Kwassa kwassa (or kwasa kwasa) is a dance created by Jeanora, a mechanic in Kinshasa from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, that started in the 1980s, where the hips move back and forth while the hands move to follow the hips.
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Kwassa kwassa (or kwasa kwasa) is a dance created by Jeanora, a mechanic in Kinshasa from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, that started in the 1980s, where the hips move back and forth while the hands move to follow the hips.
01 · What it is
Dance
Live movement, rhythm, costume, or staged dramatic performance passed between generations.
02 · Where & name
Geography awaiting source
Add a cited source naming the region or community that carries it.
03 · How it is doing
□□□□ (Not yet assessed)
Documented in open cultural records, but no cited field assessment of its current vitality has been added here yet.
04 · Proof & reuse
1 cited source
Every claim links to a public record below. Free to quote, teach, and share under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Common Questions Answered on Record
What is kwassa kwassa in plain words?
Kwassa kwassa (or kwasa kwasa) is a dance created by Jeanora, a mechanic in Kinshasa from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, that started in the 1980s, where the hips move back and forth while the hands move to follow the hips.
Where is kwassa kwassa practised or documented?
No verified geographic place has been linked on record yet — editors can add a cited place from the edit page.
What is the current condition of kwassa kwassa today?
□□□□ (Not yet assessed): Documented in open cultural records, but no cited field assessment of its current vitality has been added here yet.
How do I cite or share this kwassa kwassa entry?
Cite as: "kwassa kwassa." folkroom, https://folkroom.org/art-forms/kwassa-kwassa, text CC BY-SA, with attribution.
Kwassa kwassa (or kwasa kwasa) is a dance created by Jeanora, a mechanic in Kinshasa from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, that started in the 1980s, where the hips move back and forth while the hands move to follow the hips. It was very popular in Africa.
The dance was popularized by soukous music videos, as well as the videos of Kanda Bongo Man, Pepe Kalle, Viva La Musica, and other Congolese musicians. For the first time in Congo, all the groups adopted these dance steps. This had not happened before because bands preferred to have their own specific dance.
The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Kwassa kwassa”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence.
kwassa kwassa is music genre and type of dance, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. 1
The source record links this tradition to 4 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. 1
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