is put on horseback and the whole community dances in 
a triumphal procession to the palace. The actual conflict is danced and one of the 
two deities dances his rival to submission and captivity.
The dance event described above recalls the Udje dance performance of the 
Urhobo. This memorable dance event keeps both the poetry and the dance skills 
of the youth and their communities constantly rejuvenated. It also highlights the 
sense and consciousness of inter-community rivalry and 'pairing'. G. G. Darah 
further remarks:
This pairing phenomenon is known as Omesuo. The yearly 
carnivals serves as "battle grounds" where, as the 
practitioners put it, each group strives "to sing its rival to a 
fall". This objective demands that each performance 
attains the level of theatrical intensity capable of keeping 
the audience enthralled. For the presentation of a song to 
achieve this effect it must be done with a creative 
presentation of both verbal and non-verbal elements. The 
non-verbal aspects include ostentatious costume (Osevbe), 
dexterity of footw ork (O woto-ona), and m asterly 
management of the entire performance. (1981:505)
Dance as Ritual
There is absolutely no doubt that dance, historically and performatively, is both 
an art form and a mode of ritual behaviour because, as evidenced in research, it is 
used not only as a form of entertainment but also as a ritual element in worship 
and devotional activities. It is also necessary to observe that dance or ballet
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Prof. LAYIWOLA
presentations as art or as ritual tend towards a greater level of perfection than 
other performative forms such as drama and music and spectacle. The repetitive 
nature of rehearsals and practice has made it mandatory that what sets out as flair 
and talent is further honed in such a way as to gain a conscious perfection of an art 
which is primarily intuitive and innate. This also lends credence to the fact that 
primordial forms of art and science from sculpture to medicine and surgery were 
originally learned by the process of apprenticeship and observation. This is still 
true that in the art of dancing and performance in Africa the deft movements of 
the limbs is tied to the prosodic and syncopated coordination of the fibres of corti, 
that is the adjustments of the eardrum to the drum sounds and the sense of 
gravitational balance. The performer is therefore engaged on a higher factor and 
an unusual understanding of the economy of scale between that which is intuitive 
and extrasensory and that which is sensual and dexterously adaptive. Among the 
Yoruba of southwestern Nigeria, the language of the drum is both linguistic and 
philosophical whilst the media of the dance and the costume are plastic and fluid. 
A dramatic illustration of this is attempted in Soyinka's play of transition, Death 
and the King's Horseman (1975) when The Horseman and his griot demonstrate 
that the singer and the dancer must synchronise at two levels: auditory and 
aphasiac levels. Words are heard at a particular level but are unheard or 
translated on to an extrasensory level. Elesin Oba dances right, matching the 
language of the drum but could not hear the singer at the auditory level because 
he was entranced. This then confirms the declamation of Rumi that to dwell in 
dance is to dwell in a divine order. I think he was talking of this multilayered 
experience that is possible with dance, liturgy, music and poetry. Even though 
physical bodies are the building blocks for the dance experience, it is still the best 
instrument or tool for probing the psychological and instinctual state of our 
humanity.
The Future of Dance Studies
The nature and capacity of the dance art as a polysemic, multi-layered and 
multinational medium makes it a template and the meeting point of a diversity of 
interest, nationality and media. It is both an art and a science and the basis for the 
integration of beauty into the fourth dimension of space. Doris Humphrey, citing 
Isadora Duncan, acknowledged that since the dance is its own medium, the 
definition is in the making of it. This re-emphasises that as humanity's oldest art, it 
would continue to connect man to his past and to his future. It will also remain the 
underlying basis of performance, music and drama. It is the most developed of all 
stylized forms of the fine arts. It is for the same reason that by its recondite 
expression, it will continue to define and unite all the other arts both in concept
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and in plasticity. It is the one, like sports, which signifies man as a vector quantity
moving through space, and through the medium of time.
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