The Dazzling Diversity of African Dance - in 14 Moves | Chinyanta Kabaso | TED

If African culture were a tree, then dance would be its flowers, says choreographer and TED Idea Search winner Chinyanta Kabaso. In a captivating display of both traditional and modern dances, she showcases the beauty of these movements and explains how they reveal the history of migration and shared cultural connections of different ethnic groups across the continent.
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• The Dazzling Diversity...
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[@TheOrientalNightFish]

She touches my heart. Her warm voice, the glow in her eyes, her dignity and beauty, so youthful and yet so mature, so embodied, so confident, so gracious. For some reason it makes me feel emotional, to see a woman dancing without fear, in complete liberation within her own body, while honouring her people's history and culture. The dances are exuberant and beautiful and it's amazing to behold how embodied the dancer is; she's in complete ease and command of herself but there is no swagger or arrogance or vanity. It's just beautiful and so divinely feminine.

[@Bowie_E]

This was so cool to watch. I've always been fascinated by African dance but I never knew about all the history and evolution and migration. Beautiful

[@GrooveTasticThang]

What a positive and engaging way to inform about the magical African continent- beautiful and engaging‘dance’ around anthropology!

[@GlamGoreChaosQueen]

Why is dance in quotes

[@GrooveTasticThang]

@@GlamGoreChaosQueen because dance in that context is referring to the journey through anthropology rather than a direct reference to the act of dancing.

[@GlamGoreChaosQueen]

@@GrooveTasticThang gotcha. Thanks for clarifying :)

[@cdazzles]

one of my favorite TED talks in a long time. this was beautiful. ❤.

[@towaniisme]

This was such a beautiful and innovative TED Talk 🥹 Chinyanta is such a refreshing storyteller and a great dancer. Someone should give her a docu series for real!

[@cartergarcia3765]

im surprised at how emotional this made me feel. i am doing a paper on the culture of dance and so many.. SO MANY styles of dance originated from african people and from african migrants. salsa, merengue . i just feel grateful, i feel connected . thank you for this

[@mimmyspecial]

I love this. African stories told by AFRICANS and embracing our rich African culture. ❤

[@tennehmama1046]

Soooo proud to be an African in this age and time. Continue to shine Africa. Thks sista.

[@kodjokyei]

Love this. African dance means alot in our diverse traditions.

[@cecilereyna]

I've always thought dancing being african is a whole new level that other cultures can't even think about. I'm latina and dance is important to us but not to this level, it's so beautiful.

[@shellysbrewing]

I have always been fascinated with African culture, everything from art work to fashion to family life to the foods to dance to the history, there's always been something special and magical about Africa and I love learning more about it, thank you for this video ❤

[@Hadri_ART]

She s beautiful 😮 intresting video btw👌🏼

[@MJamilHoque]

Diamonds, cobalt and gold are a few reasons why the US, France and UK are there still.

[@kevinwells4986]

If I had a hope for any particular day it would be that somehow through knowledge I felt more enlightened than the day before. That was beautiful. I was fortunate to know people from a few of these countries. I still miss A.O. Akepmplu (I probably spelled it wrong) ** I forgot the most important thing to say here... thank you for this beautiful education.

[@cherylberkey9056]

Wow, what talent

[@marymccluer1630]

This could be a series! So much to share!

[@Bowie_E]

I second! I'd definitely watch a docuseries on this!!

[@omarabeid106]

Wow.. u not only know African Dance , but understand its roots and history. Am so amazed and have benefited from the knowledge u have imparted through this content. Enjoyed it from Uganda...😊

[@AnneKeds]

Awesome way of engaging with dance ❤❤❤

[@Upandoverer]

Wow wow wow ,, Africa got rhythm, Africa got dance, Africa got soul ❤

[@mrjustsaili]

Amazing story telling and phenomenal dancing. I learned a lot about African dancing - so fascinating. Well done representing Zambia! ❤

[@soulspin]

Lovely, informative and uplifting!

[@tiongesakala7647]

Amazing!❤️🇿🇲

[@armeltheone1]

So cool to watch. I went from watching your Instagram reels to you being on tedx. Bravo

[@abigailmckernwalkingwithpo4582]

Really beautiful and interesting including all the costumes, thank you for posting!

[@tatianealbuquerque7]

She's so talented, wow. I'm mesmerised.

[@lylyluvda916]

Knocked this one out of the park!

[@0612Crystal]

Very cool! Thank you for teaching this.

[@Moonbeamchild8]

Absolutely beautiful culture. Thank you for sharing.

[@LauraNunez]

Love this Ted talk style, teaching dance moves for example 💗

[@belitzkaya]

Beautiful ❤

[@franchotr8753]

Beautiful African Dance History! ❤❤❤❤❤

[@eugeneewings9522]

As James Brown would say Good God ! loved❤️👏👏👏👏👏👏 WOW !

[@luisarias8042]

The best 14 moves I've ever seen in my life!!!

[@darknight9196]

Gal!!! Wow!!! Thank you for Sharing!!! Love it!!!

[@98Johnna]

Powerful!! 🖤

[@suicune2001]

Interesting! Thanks for sharing!

[@charmainemutsago8371]

So beautiful and so sincere .Proud of you beautiful afro queen.❤

[@LeoEpicLegendEdition]

Divinely beautiful😍

[@sasmitaanjani6174]

fabolous..I like the concept on this content 😍

[@rabeelsoomro5627]

Interesting

[@makamasirleaf4082]

I'm proud of you, and I'm proud to be an African

[@speicaldark]

There should be a much longer version!

