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The Nama Stap Dances : an analysis of continuity and change among Nama Women

Introduction This article expands the field research carried out over a five year period (2001-2006) among the Nama people who live in !Khubus, South Africa. The Nama may be identified with a sequence of movement that is widely recognized throughout southern Africa as the Nama Stap (Step); the Nama Stap (NS) in turn is the major movement motif of the Nama Stap Dance (NS/D); this movement motif is also the foundation of the Nama Stap Dance-Female Puberty Version (NS/P). Despite overt colonial influences within these dances today, the Nama have declared these performance artifacts to be symbols of Nama identity. These dances, I will suggest, contrast with more classical Nama identifiers, such as the matjieshuis (mat house) and the Nama language itself. Further, this article attempts to provide an appreciation of the Nama, especially Nama women, through an analysis and interpretation of the Nama Stap motif as it is danced within the Nama Stap DancePuberty Version. Through an integration of selected research methodologies, especially Laban analysis, dance analysis, and field research, an interpretation of the dance is suggested that reveals traditional and contemporary, colonial and postcolonial, markings.