Polyrhythmicity (2021), mentioned in the previous chapter, drew significantly on African multi-levelled rhythms in charting a new model for accounting for rhythm in poetry, dance, the novel and other art forms. What it did not do was explore the close relationship between dance and poetry (often in the form of song) in African culture, nor did it explore contemporary African culture. The present chapter will focus on the relationship of dance and poetry, both as art forms but also inextricably within social and political practices. Africa, like Asia, embraces a wide variety of dance and poetic forms, including those of Arabic and Islamic background in north Africa. This is the chapter in the book which draws most closely on the relationship between dance, song and poetry, and thus brings the three art forms together. As mentioned in the Introduction to the book, music in general provides a bridging link between dance and poetry, but nowhere more than in African countries does its manifestation in song play such an integral part. Therefore music cannot be ignored in this chapter that looks at dance and poetry in Senegal, Ivory Coast, Mali and in Swahili and Zulu cultures.