Why Are Africans Such Great Dancers?
Dancing is inherently human.
Play some music with a good beat to a baby and you will see them move to the rhythm.
And babies do this quite well. It’s like they already know how to do it. Just like they come out knowing how to feed. They also have perfect rhythm.
This means that nobody can teach another how to dance. You simply know how to do it. Of course, not everyone can pull the most sophisticated dance moves or choreography such as the moonwalk, and some are better at dancing than others, but every one of us can move to a beat.
Africans have always been said to be the best dancers. Right from a young age. You simply have to watch people of different ethnicities dancing to conclude that people of African descent do it best.
After all, the people hailed as the greatest dancers of all time are Black. James Brown, Michael Jackson and Beyoncé are examples.
But why are Africans such great dancers one might ask?
Here’s my take.
Africans lived close to nature
The greatest music ever created is by nature.
The melody of singing birds, the rising and falling tides, the blowing of the winds, the rhythm of swaying tree branches, the sound of water flowing down a river…
All nature has its own music, and Africans have lived in diversified nature for millenniums. While many cultures urbanised much earlier, the majority of the Africans constantly interacted with nature for longer.
And this has exposed them more to the rhythms and melodies of nature which informs their inherent reaction to it and improves their ability to recreate it or produce their own.
Many cultures that are also exposed to nature are also good at music and dancing. South Asians such as Indians and South Americas are examples.
The Swedes too whose country is 70% forest have produced some of the world’s greatest musicians and songwriters. ABBA, Max Martin and Avicii are examples.
