ABSTRACT
Petit Gbapleu is an old Dan village that the growing city of Man has completely surrounded. In 1997, Petit Gbapleu maintained a kind of dual identity as a village and an urban neighborhood. The performing nucleus and their Dan supporters indexed their own separate identity in a number of ways. Gedro’s incorporation of other Dan dances—those that performers call “traditional”—are, like his incorporation of popular music, intertextual references. Gedro is one of the genre of genu called tanke ge, or “dance ge” who are called upon to dance at celebratory occasions. The zude, again, is the elder leader of the women’s Kong society, the most powerful woman of any Dan village or neighborhood and a leader in Dan religious affairs. Expanding opportunities for dance genu can also be linked directly to other social changes, including the diversification of the economy and the religious and ethnic makeup of the region.
