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This article analyzes representations of the Zimbabwean jikinya dance myth by Geoffrey Ndhlala in the novel Jikinya and Musaemura Zimunya in the poetry anthology Kingfisher, Jikinya and other poems. It examines the different social and historical settings considered in Ndhlala’s Jikinya (pre-colonial Zimbabwe) and Zimunya’s “Jikinya” (Dancer) and “Jikinya” (An African Passion) (the colonial period of the 1970s Zimbabwean anti-colonial war), and discusses how both texts attempt at describing the aesthetics of the jikinya dance and reinterpret Zimbabwe’s pre-colonial and colonial culture and politics. Of significance, however, is that, being aware of the fact that the nature and significance of dance representations in these texts has received less attention, we analyze the way both writers handle Zimbabwean jikinya in colonial contexts. As a result, we argue in this article that although both authors struggle to portray a clear picture of what the dance really is to the reader, they are able to portray the significance of the jikinya myth and dance in the construction of the nation’s memories and the mapping of the ongoing social experiences and political contestations encountered during Zimbabwe’s colonial history. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Les Ballets Africains, the first globally touring African performance company, debuted in the United States as a private Paris-based troupe in 1959 and toured again in 1960 as National Ballet of the newly independent Republic of Guinea. Although rarely considered in scholarship, Les Ballets Africains’ history during these years—encompassing the company’s first U.S. appearances and reflecting the influence of its founder, Fodéba Keita—are significant in relation to 20th-century trajectories of staged African dance, convergences between African and American performing arts practices and liberation struggles, and cultural transformations in Guinea under president Sékou Touré. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Examines the epistemological underpinnings that have contributed to shaping the current image of classical African dance as a bodily experience compared to aesthetic endeavor through the application of the consistency theory of selective perception. Evidence for biased images of African dance; Impact of early dance scholarship on images of African dance.