Impact of costumes in dance as vehicle for promotion of dance culture and indigenous cultural heritage for economic development in Nigeria

The concept of costume in dance seems be paid less attention by the audience of dance performance. Visual arts that form the costume are seen as normal body adornments associated with dance or a mere cloth for traditional dance code. This misconception needs not to be ignored. The study aimed at examining this problem by adopting a comparative descriptive survey for indigenous audience perception where a traditional dance performed with costume and another performed without costume are compared using traditional dance by Igbo students of Music Department, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria as a working metaphor. Structured questionnaire entitled “Indigenous Audience Perception of Traditional Dance Costume, IAPTDC” was developed to collect relevant data for this study. Two research questions were posed and one hypothesis was tested in the study. The research questions were analysed using mean and standard deviation, while the hypothesis was tested using t-test at .05 level of significant. The findings of this study revealed, among others. that costume in dance is beyond dress codes or body adornments associated with dance. It further revealed the differences in aesthetic and unique nature of dance that is performed with costumes, and dance performed without costumes. Educational contribution of the findings were discussed and recommendations were also made, which include that the public should see costume in dance as evidence of visual arts through which visual artistic skill creation and indigenous cultural heritage could unfold and be promoted.