Videos Of The Wolaytigna Dance (Ethiopia)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post features four videos of traditional and adapted versions of the Wolaytigna dance of Southern Ethiopia.

The content of this post is presented for historical, folkloric, and aesthetic purposes.

My thanks to those persons featured in these videos Thanks also to the producers and uploaders of these videos.

FEATURED VIDEOS

Video #1: Wolayta



Uploaded by lekee on Oct 4, 2009

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Video #2: Aw Bade - Mamila And Kichini - Full Version



Uploaded by diretube10feb on Feb 15, 2010

http://diretube.com - Latest Ethiopian Videos

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From this video's viewer comments, it appears that this song quickly became a big dance hit in Ethiopia when it was released in 2011.

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Video #3: Tejle Milkiase - Wolayta Enhede



Uploaded by NIN9ART on Sep 9, 2010

Wolayta music.

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Video #4: Awassa, Ethiopia, 2009 dance_0001.wmv


Uploaded by mathewsdita on Apr 3, 2010

Especial event in city of Awassa, Southern Ethiopia, August, 2009

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Here are two comments from this video's viewer comment thread that were written in response to a comment that these dances look like street dances: http://www.youtube.com/all_comments?v=pJ9tor8QsU4

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"This dance is called "Wolaytigna dance". In this video, the daces were mixed with Wolytigna dances and modern daces. Only the girls here actually were dancing Wolytigna but others do mix Wolytigna with modern dances. Any dances danced on the street are street dances. On this video, dance was recorded during especial events on the street of Awassa in 2009. Thanks for visiting this video site. To see actual song and dance, search under “ AW Bade" by-Mamila And Kichini ” . Good luck
-mathewsdita; 2005

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"This dance is called "Wolaytigna dance" came from Wolyta tribes in Southern Ethiopia about 400 km South of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Walaytigna dances were normally a type of dance that involves parts of your body below the waist twisting waistline and shaking butts. Also the dancers hold long stick and jump very high and pull their legs back and forth following the beat and the rhythm of the songs."
mathewsdita; 2012

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The video that mathewsdita recommended is Video #2 of this post. My thanks to that commenter for that recommendation.

I believe that the commenter who wrote that these dances look like street dances might have meant that they look like contemporary African American Rhythm & Blues/Hip Hop dances such as break dancing, Chicago footwork, and krumping. Click http://www.jambalayah.com/node/1147 for videos of various African American R&B/Hip Hop dances.

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