The revelation with African dance, I think it was in the movements. In the fact to be barefoot, in the fact to tell you that you are free, it is a rather free dance. I said to myself: “well, let’s move the whole body”, it was obvious (E., Lyon, April 2017).
Students of “African dances” frequently tend to describe their encounter with these practices in terms of “freedom”, speaking of revelation, evidence, and “natural” acquisition (Haschar Noé & Crosetto, 2006). The cultural market developed around these dances further extends this rhetoric by praising the potential for self “liberation” that dwells in the practice of other “traditions”. As so, it efficiently combines the contemporary imaginary of self-development (Houseman et al., 2016) and healthy body (Courtine et al., 2006) with a market of world music and dance that has been growing since the 1980s (Apprill et al., 2013). For example, an African dance course brochure from the University of Geneva states: “African traditional da...
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