Mzanzi Travel - Local Travel Inspiration (Issue 5)

Cultural Travel
DANCE, DUST AND
ENERGY
Walking on air
THE WORLD OF THE FABULOUS
RIELDANSERS
By Stef Terblanche
When it comes to traditional
dancing in South Africa,
everyone knows about
the Zulu warrior dancers,
the gumboot miners’
dancing, the Cape Town
minstrels, and the Reed
Dances staged for the
Swazi and Zulu kings.
But how many people know about, let alone have witnessed, what is South aa
oldest dancing tradition dating back to the early Khoisan people…the fabulous
rieldansers of the Northern Cape and adjacent regions?
If you think the above dances or something like Michael Flatley’s Lord of the
Dance have energy, rhythm, precision, flying dancers and daring moves, you
aint seen nothin’ yet!
The rieldans is about much more than just music and dancing – it encompasses
an entire cultural world that spans the Northern Cape, Western Cape, Karoo
and some other regions. It represents a way of life with all its customs and
traditions, and is a rhythm-and-dance language all of its own. Its roots can
be traced all the way back to the Khoisan, the original inhabitants of much of
today’s racial and tribal melting-pot of Southern Africa.
In a way it can be viewed as South Africa’s unintentional answer to Argentina’s
tango street dancers, only with much older roots, even more flamboyance,
and with the ballroom grace of the tango being replaced with the fast-paced,
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