| |||||
CHAPTER ONE | |||||
INTRODUCTION
1.1
BACKGROUND OF THE
STUDY
According to Innocent Akioya (2006) he stressed that, to
a typical African child, music is life. There is music in almost everything
that happens around him. His mother sings when washing cloths. The sister sings
while sweeping. The father whistles to tune while on the farm. When the family
gathers together for a ceremony, singing is done, singing being an important part
of music; music is therefore that thing that makes activities around him come
alive.
According to Innocent Akinoya (2006) he
defined music as sound that please the ears.
According to Abolagba J. A. (2003) he sees music as the combination of
organized sounds that is pleasant to the ears. Sound, therefore, is the main
source of music. It must be pleasing to the ear, if it is organized, if not it
will be regarded as noise.
DANCE
Abolagba J.
A. (2003) defines dance, as an act in its form, is a rhythmic movement to music
either along or with a partner or in a group. Dance is also use of the body to
communicate a message. However, while drama is rooted in words, music in songs,
dance is rooted in body movement. There is this saying that Africans are dancers.
This is because Africans dance to any music they listen to:
Dance as an
art plays various roles in an individual or group of individuals. This
includes:
1.
People dance to
glorify God.
2.
People dance to
express their feelings
3.
Dance is used for
entertainment
4.
People also dance
to exercise their bodies.
5.
It is used to
appease the gods.
DANCE PATTERNS
A dancer must
master the techniques for his profession, since dance has its own methodology.
Also, dance differs from one culture to another. This is why Europeans dance
Ballat, while Nigerians have either the Bata dance of the Yoruba, Antilogous of
the Igbo or the dance of the Hausa. Each of these different dances have their
own peculiarities, hence their techniques must be mastered before they can be
performed.
There are some basic denominators that
are found in basically all dances. They are the factors that underline
techniques. Once they are mastered, the dancer has no problem in dancing. They
are the dancers tool, the “body”, the place he occupies during performance
either on stage, or on an open area called the “space” the way he responds to
rhythm either slowly or very fast called the “time”.
TYPES OF DANCE
Dance in
Nigeria is of two main types, these are: free dance and stylized dance. In the
free dancing, there are no specifications as to how each dancers move in terms
of space, relationship to other dancers and body movement. Rather, each dancer
expresses his inner feeling independent of what other dancers or other parts of
the body do.
Stylized
dance on the other hand, is concerned with purposeful and uniformity in
movements. The movements are planned in such a way that body relationship and
individual relationship are all meaningful examples is the atilogwu dance.
CATEGORIES OF DANCE
Dances can
also be categorized along functional line.
1.
Occupational
dances
2.
Social dances
3.
Ritual dances
OCCUPATIONAL DANCES
They are
associated with or staged or reflect different aspects of Nigerian professions,
such as hunting, divination, fishing, farming etc.
SOCIAL DANCES
This include
those staged for social occasions such as wedding, title taking, etc.
RITUAL DANCES
This include
sango dances, new yam dances, masquerade dances, etc.
THE STRUCTURE OF DANCE
Dance has
three (3) basic structures. The beginning, the middle and the end.
DANCE FORMATIONS
There are
different mathematical formations, which provide the framework for the
organisation, position, space and movement of the dancers and the music
orchestra or ensemble. These formations are as follows:
a.
Circle formation
b.
Parallel lines
formation
i. Double parallel
lines
ii. Triple
parallel lines
iii. Quadruple
parallel lines
c.
Single line
formation
d.
Semi-circle
formation
COMPONENTS OF DANCE
Dance
contains the following components: Music, drama, costume, language and mimes. Music
is indispensable in dance because the dancer dances to the rhythm and tempo of
music including sudden and planned musical variations.
Drama is used
in the form of acting or behaviour or farmers during planting and harvesting
activity, paddling a canoe as in EGWU-AMALA of women dancers in Delta State,
and in cante dancers of the Efik, Ijaw and Ibibio people. Costumes provides and
expressed the external body beauty and gives colour of joy, sadness, gallantry,
war, peace, smartness or worship to the dancers and the dance depending on the
type of social functions and objectives of the dance.
Language is
in the form of words and statements in the vocal line including, commitments,
creative speech and recitations associated with a particular. Mime is in the
form of gestures by different patterns of facial expression, arm, head and eye
movement and signs with the intention to analyze some ideas.
