African Mask dance

African art has been inspirational to many western artists, from Picasso and Matisse to more recent artists. (As I mentioned in a post last year HERE)

My early 80s art history at the University of Florida also included some great art which included Yoruba, Ibo and Fang masks, stools, and fiber works.  I recently saw a great exhibit at the Indianapolis Art Museum (a year ago now).





Here's an amazing video of a masked dancer, the Zaouli de Manfla, from the Ivory Coast.

Link to Zaouli de Manfla.

I wonder if Picaso ever saw these maskes danced (and i hope you waited till he actually started the dance on the link above).

On Wikipedia I found:

Zaouli de Manfla, a mask dance from the Gouro or Kweni culture, filmed by African dance teacher Konan Kouakou David in the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa. Of the tradition, he writes:

Zaouli is a popular mask dance created by Gouros in the fifties. Legends at the origin of the Zaouli mask and dance are diverse, but all say that they were inspired by a very beautiful girl named “Djela Lou Zaouli”, daugther of Zaouli…
Each Gouro village has its local Zaouli dancer, who performs during funerals or parties. A musicians and singers orchestra first call the Zaouli dancer by its music. The dancer wearing the mask covered by a cloth then arrives after a predecessor who unveils the mask. After the beauty of the mask has been shown to the audience, the dancer performs extremely quick and rhythmical steps according to the flutes of the orchestra. Hands and feet follow a common choreography improvised by the dancer according to the music.

I just found this link through another blog that's a member of another blog which I check almost weekly, Sepia Saturday, in case you're interested.  Not much African art, but many old photos and post cards and interesting diverse reads, I think.  Here's the actual blog on which I found the dance.