BORBORBOR DANCE

THE BORBORBOR DANCE 
It is believed that the root of this dance form has been embedded within the culture of a village called Wusuta located around the Volta Lake in Ghana.  

 Francis Nuatro an ex-police officer belonging to a village called Kpando first developed the musical genre called “Borborbor”. 

 Borborbor is the most popular style of recreational music in the Volta Region. 
It links traditional drumming rhythms with proverbial lyrics that frequently include Christian themes. It is the ultimate blend of old and new.   

Borborbor is often played at celebrations and funerals. 
Borborbor drummers weave moderate beats while women dancers and singers revolve around them. 

 Women singers carry two white handkerchiefs that they twirl in the air at the end of a drumming period. And also this dance , involves ladies tweaking with their backsides.

A bugle may be used to add spice to the music. There is usually one song leader who will sing the first line of a song and lead the people from one song to the next by combining the meanings of different songs in unique ways to evoke the spirit of the particular occasion. 

 During the dance , you will hear a lot of people saying , mi borbor de dzi which means go down more .

Everyone in the community may participate in these performances which usually begin at dusk and can continue well into the night and even until dawn. 

 Borborbor dance is very suggestive and many boy-girl liaisons develop during these events. 

Costumes used for the Borborbor dance

















This dance form is formed mainly by females and the costume worn includes a colorful long dress and two usually white handkerchiefs but any uniform colour may be used


Musical Instruments involved in the Borborbor dance




Traditional instruments, belonging to the Ewe community is basically used in the dance form. 

 They include a pair of castanets, container rattles, a small drum called “vuvi” , a supporting drum called 
, “asivu” and a master drum called “vuga” ,

 Finally, in terms of technique this dance involves the performers  forming a circle and swaying to the rhythmic beats of the music produced by the drums played by the musicians.

In a nutshell while dancing , the performers are supposed to twirl two handkerchiefs in the air.





                                                                                                  Story by: MERCY ALIDU

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