The politics of dance. Changing representations of the nation in Ghana

Katharina Schramm

Africa Spectrum, 2000, vol. 35, issue 3, 339-358

Abstract: The paper looks at the historical evolution of Ghana's national dance company, the Ghana Dance Ensemble. From it's very beginnings in the early 1960s, the ensemble was at the centre of Ghanaian cultural policy. The author shows how the construction of a Ghanaian national culture took place in the field of dance. Taking a close look on the selection process as well as the aesthetic transformations of the traditional dances that were and still are carried out by the Ghana Dance Ensemble, she discusses the multi-layered connections between cultural representation and national identification. Throughout the paper, it becomes clear that the formation of national culture has always been determined by local as well as global parameters. Whilst these take on a new meaning in a changing society, it is important to ask how this is reflected in the work of cultural agents such as the Ghana Dance Ensemble.

Date: 2000
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