The gumboot dance (or Isicathulo) is an African dance that is performed by dancers wearing wellington boots. In South Africa these are more commonly called gumboots.
The boots may be embellished with bells, so that they ring as the dancers stamp on the ground. This sound would be a code or a different calling to say something to another person a short distance away. It was basically used to communicate in the mines as there was strictly no talking other wise they would get punished by there boss.
Read more about Gumboot Dance: Origin, Description, Appearances Outside of Core Context
Famous quotes containing the word dance:
“Fill high the bowl with Samian wine!
Our virgins dance beneath the shade—
I see their glorious black eyes shine;
But gazing on each glowing maid,
My own the burning tear-drop laves,
To think such breasts must suckle slaves.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)