ASPECT OF DANCE
The following
are those aspects we considers as we dance.
1.
Awareness of
space; in any dance the spacing of dancers are taken into consideration. The
kind of dance determines the interval between the dancers.
A good dance; leader should space the
dancers, so that they all we be free when dancing and will not hit one another
when displaying a particular skills. Spacing of dancers also helps the audience
to have a free view of the dancers and be able to identify the best dancer.
Also spacing of dancers, gives room for air ventilation. As well as helping the
dancers to be able to breath in fresh air for strength in then process of doing
this act.
2.
Awareness of time:
This is very important to every good dancer. The dancers should be very
sensitive, watchful and vigilant in order to know when to come in with the
dance. It is when the dancers have the awareness of time, that they will know
how many beat to follow and when to stop. They must all stop at the same time
and start together.
3.
Awareness of
weight: When we talk about weight, we mean the weight of every dancer. Whether
they are suffering from obesity or no, it must be considered. This is because
the size or weight of a particular dancer will determine the kind of dance he
or she can participate in e.g. somebody that is suffering from obesity cannot
be chosen for the Esan dance called “Igbabonelimin”. The average people are
mostly chosen.
4.
Body awareness:
This talk about the physical appearance of people that are involved of an
individual will determine what he or she can do better. This is the most important
aspect among the others. For example, the disability of a particular person
will disturb him or her from doing what his or her mates are doing.
1.2
STATEMENT OF THE
PROBLEM
A great number of Africans do not know
much about their cultures. They are being influenced by civilization today.
Africans now sing like the white men and even dance western dances, neglecting
their great cultures. Even in search of books that we can use for research is
very difficult to get. Most authors (Africans) do not write books on their
different cultures any more because of civilization. This is the reason why
there are limited sources of information.
In this study, the researcher would
like to create the awareness in Africans to be proud of their culture and to
protect their culture for identification.
1.3
PURPOSE OF THE
STUDY
The purpose of this study are as
follows:
1.
To create
awareness of the acrobatic dance called “Igbabonelimen” to the public.
2.
To examine the
role of music in Igbabonelimin dance.
3.
To identify some
of the songs used in Igbabonelimin dance and their meanings.
1.4
SIGNIFICANCE OF
THE STUDY
A survey into the problem of dance with
regard to Igbabonelimin. In Esan West local Government of Edo State is much
significant to Esan West (okpebho) but to Nigeria in general. The importance of
carrying out this study is that, at the end, it could serve as a resource
materials to many who want to gain deeper knowledge about the problem of dance
and also the benefit of this measure.
This study will encourage the people of
Esan West and Africans in general to be more interested in dance and also, to
be actively involved. Above all, this piece of work will offer very useful
information on dance, and also act, as a source of information to Af4ricans and
parents, who are keen in studying or understanding more of African culture or
cultural heritage.
1.5
SCOPE OF STUDY
This study would have covered the
entire Esan part of Edo state. But due to time and finance, the researcher has
decided to restrict her study to Igbabonelimin dance of Okpebho community of
Edo State.
1.6
METHODOLOGY
In carrying out this study, various
research techniques were adopted in the collection of data,. This section
looked at oral interview, field trip and library research.
ORAL INTERVIEW
The
researcher employed oral interview to ascertain the information portraying in
this study. The researcher visited some communities and villages in Esan West
Local Government.
FIELD TRIP
For the
purpose of this study, the researcher paid visit to four villages in Esan West
Local Government Area. In order for her to watch the Igbabonelimin dancers as
they displayed their skills live in the scene. The villages covered were;
Irrua, Ogwu, Egoro and Ewu.
This helped the researcher to gather more information for
her research work.
LIBRARY RESEARCH
For
the purpose of this study, the researcher made use of some books written by
different authors for research. The research visited different libraries to get
more facts.
TO GET THE COMPLETED PROJECT WORK WITH
REFERENCES,
PLEASE CALL
+2347060556088 or +2348088748420
or
Visit
www.jamtechproject.com
Thank
you.
|
Do you need free Project Topics on Education. if your answer is Yes, then this is the right place to be or Call +2347060556088 for more information.
Friday 25 October 2013
THE PLACE OF DANCE IN ESAN WEST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF EDO STATE
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment