Expert: Ernest Tufft - 12/7/2009

Question
hi, i'm a 17 year old girl and i'm in grade 12 in high school. i'm doing a school project on booty shaking in african dance (obviously, i chose the topic). i thought that it would be a really interesting topic because i'm african american and because i love booty shaking... also, we're supposed to present our project so i thought that it would be a good way to teach the people in my class that booty shaking isn't slutty. i looked on wikipedia for stuff about booty shaking in african dance but i couldn't find anything... so, can you please give me some information and links to articles about booty shaking in african dance if you have any? all i know is that booty shaking is very popular in african dance... but everyone already knows that women in africa booty shake a lot in their dances! i need to know way more information about it than that... so, please give me some good links to websites with information about booty shaking in african dance if you have any. anyways, if you want me to be more specific, some information about similarities and differences in how african girls booty shake compared to how american girls (like me) booty shake would be really helpful... anyways, my project's due in about 2 weeks so please reply quickly! i really wanna make sure that my project is perfect because i have a lot of haters at school and i wanna show them that booty shaking isn't a slutty dance and that there's nothing wrong with booty shaking. whenever i booty shake for my guy friends at school, i always hear girls saying mean things about me (like calling me a slut)... but there's nothing wrong with booty shaking! all of my female friends booty shake and my mom told me that she also used to booty shake for my dad when she was a younger. so, i wanna make sure that my project is really good so that i can teach the people in my class that booty shaking is a sexy and natural and empowering dance for women (and the fact that it's very popular in african culture would prove that). so, please help me with my school project!  

Answer
Hi Keisha,

Sorry Keisha if I'm late with this.  I have been traveling during the holidays.

I think you may be having trouble locating information on this type of dance because of your choice of key words, but don't dispair.  I've not heard the term "booty shaking" among Africans, as I recall, but I know exactly what you are talking about.

For your report, you certainly want to look up the very famous African American modern dancer and cultural anthropologist, Katherine Dunham.  She is fundamental in the appreciation of what you want to explain.  I was lucky enough to appreciate a multimedia museum exhibit on her recently at the Museum of History in St. Louis, Missouri.  She was both a dancer and a cultural anthropologist, and he traveled to many parts of the world filming tribal dances of all sorts.  During the 1930's and later when many of these cultures began to be "modernizing" and forgetting their traditional dance forms, Dunham recognized the urgency of documenting and appreciating these soon to be forgotten talents.  As a result of her work, American modern dance companies today include many body movements directly adapted from tribal dances--including shaking one's booty.

Also, many of these movements in which you are interested appear related voodoo and other spiritual ritual.  Many out of body experiences are associated with seemingly violent shaking of the body, for example.

Good luck with your report...