Among the Yoruba people of southwest Nigeria, the Bata dance is a well-known traditional dance. Professional actors execute it, and it’s typically accompanied by music, songs, and chants. The dance involves expressive dance and a bond with rhythm, not just physical movement.
Sango, a god of thunder and lightning who is also incredibly strong, powerful, and athletic, is sometimes credited with inventing the Bata dance. The dance is thought to have served as a means of communication between Sango and his followers in prehistoric times. That the dancers use their feet, hands, and shoulders to do the dance in an attempt to mimic his persona is understandable.
The dance’s acrobatic vigor, its dashes and flashes, and the resounding, rattling, and piercing beats of the Bata drums pay homage to Sango, the god of thunder and lightening.
The Bata dance is mostly practiced today to provide entertainment at religious and secular celebrations. Acrobatic steps, a flat foot, a tilted trunk, bent knees, and expressive gestures are among the dance’s distinguishing features.
The Bata drums‘ accompaniment to the dance is its most important feature. The dance is performed in time to the beats of the Bata drum; without the drums, the dance would be utterly unsatisfactory. The collective ensemble for the performance is made up of the three different-sized Bata drums.
The master drummer typically plays the largest drum, known as Iyá, which establishes the rhythmic activity for the set of drums. While the smallest drum, okónkolo, maintains a constant rhythm, the middle drum, Itótele, converses with iyá. In the Iyá Ilu, a mother is shown as someone who teaches her children.
The dancers and the drummers move in perfect unison. Through a mutual comprehension of the drumbeat’s lexicon and movement symbolism between the drummers and the dancers, the harmonization ensures a dancer-drummer interaction.
The Yoruba people’s bright performance art of bata dancing and drumming displays amazing dance and percussion abilities. Drummers and dancers from the Bata culture are fascinating to observe and hear. See the video below.
