The San are the oldest inhabitants of Southern Africa, where they have lived for at least 20 000 years. For the San, dance is of great importance as it is recognized as a magical and sacred power; it is compared to a prayer addressed to the spirits of ancestors and to the gods.
The Dance Trance or healing dance is the most important of all San’s dances; it can last for many hours, if not all night, and serves to drive out illnesses brought on by evil spirits.
The healing dance of the Kalahari Bushmen (San) is regarded as a special kind of kinetic trance that uses focused emotional intensity inside music and dance to initiate movement automatisms for healing.
A big fire is switched on in the village, women and children sit around the fire, sing and beat their hands at the rhythm of music, while men dance around them, wearing anklets made with cocoons; at each step, these ankles produce rhythmic sounds; the dance is accompanied by cane or bone flutes and drums.
The healers dance around the fire, chant and hyperventilate until they induce a powerful trance-like state. In this state, they are granted access to the spirit world (and are often able to walk over the fire).
The San healers aren’t just doing this to cure physical illnesses in their community – they also attempt to expel what they call “star sickness”, a force that causes jealousy, an
ger, and arguments.
While in trance the shaman is able to consult with the spirits of the ancestors and understand who causes disease and pain, at this point, the sick people are brought to his sight
and the shaman removes the disease from them, releasing the negative spirits, thanks also to the dark of the night.
Other dances are used to claim fertility, to predict the future, or to have good hunting; many of these dances imitate animal motions, such as the antelope, the baboon, the ostrich, the great bustard and other animals that are, in a way, magical for the San.
The eland dance is a rite of initiation and it is represented by women and a man when a girl enters puberty. The girls, at the time of the first menstruation, according to the San’s belief, emanate evil influences: they are closely segregated and have to walk in low eyes; their only gaze could bewitch the a
ntelopes, from this belief a dance of purification is required.
