Contemporary African dance as a decolonising practice

This article takes a closer look at the processes of re-appropriation of the aesthetic field within which the phenomenon known as ‘contemporary African dance’ was shaped in the second half of the 20th century, mainly for the use of Western audiences. In the context of the generally outlined political and economic conditions of production, and using examples of performances that illuminate the basic concepts of postcolonial theories (e.g. H.K. Bhabha, E.W. Said and R. Bharucha), the main historical and aesthetic lines of the formation of the term ‘contemporary African dance’ and its possible designations are presented, and the artistic attitudes and formal procedures that artists of different generations employ in the process of reclaiming and transforming the aesthetic field that this term defines are evoked