Kwaai City - NAMA DANCE A `RIEL' HIT AT THE CAPE TOWN CARNIVAL

For the first time ever, the Riel - age-old dance of the Nama people - took pride-of-place at the Cape Town Carnival. Riel Dancers from Wupperthal, Elizabethfontein, Citrusdal Academy, as far as the Northern Cape, revived the dance to tell modern day stories of their lives. Floris Brand of Bushman's Kloof assembled the troop of eager dancers for the grand occasion - who danced the streets of Cape Town - to the traditional music of maestro, Bertie Zass and his band. And the crowds absolutely loved them!
Born out of traditional Khoi and San ceremonial dances around the fire, it has been practiced by descendants of these indigenous cultures for many years, most of whom were sheep shearers and farm workers across the Cape.
The Riel dance was very popular in the forties, fifties and sixties, but has been sadly neglected in recent decades. Dressed typically in traditional, farm-worker outfits - the women in dresses with aprons and old frontier bonnets, and the men in waistcoats and hats adorned with feathers, finished with the famous, hand-made red veldskoen -- these vibrant dancers were a `Riel' hit.
Popular Riel dances include courtship rituals, and mimicking typical animal antics along with lots of bravado, showmanship and foot stomping. It has only recently been revived through the efforts of writer and storyteller, Elias Nel of the Afrikaanse Taal & Kultuurvereniging (ATKV), who introduced the ATKV Riel dance competition in 2006, to ensure the survival of the dance and introduce the world to this wonderful, foot-stomping, cultural whirlwind.
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