Keep on Dancing

1964: Native Dancers

The Kingdom of Dahomey (c1600-1894) was located near the former slave coast of Africa so it is not surprising that this dance, the Nago, is one that is also performed in Haiti today.  The French took over the area at the end of the 19th Century and independence came to the republic in 1960 and it would eventually change its name to Benin.  The French connection remained for these stamps were designed and engraved by the prolific Pierre Bequet (1932-2012) who designed over 700 stamps which included the ex French colonies, French Antarctica and France itself including the 1971 'Marianne' definitive whose portrait he based on his wife Gisele. 

The Sombo and their dance  live in the mountainous area of Dahomey but are also present in other countries.

1957: Native Costumes

Africa is continent full of music and dance so here is an Angolan Bocoio. This is from a very attractive set of stamps and was designed by Albano Neves e Sousa (1921-1995) who also produced other stamps for the country and whose short biography enigmatically says for "reasons beyond his control he had to leave Angola and settled in Brazil". Angola like Benin has had a turbulent modern history.

From one continent to another we dance towards 

1998: Youth Arts Australia

Australia and those starting out on a career in the arts.

1942: National Work and Joy Movement

Now we have happy folk dancers from Bulgaria but sometimes a darker story may be intuited through stamps for the Bulgarian government was pro-Nazi and I wonder if that work and joy movement may be linked to the Nazi Strength through Joy (Kraft durch Freude).

1959: Bulgarian Youth Festival

No  work and joy nonsense here, only the fun of  high kicking dancers.

An entry to Sunday Stamps II and is D for Dance and Dahomey - skip over to See It On A Postcard for more words starting with the letter D.