Gumboots
Gumboot dancing, or Isicathulo, was born in the gold mines of South Africa during the oppressive Apartheid Pass Laws.  Working in the mines was full of hardships. The floors of the mines were often flooded, providing gumboots to the workers was cheaper than attempting to drain the mines.

The miners were forced into silence by their oppressive bosses, and as a result created their own unique form of Morse Code. By stamping their feet, rattling their ankle chains and slapping their boots, the enslaved workers sent messages to each other in the darkness. This developed as a form of entertainment during their free time.

Jive
During the years of the oppressive apartheid government in South Africa, people in townships kept their spirits up with the energetic township jive.  Township jive is a blend of African rhythms, the Kwela flute and American-style swing and rock melodies.  It was during this time that Sophiatown developed a form of working class dance music and a dance style taken from the American jazz culture and films was adopted and adapted.

Capoeira
Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian art form that combines elements of martial arts, music, and dance. It was created around the sixteenth century in Brazil by slaves brought from Africa, particularly what is Angola today.

Participants form a circle, and take turns playing musical instruments (such as the Berimbau), singing, or ritually sparring in pairs in the center of the circle. The purpose of Capoeira has different theories.  One theory describes it as a uniquely Brazilian folk dance with improvised fighting movements, while another claims that it is a battle-ready fighting form directly descended from ancient African techniques.

Indlamu
Indlamu is a traditional Zulu dance that is performed by men of any age with drums and full traditional Zulu attire (skin(amabeshu), headrings, ceremonial belts, ankle rattles, shields and spears).   It most often demonstrates the war dances of the warriors.  It is a dance requiring great strength, timing and a fearless attitude and control of the spear with forceful stabs in the air towards an imaginary enemy. The females dance similar steps when dancing the ingoma but less fierce.   

West African Dance
Dance has always played a very important role in the lives of West Africans.
It often mimics daily life, animals, or nature and there is a dance for every significant occasion such as birth, harvest or death.

Different parts of the body are emphasized by different groups. The upper body is emphasized by the Anto-Ewe and Lobi of Ghana. Subtle accent of the hips is characteristic of the Kalabari of Nigeria and in other parts of Nigeria, dancers commonly combine at least two rhythms in their movement.
In Agbor strong contraction-release movements of the pelvis and upper torso characterize both male and female dancing. The Akan of Ghana use the feet and hands in specific ways.

In general men use large body movements, including jumping and leaping. Women dance smaller movements with much use of "shuffle steps", the body in a bent position with "crooked knees". Dancing in the middle of a circle formed by a group of people is common, sometimes solo dancers or musicians in the middle, sometimes couples with people outside the circle singing and encouraging the dancers on.

Through the slave trade, and decades of migration of West Africans into the western world, West African dance has found its way around the globe. West African Dance has influenced many popular Western dance forms, such as hip-hop, salsa and jazz dance.

Cumbia
Cumbia is a Colombian musical style and folk dance that began as a courtship dance practiced among the slave population, during the period of Spanish colonization. Spain used Columbia’s ports to import African slaves, who tried to preserve their musical traditions and also turned the drumming and dances into a courtship ritual. Cumbia was mainly performed with just drums and claves that was later mixed with European instruments and musical characteristics

Cumbia is a variant of Guinean cumbé music. However, the rhythm of Cumbia can be found in music of Yoruba and in other musical traditions across West Africa.

This slave courtship ritual features Women playfully waving their long skirts while holding a candle, and men dance behind the women with one hand behind their back and the other hand either holding a hat, putting it on, or taking it off. Male dancers also carried a red handkerchief which they either wrapped around their necks, waved in circles in the air, or held out for the women to hold.

Kwela
Kwela is a happy, pennywhistle-based, street music from southern Africa with jazzy underpinnings and a distinctive, lilt-like beat.  They blended indigenous music with American musical elements into a new form of street music.

The term "kwela" means "get up" and "kwela-kwela" was often the name given to the police vans that roamed the streets, looking to pick up pass offenders or street gamblers.

The young pennywhistle players often found on street corners, would begin playing their instrument to warn people in the local beer parlours (shebeens) of the approaching police vans.