Tsonga-inspired musician and writer Maya Wegerif AKA Sho Madjozi in Johannesburg.
Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100
Costume, hair and dance allow her to modernise Tsonga culture – and help shape youth identity.
Dancers perform Rite of Spring.
Pina Bausch Foundation
The 38 dancers highlight the ongoing lack of African representation on theatrical stages.
The performance by Ghetto Kids on Britain’s Got Talent won them new fans across the world.
Screengrab/Britain's Got Talent/YouTube
The Ugandan orphans stole headlines after performing on Britain’s Got Talent - but have been an internet sensation for years.
Exposed by Restless Dance Theatre.
Roy Vandervegt/Arts House
Some offerings were political and academic, some were celebratory. Some told us personal or cultural stories, some had 100 dancers, some had one.
Rema performing in the US. His hit Calm Down has gone viral - in part thanks to a choreographer named Loïc Reyel.
Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images
The five Iranian teenagers were arrested and forced to apologise – but the dance challenge continues to go viral.
Siddi children performing Dance Dhamaal in Ahmedabad in Gujarat, India.
Courtesy Sayan Dey
Dhamaal music and dance reveals a rich and complex mixing of cultures that is shaped by history.
Amirr (centre) parades though his village ahead of the imbalu circumcision ritual. Imbalu begins with dance and music, as initiates visit relatives and friends to receive gifts.
Luke Drey/Getty Images
The ritual site becomes a communal classroom where songs and dances teach history, impart values and preserve cultural identity.
Bernardo Guiamba (aka Pak Ndjamena) from Mozambique has created an inspirational new dance film.
Mariano Lopes Silva
Durban’s Jomba! festival is now 100% online and free, and there has been a move from stage art to screen dance.
About 62% of Sierra Leonean women aged 15-49 have experienced physical or sexual violence.
Getty Images
Theatre is able to create a space for discussion about how and why women experience physical and emotional violence.
Fenómenos do Semba from Angola.
Courtesy Fenómenos do Semba/Facebook
A year later, it’s clear that the dance promotes a conscious concept of Africanity – sowing feelings of tolerance and contentment that have conquered international audiences.
An initiate parades through his village in Mbale, Uganda.
Luke Dray/Getty Images
Sacred sites where rituals are performed by the community should be protected as living archives that house local heritage.
South Africa’s Economic Freedom Fighters toyi-toyi at an anti-Israel protest.
PHILL MAGAKOE/AFP via Getty Images
South Africa’s famous toyi-toyi was adopted from Zimbabwean troops, who learned it in Algeria – showing the interconnected nature of Africa’s liberation struggles.
Angolan dance troupe Fenómenos do Semba.
Courtesy Adilson Maiza for Fenómenos do Semba
During the coronavirus pandemic the Jerusalema dance challenge enacted a way for communities to connect - repetitive enough to be picked up and varied enough to tease.
The Collective of Black Artists (COBA) has been supporting African and Caribbean dance in Canada for 25 years.
COBA/Yosseif Haddad
COBA, the Collective of Black Artists has been working to introduce Canadian audiences to African and Caribbean dances for 25 years.