in "black Africa", a continent with tribes or tribes as the basic unit of society, dance, as the oldest, most common and most important artistic expression of African people, is deeply rooted in the people and has become a part of African people's lives. African residents, men, women and children are very fond of dancing. They often dance all night at weddings, funerals or festivals. Dance has become a bond of love between young men and women. Among the Fourbet people living in Niger, the Boloro people hold the Gerwo Dance Week every year, which is a large-scale collective wedding activity. In winter, Bororo people put on beautiful clothes and gather in the Sahel from all over the world. The wedding started with a chorus, followed by a man with makeup singing and dancing. Young women were watching, and they carefully selected their beloved lovers from the dancing men. After seven days of singing and dancing, the girls chose their sweetheart and got married.

In the Sahel, funeral activities are also closely related to dance. The Makonde people in Tanzania offer sacrifices to the dead after death. In terms of ritual, mourners should keep singing and dancing. The content of lyrics and dances is to pray for all kinds of ghosts and gods not to hurt the dead. In the traditional black society, relatives pay tribute to the dead, which is expressed by the women in the village in chorus. In chorus, the music is accompanied by tambourines, and the tune is touching.

Dance is the outlet of African blacks' feelings and the source of their strength. Music accompanying the dance interprets their body language, expresses their emotional theme incisively and vividly, and shows the world the unique connotation and customs of the African nation. Then, the dance music of African blacks has the following characteristics.

First of all, a strong sense of rhythm is one of the outstanding features of African black dance music. Their sensitivity to rhythm can't be compared with the dance art of any country. This rhythm can be said to be the vocalization of dance movements. "The ideological basis of any basic music is the consistency of action and sound motivation, first of all, the consistency of beat and rhythm motivation." The rhythm of this music is extremely complicated. The most typical rhythm is highly developed beat alternation and rhythm alternation. In the dances of various ethnic groups in Africa, everyone can see the close relationship between rhythm and movement. For example, in the "Sekpere" dance of Nandom people in northern Ghana, the music is played by xylophone, and the rhythm part is played by drums, bells and iron castanets, and the dancers themselves. However, the transition signals between each group of dances are combined by the responsible rhythm line. In the "Eszenyi" dance of the Yi Zhuo people, the movement depends on the rhythm line of a song, not on the percussion instrument accompanying it, and repeats with the repetition of the song. Anluo, Ghana-Agbeko dance of Ewe people, which includes a variety of dance steps, each of which is led by the beat of the leading drum with an appropriate rhythm and sound pattern, and continues with that sound pattern. Each sound pattern is repeated many times without interruption, and another set of movements is used to connect with the next sound pattern, so that the dancer can reach a new starting point and be ready to jump to the next step. All the above dances need to be mastered by the actors in the rehearsal before the performance; Some dances have more impromptu performances, and dancers can make different processing treatments for the basic movements, but they should be consistent with the rhythm line played by the lead drummer or other instrumental musicians, because the whole dance is dominated by this rhythm line. It can be seen that drums play an important role in leading the rhythm of dance music in black Africa. It determines the rhythm of dance, and also determines the style and characteristics of dance. There are hundreds of drums used in African black dance performances: wooden drums, water drums, war drums, gourd drums and so on. The small drum used in the performance can be held by hand, and the big drum should make people stand on the stool and beat. Bells and other ornaments are often decorated around the drum, which enhances the rhythm of dance music.

Strong rhythm is another feature of African black dance music. Their movements are rough and powerful, and their feelings are fierce. They are good at expressing their feelings with exaggerated body movements. Dancers often violently shake their heads, ups and downs their chests, bend their waists, swing their hips, twist their hips, shake their hands and feet, stamp their feet and so on. The Zulu people in southern Africa's "stomping dance" expresses their feelings with strong leg rhythm; In the Dia dance of the Fula people in Ghana, each dancer wears a string of buzzer on his right ankle and holds a sword in his right hand. When singing, the singer stomps the ground with his right foot on the strong beat of the music and lightly steps with his left foot on the weak beat. When stamping the ground with your right foot, your body leans slightly to the right, and then the racquet is swung to the left. Dances that express rhythm with leg movements include "tap dance" and "striding dance" (Soto nationality). In the "Enyingduogu" dance of the Dagomba people in Ghana, abdominal muscles are mainly used, while the Lobi people in Ghana emphasize the movements of the upper body, which can be rotated or the shoulders can be moved up and down, or some arm movements and shoulder tightening and relaxation movements can be used to stretch the chest. There is also a dance like the Nigerian Carabali, with all kinds of subtle movements on the hips. Therefore, the strong rhythm caused by this large-scale body movement has become another feature of African black dance music.

Group and imitation are common forms of African black dance, which embodies the characteristics of African black dance music with local flavor. In their dance, we rarely see the form of solo dance, and the content reflected in the dance is closely related to people's lives. Dancers often perform in a semicircle, circle or row, and their movements mainly imitate farming, hunting, war and other activities. An explorer described Congo's war dance like this: "A thousand heads are like one head. At first, they all leaned up at the same time, showing high spirits, and then hung down at the same time, making a sad hum ..."

Dancers play an important role in African black dance music, and sometimes they can decide the length of dance music. Another important link in music is to let dancers cultivate their feelings. The preface song plays such a role. Musicians often use a preface or a group of such songs at the beginning of a performance to achieve the purpose of cultivating feelings. Overture songs can be sung in a free rhythm, accompanied by one or two musical instruments without ensemble, or a prelude to instrumental music without vocal introduction. In northwest Ghana, where xylophone is used to accompany the dance, xylophone is often used to play a short prelude before the main dance. Similarly, Jobi formed a large xylophone band and started the "Ngodo" dance with the introduction of the band. You can also use a combination of vocal music and instrumental music as an introduction. For example, in the "Cailletet" dance of Aken people, the prologue can be sung by one or two soloists and alternately added to the flute ensemble. This alternation of voice and flute continues until the lead singer introduces the chorus.

In a word, in African black dance music, music and dance are closely related. Music creates an appropriate atmosphere or mood for dance, which can inspire dancers to express the strong desire of performers with expressive movements. Dance expresses the content of music, and the two complement each other, which finally makes people deeply feel the unique charm of African black dance music!