The Beauty of Tribal Dances

When the sun sets on the tribal areas of East Africa, one can often hear the sound of drums and joyful voices coming from the villages. Music and dancing are the primary forms of entertainment for these people, and they do it spontaneously and wholeheartedly. Of course, dancing is also a vital part of any rituals, or rites of passage in the life of a tribe. For a tribe, dancing is a way to communicate, celebrate, and worship. For the past ten years, I have been photographing and enjoying tribal dances among various East African tribes, some of which have been mostly isolated from the outside world. Here, I am sharing images of the Nyagatom and the Kara tribes from Ethiopia’s Omo Valley , the Larim and the Toposa tribes from South Sudan, and the Turkana tribe from Northern Kenya. Over that time, very little has changed in the performances of those dances other than the occasional addition of some unexpected Western accessories. And though I understand that each of these dances is in some ways unique to the performing tribe, I find the rhythms, steps, and energy astonishingly similar from one tribe to the next (to my uniformed but appreciative eye, at least), even among tribes that are life-long foes. One more proof, perhaps, that we all come from the same place. Though I have visited some of these tribes multiple times, I know that one outsider can never fully grasp the extraordinary richness of these cultures. But I hope I could capture some of their inherent beauty.