The Challenges of Application of African Traditional Dance for Contemporary Educational Relevance

Abstract

Students pursuing music degree courses in Kenyan public universities undergo dance instructions as part of their cognitive processes in  learning traditional African music. The purpose of the dance courses is to enable students to practice, appreciate, preserve through  performance and understand dance as a cultural identity in a modern educational context. Dances hitherto performed in specific cultural  contexts are reconceptualised and situated into the classroom for instructional purposes thus raising fundamental questions regarding  the effect/affect of reinterpretation processes that are inevitable. Through analytical and comparative procedures, this paper seeks to  establish how various aspects, content, methodologies and performance practice of traditional African dances commonly taught at  Kenyatta university are unearthed, interpreted, re-evaluated and integrate.