Thus the Guro woman stands with partially relaxed arms, elegantly bent knees. To say that a person dances as if she or he had no bones is one of the highest compliments. The Luba dancer, a young Luba told me in Kinshasa, must manifest his suppleness with bent knees, bent elbows, and suave oscillations to the music. Africans, in short, are very much aware of the irnport of flexibility as a sign of youth in life, as a demonstration of the bright willingness to respond to change in music and in speech. Such are the African tresors de souplesse.
Flexible dancing demands a complicated series of transitions, especially from life to art.
These and many other occupation patterns of movement are reflected in the basic body positions which recur in many forms of Nigerian dance. A characteristic body posture in dance consists of a straightbacked torso with the legs used as springs, the knees bending and stretching in fluidly executing the rhythmic action patterns of the dance, and feet placed firmly on the ground. This figure, allegedly from a village altar and of undocumented function extends the straight line of the back through the neck and head, set over buoyant knees and stable feet. The implication of flexible potency at the hips and knees is striking. By this suspension and preservation,' he writes, ''we gain an affirmative and indeed richer and more concrete determination.