This chapter delves into the foundation of Ghanaian dance scholarship, emphasizing traditional and indigenous dances and their significance in the Indigenous Knowledge Systems of various communities. It explores postin-dependence dance categories and their progressive changes, drawing on Awuah's (2014) categorization to analyze their characteristics, dancing structures, rules, and aesthetics. The transmission of Kete in the Traditional category, with its move from Kumasi to the University of Ghana in 1963, reflects its unique role in community life. The chapter highlights the official decree from the Asantehene allowing Kete's use in the academy for academic and nationalist purposes, marking it as a distinctive knowledge system within the ensemble's repertoire. The approval and support from both the Asantehene and Dr. Nkrumah contribute to Kete's significance in the broader context of Ghanaian dance scholarship.

Traditional Dance-Musicking

Traditional dances in Ghana serve to navigate the communal lives of the people who engage in their performance. Traditional dances, crucial to community life, involve creators, custodians, and practitioners of artistic elements in dance-musicking across time. They embody an intellectual expression, revealing how individuals interpret their identity and relationships within indigenous Ghana. In the 1960s, Ghana pioneered the integration of professionalizing traditional music and dances into academic practice. This facilitated further exploration, connecting cultural forms with other state elements, shaping not just art but also influencing knowledge production and the conception of the African self. Understanding traditional music and dance requires exploring connections in movements, music, visual forms, multisensory modalities, audience engagement, and dancing events within Ghanaian/African traditions.

There should be a distinction between the dancing activity and the dancing event. One must understand that the dancing activity, herein referred to as the “realization,” is only made salient within the event it is perpetuated in. Hence, it is the dancing event that creates the contexts and validates the movement variations, music, and its historical antecedents. “A dancing event is a kind of an open or restricted occasion in a place and time, where and when dancing is in the focus.” In many indigenous communities, dance events are intricately linked to economic, religious, or political activities, using dance-musicking as a central element to convey meaning.