Yoruba Ritual Dances

In this video-clip we present you first various sequences of collective dances. Then you will see a dance combined with trance experience. During trance, the medium looses its identity as human completely and gets actually transformed in an ancestor or a god. As they say in Africa, the medium is being ridden by them. It’s not that an actor is posing to be an ancestor or a god, as one could imagine in the western culture. The medium is during the time of trance that ancestor or god. The question may arise: What’s the use of letting them take possession of the body of a person? They are needed, because they are able to make prophecies, can advise people, tell them what they are doing wrong in the village, and accomplish healings. Through their permanent presence, they are a help to people to get better control over their lives. The last sequence shows a dance in honour of the firegod Shango.

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