[@romanlee8287]

I wish I could dance. That is amazing stuff.

[@iamprinceba]

So beautiful ❤️

[@vicalexander3179]

A great demonstration of the origins of African dancing, Dr. Nelson Mandela would be proud of your explanation of the origins of African dancing, such as the Zulus, which we saw in the TV series of Shaka Zulu a ten years ago in the US.

[@mikeyb6737]

beautiful

[@sherpadelgatos]

Yayy!!

[@cpraise5033]

Yes!!!!

[@druzyy]

Beautiful 🥰 African Dance

[@HavatseletHasharon7]

This is fire!! 🔥🤩❤❤love all african dance and music! And you are very beautiful 😍

[@Atlas-Struggled]

Very beautiful!

[@funnytv-1631]

The prompts you set in place become the only action you need to perform. The next step is actually a reaction. Place a glass of water by your bed. That was your action. The reaction was drinking it because it was so seamlessly easy to do. There is nothing you can’t accomplish if you take things one easy step at a time. Patience and satisfaction await you.

[@adahbinti7103]

My dance 'Kamabeka' was well presented💞 .thank you

[@RampinRabit]

Dang she got the moves

[@lilianadegregori228]

Just so interesting and beautiful!!!!!!!

[@HappinessTheBrand]

Brilliant

[@thatomofolo452]

😊👍👍

[@davyjonesjonesdavy]

Sei così bella!

[@lilliangraham9850]

that was very cool

[@jmich7]

SUPER

[@rodinarodina2055]

The Arab countries in North Africa have beautiful historical civilizations such as Egypt 🇪🇬🇪🇬♡♡💪🏻💪🏻

[@trigaaman187fearmybullets6]

Any videos?

[@racreborn4586]

❤❤❤❤

[@michael-ai-m3r]

You are so beautiful ❤🥰😍

[@lovegoodmusic2477]

❤

[@Ohole]

Africans are one they should treat each other better

[@iMmD-dy5fn]

Fact ,This dance doesn’t come in 8 minutes it’s took a while

[@francescos7361]

Super African

[@Best101Bits]

Well done 💯✅. Before you go, what's your name Ma'am?

[@miky8788]

Incredible beautifull face

[@Dimaz42]

yea, shake those buns sistaaa 😙

[@neocount6397]

This would be hard on the feet

[@jonathankabugo3965]

Artificial borders drawn by some guys from overseas 😂

[@mrtbhdr]

at this point, i feel people are trying so hard to praise some cultures/communities/etc. almost every culture has some kind of diversity in their dances, more or less🤷🏻‍♂️

[@jordanetherington1922]

So what is the matter with learning about different dances? She's not saying only Africa has unique dances, but those are the ones she knows.

[@free22]

So you see a video on African dance and you suddenly think people are just trying to praise cultures for the fun of it. Is that what comes to mind when you see a video about your own country? Or is it just Africa?

[@shellysbrewing]

What is your point? Yes she is praising her culture and she has every right to. Take your negativity somewhere else. Let this girl shine. Let this girl be proud of her culture. Let her show us her culture so we can learn more about it. I'm sick of people hating on the unknown and keeping us divided. She was absolutely beautiful in this video and her culture has so much amazing history that I would love to learn about. Maybe be more open minded and realize it's not such a bad thing 😮

[@cocoloco7387]

You praise the Italians for their food, you praise the South Americans and Eastern Europeans for their beauty and the Asians for their intelligence why not praise the Africans for their dance

[@68planehits]

ted talk has become so cringe lol

[@scatton61]

Every continent, country and culture has its own unique dances. The fact that Africa has its own is nothinor unique. I'm not really sure what the point of this video is.

[@jordanetherington1922]

The point was to see and learn about different African dances. Dancing is cool and beautiful

[@free22]

The point is NOT that Africa just has its own dance. The point is that each of the dances in the 54 countries in Africa tells its own story. There are thousands of dances in Africa. Dance is an extremely important part of African culture.

[@scatton61]

@@free22 Dance is important to most cultures.... and tells a story... So Africa is just the same.... Why is that worthy of a TED talk?

[@free22]

@@scatton61 Because of the huge diversity of dances in one continent. Take Europe for instance. There is always going to be a smaller number of ethnic dances in a continent made up of countries like Europe than one like Africa, with thousands of tribes spanning a huge land mass, each with distinct dance styles. Because of the historical significance of dance in African culture. Dance was used both in Africa and the Americas by slaves as a communication tool between slaves or colonized people when direct communication was not allowed. Because African dance styles have influenced a plethora of modern dance styles. I’m from the US and almost all music in our country has been influenced in some way by African music.

[@scatton61]

@@free22 Well as you say Africa is much bigger than Europe so you would expect there to be more. But if you grouped the land mass of Europ with Russia, China India etc they would have more cultural dances than Africa... so what ? I am from the UK and we also have many differing cultural dances going back centuries and none that I am aware of were influenced by Africans. Not until very recently... say 60 year or so and that was with popular music. So that's why I don't understand why African dance is worth a TED talk.

[@IntheCourtoftheCrimsonKing]

Ugly moves. I prefer ballet.

[@kikller]

so lame..

[@ebelevated]

Soooo beautiful ❤❤❤

[@sammicerise8553]

Beautiful