What is 'African dance'? Is the label 'African dance' representative enough of the diverse dance traditions in African communities, or is it just another form of tokenism? How is the term 'African dance' rooted in the histories of colonial racism against the African people? What are the dangers of using the same label as an attempt at instituting…

Indigenous dances in communities that underwent European colonialism and Christianization are currently practiced in environments that still carry colonial legacies. Without formal dance teachers' training programs and frameworks, individuals in postcolonial Africa have leveraged local resources, social experiences, and individual innovation to…

Over the years, dances from African cultures have been viewed in the Western world as caricatures of exotic bodies and representations of experiences that are abundant in the natural order of things. Valentino Y. Mudimbe (1988) has defined this otherization and objectification as the invention of Africa. With the continuous mobility of people and…

What constitutes African dances as valid knowledge? Do the learning processes of African dances in local communities entail rational consciousness and epistemological interpretations of the learner? How do the processes of dance practice double as frameworks of construction of meanings? The foregoing questions provided parameters for critical…

Dances and drum rhythms from African traditions have been integrated into summer camp activities in the United States as a response to the ever-globalized environments in which these camps are located and the diversity of the campers and teachers that they attract. This reflective article draws on critical reflections, observations and experiences…

The increase in internationalization of education has set off a proliferation of educational models. Study abroad has emerged as one of the educational approaches through which universities can support students to internationalize their experiences, hone their skills and knowledge bases, sharpen professional proficiencies, and broaden their…

As globalization endures onslaughts from neo-state nationalism, examining the role that dances from non-Western cultures play in facilitating intercultural education is necessary. This article critically examines the intercultural reflections and meanings that student performers constructed from learning and performing the movements, techniques,…

Dances from African communities are gradually getting incorporated into formal education at pre-tertiary and tertiary levels in the United States. Whereas strides have been made to embrace this artistic and cultural diversity, the instructional methodologies that are applied in teaching these dances are commonly founded on Western pedagogic canons…