Fanga , Dance of Welcome

Abstract This chapter studies how the Fanga, Dance of Welcome, with its foundational sources in West African communities, traveled transnationally as an inter-ethnic dance to North America. This migration between communities provided varied transformations for those who danced it. The transformation fluctuated between, firstly, perfecting polyrhythmic and polycentric gestures into an Africanist movement language enacting a greeting or salutation of respect; and secondly, claiming and redefining cultural practice and an individualized sense of self and identity. The chapter considers whether Fanga is an imagined African presence or a means of American sociopolitical acting out of creditable African re-presentation. What constitutes its authenticity as an artifact, or its potential to affirm identity for the person dancing it and its manner of providing "Africanist" imaginings? How does transnationalism within dance practice figure in the performance of Fanga? Cultural identity, sense of self, authenticity, and ownership are all relevant to the historical narration of Fanga.