Virtual Exhibit Museum Review

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Recommended: African traditional music of the colonial period

Virtual Museum Exhibit Review

Dance is not an art form that easily studied through text readings. Therefore, the website I visited, www.AfricaDance.com, helped me view all the angles of this kind of artistic expression. I've always been interested in African traditions, and this assignment gave me the initiative to find out more about them. Luckily, it was not difficult for me to find a good website on my topic. I just went to Yahoo and searched for websites related to my topic and I found this one to best fit my interests.

The website thoroughly displayed pictures, audios, and videos of different dances in addition to stating its purpose--the understanding and promoting the African traditional dance. The quality of the presentation was apparent through the explanation of the different traditional dances. The photos that were displayed had a regular scale and great quality. As far as the site's being well designed: it had to be because I just typed in African Dance and this site was one of the first ones listed.

The site did not have artifacts, but it had pictures of dancers and their elaborate costumes, in addition to music and their many instruments. Another feature included videos, which enabled you to view the dances almost as if you were there. It was easy enough to understand, anyone could interpret what was going on and why, even if he/she was not part of the culture. The exhibit was well thought out with enough information about the culture. Also, the website had more like an emic point of view because the description of the traditional dances were candid. Probably someone from the Igbo community created this web page to enlighten people about African Dances. As a result, visitors can tell this was well thought about because as soon as you reach this website it automatically plays a traditional music from the jump.

I was amazed to see such creativity within this one website. It broadened my insights on all African traditional dances. For example, when I heard the different instruments I wanted to know how tying the bells and different instruments worn would make such music. However, virtual exhibit is becoming more effective because society is changing to a computer age where all may learn from the Internet anytime and anywhere rather than going to a museum.

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