Dancing belongs to all types of festivals which are celebrated in Guinea. People dance at all events where music is involved. The dance forms the music and vice versa. Everyone dances: young or old, talented or not, because dancing is a part of life in Guinea.

African dance is a generic term which cannot be generalised across the whole of Africa. The cultural differences between the many individual regions and the numerous diverse dance styles found there are just as enormous as the continent itself. Even within Guinea alone one can find differences between the music and dance styles from region to region, from one ethnic group to the next, from rhythm to rhythm, and between the traditional and modern.

Traditionally every rhythm has at least one matching dance figure, which is danced and varied by the dancers and the participants from the public. If the rhythm changes, so does the dance figure. Everyone knows the rhythm and the corresponding figure. Mostly the figures represent only short interludes. Someone jumps in front of the musicians, dances their step, and jumps back into the public.

Modern choreography and traditional dance styles merge in the African ballets, where complicated dance sequences are rehearsed and assembled for the stage. The dance theatre performance is accompanied by singing, and also the drums and other instruments such as the kora, balafon and flute.

There is more information in the background section for those interested in the dance and music in a West African context.