2.5 Contemporary Dances from Africa

• Basic performing skills: physical (body awareness and control, alignment and posture, flexibility, coordination, musicality and rhythm, strength and endurance) and expressive (projection, focus, spatial awareness, facial expression, phrasing, sensitivity to others)
• Fundamental movements: locomotor (jumping, leaping, hopping, skipping, travelling, galloping) and non-locomotor (balance, stillness, freeze, bend, stretch, reach, twist, swing)
• Movement qualities: percussive, suspended, sustained, vibratory, collapse, swing; fall and recovery; movement and release
• Dance choreography on African popular music (Lingala, Bongo, Naija, Amapiano, Afrobeat); a dance on road safety and three types of distracted road use

• describe the basic performing skills in African contemporary dance
• create a 3-5-minute contemporary dance routine based on African popular music
• execute basic dance movements of different qualities in a performance
• perform a contemporary African dance routine incorporating performance techniques
• enjoy performing contemporary dances from Africa

“How can contemporary dances be used to sensitise the audience on pertinent and contemporary issues?”

The titles are open to everyone. Reading a lesson needs an account — sign in or create one.

1. Body awareness, alignment and control
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Stack the standing body, then start and stop a simple movement without losing that alignment.
2. Flexibility, coordination and musicality
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Warm the joints through a comfortable range, then coordinate a step with the pulse and a clap off the pulse.
3. Strength, endurance and a safe rehearsal
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Build dance strength with repeats the body can finish well, and set the safety rules for every later rehearsal.
4. Projection, focus, face and phrasing
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Perform one short gesture twice: once for a partner nearby, then once so the back row can read the face and the timing.
5. Space and sensitivity to others
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Keep a pathway, a level and a gap so a group can dance together without bumping or crowding someone into the wings.
6. Locomotor movements
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Practise jump, hop, leap, skip, gallop and travelling, and land the jumps and leaps with soft knees.
7. Non-locomotor movements
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Balance, stillness, freeze, bend, stretch, reach, twist and swing, done on the spot and matched to an accent.
8. Movement qualities
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Perform one arm gesture as percussive, sustained, suspended, vibratory, swinging and as a controlled collapse.
9. Fall and recovery, movement and release
   40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
   Drop the weight into a lunge and return to the stack, then pair a held tension with a free release on a musical phrase.
10. Five African popular styles
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    Match Lingala, Bongo Flava, Naija, Amapiano and Afrobeat to a musical feature and a movement choice, using music the school may play.
11. A road-safety routine
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    Shape a 3-to-5-minute troupe dance on cognitive, physical and visual distraction, ending in a safe pause at the kerb.
12. Rehearse and perform the routine
    40 min · 1 practice tasks · quiz
    Run the 3-to-5-minute road-safety dance for the class, with shared roles, a bow, and a short audience response.