Pansula

It seems like in my previous blogs I’ve just been focusing on Hip Hop dancing, don’t get it wrong South Africa has a whole lot of different genres in dancing. Today I shall touch on our proudly South African dance… Pantsula. The Zulu word  ‘pantsula’ means to “waddle like a duck or to walk with protruded buttocks”.

The pantsula became a very popular form of dance in the 1980s among young men and women in townships of Africa. They didn’t just use it to express themselves but it also became a way of life for them. In those days pantsula was regarded as a proper dance. Well time has changed and perceptions of dance have changed over the years. Pantsula now is seen as a dance styles for rebellious youth, tsotsis (thugs). Pantsula as a dance is explained to be a flat footed African tap-and-glide style of dance.                                                 This dance style was always normally performed on the streets anywhere. Now they have music with the dance (kwaito). The pantsula’s have a specific attire that the dance in.

Pantsula is seen as a dying dance style.

So in your opinion, is this dance style dying, or is it forever going to be there and a proudly South African style?

In Beyoncé’s music video for  ‘who runs the world (girls)’ Pantsula was one of the dance styles represented.