West African Zaouli dance and trance music mashup

March 2, 2015 11:33 PM

Zaouli dance from the Ivory Coast and Captain Hook & Astrix - Bungee Jump mashup is the latest vid for the Burning Mountain Festival held in the Engadin Valley, Switzerland. Zaouli, a popular mask dance, was created in the fifties. The Gouro ethnic group is the midwestern part of Ivory Coast / Cote d’Ivoire, West Africa. According to what people say, there are diverse legends regarding the origin of the Zaouli mask and dance; yet, all come to the agreement that such legends were inspired by a very beautiful girl - 'Dzela Lou Zaouli' - daughter of Zaouli."
posted by nickyskye (4 comments total)

That was mesmerizing, like watching the mating dances of birds of paradise or peacock spiders.
posted by not_on_display at 12:18 AM on March 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

The masks around where I work in Cote d'Ivoire look (and dance) like this. Mask festivals are one of my favorite things about working in Cote d'Ivoire - the drumming is SO GOOD and the dancing is SO GOOD! I think the stilt dancing is probably my favorite, though.
posted by ChuraChura at 1:05 AM on March 3, 2015 [5 favorites]

ChuraChura - dundun player's out of there! No fun getting on the wrong end of a flailing stilt I suppose.
posted by asok at 7:29 AM on March 3, 2015

not dundun tho (from 1.43)
posted by glasseyes at 4:41 AM on March 4, 2015 [2 favorites]