Dancing Bodies of Central Africa: Spiritualities, Tradition, and Modernit

The purpose of this MFA in Dance Thesis document is to present the analysis of the dance project entitled Nkisi Nkondi. The project was inspired by a sacred sculpture called Nkisi Nkondi (or Minkisi Mikondi, plural), first encountered by the author at the Quai Branly Museum in Paris, France in 2007. Fascinated with the sculpture originating from the former kingdom of Kongo when it spanned most of central Africa, he began investigating its history. The investigation reported in this document looks at the roles of the Minkisi Minkondi for the people of Kongo: their complex and ambiguous functions, their relationship with the Kongo dance traditions, and the ways through which the sculptures influenced the political and religious belief systems. It next engages in the phenomenological analysis of dancing bodies in central Africa, and finally documents the choreographic experience of creating the dance project through the substantial and existential interconnectedness between space, bodies, and dance cultures in central Africa.