THE TIV INGYÔUGH DANCE PERFORMANCE

Traditional dance is one of the oldest groups of art forms among the Tiv people. Despite its age, it is still enjoyed across the society, having a great audience appreciation and of course, participation. However, a pertinent challenge is that out of the dozens of dances performed in Tivland, only an insignificant number of them have literatures about them and worst of it all is that they are not documented in visual forms (photography and video). This research is based on data gathered through interactive focus group discussion (FGD) by the author. This was after a visual documentation exercise of the Tiv Ingyôugh dance put together as a documentary film. The paper is designed to provide some written literature on this traditional dance as one indigenous performance that has truly documented a traditional practice in Tiv society. The paper concludes that without the Ingyôugh dance performance, majority of present day Tiv people alive would not know that there was a kwashiorkor epidemic in Tivland in the past.