The styles we dance

West Africa

Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire — the engine room of what most people mean by Afro dance.

Afrobeats Nigeria · Ghana

The umbrella most people arrive by. Afrobeats is the music; the dance is everything the clubs and the internet have built on top of it, which is why a class called Afrobeats will teach you several named styles rather than one.

Naija Nigeria

The Nigerian street dance family as a whole — the vocabulary Shaku Shaku, Konto and their neighbours all draw on.

Shaku Shaku Nigeria · Lagos

Out of Lagos in the late 2010s. Bent knees, the weight low, arms crossed and working in front of the body. Instantly recognisable and much harder to do well than it looks.

Konto Nigeria

A Nigerian street style built on a loose, rolling bounce, and one of the roots the later Naija dances grew from.

Azonto Ghana · Accra

Ghana's export to the world, early 2010s. A steady knee bounce under hands that mime everyday life — driving, washing, boxing — so the dance tells a joke or a story.

Asorkpor Ghana

A Ghanaian street dance carried by its footwork, danced socially long before it reached a stage.

Coupé-décalé Côte d'Ivoire

Born among Ivorians in Paris in the early 2000s and sent home, where it became the sound of Abidjan. Sharp, shoulder-led, and inseparable from its own showmanship.

Central Africa

Gabon, Cameroon, the two Congos and Angola.

Ntcham Gabon

Gabon's own, and the one on an OYOFE floor right now: Redblueh teaches it at OYOFE Youth Vol. 2 in November. The least written-about style on this page and not the least danced.

Mbolé Cameroon · Yaoundé

Young, loud and grounded, out of the neighbourhoods of Yaoundé. Danced hard, close to the floor, and in a circle more often than in a line.

Bolo Cameroon

A Cameroonian street style danced to its own rhythm, and one of the names you will hear called in a battle long before you find it written down anywhere.

Ndombolo DR Congo

The dance of Congolese rumba's fast half. Hips and waist carry it, and it has been filling floors across the continent since the 1990s.

Kuduro Angola · Luanda

Hard, fast and percussive, from Luanda. The oldest of the styles here to go global, and still the one that asks most of your legs.

Afro House Angola · South Africa

House music's African line, and the dance that goes with it: lighter on the feet than Kuduro, built for a long night rather than a short round.

Southern Africa

South Africa — the deepest single bench of street styles on the continent.

Amapiano South Africa

The sound that took over the 2020s, and a dance that answers it: patient, in the pocket, and far more about feel than about tricks.

Sbujwa South Africa · Soweto

Out of Soweto, with kwaito underneath it. Quick feet, relaxed shoulders, and a swagger that is the whole point.

Bhenga South Africa

Footwork-first and fast, danced low. One of the styles that makes a South African round in a battle unmistakable.

Bacardi South Africa · Pretoria

Pretoria's own, danced to Bacardi house. Driving, repetitive and hypnotic, and it rewards stamina over variety.

Survivor South Africa

One of the newer names on a South African floor, and one of the quickest to spread from a phone screen to a battle.

And what people call the mix

Afro fusion The diaspora

What happens when a dancer trained in several of the styles above stops separating them. Most choreography you have seen labelled "Afro dance" online is this.

Afro dance Everywhere

The catch-all a studio timetable uses. Useful for finding a class, less useful once you are in one: ask which styles are actually being taught.