Traditional dances of the South Sotho of Qwaqwa were studied as a product of culture. The two major objectives were: to document, and analyse specific South Sotho dances and relate them holistically to the culture; and to determine which dances of the girls and the women would be suitable for inclusion in the Syllabus for Physical Education for Girls in the Republic of South Africa according to certain educational criteria. The aspects investigated in the study included the following: 1. An ethnographic image of the South Sotho relating to ancestry, way of life and culture; 2. Dance as a cultural phenomenon and the place and function of dance in the culture of the South Sotho; 3. The notation of selected dances, an analysis of the dance movements and choreographic structure of the dances; 4. The educational value of folk and ethnic dances for implementation in the physical education programme, according to relevant objectives. The techniques used to identify, classify, document and analyse the dances, included fieldwork done through personal observation, participating observation, video filming of the dances, sound recordings of the songs and personal interviews. The sequence of steps was notated descriptively and graphically. The movements of the free body segments and dance technique were described and the floor pattern of each step sequence, the information with the accompaniment and the floor plan of the dance were transcribed graphically. The number of repetitions of the step sequences and the order of the parts of the dances were notated according to counts. The following dances were identified: women's dances - mokgibo, moqoqopelo, ledingwana, thojane, timiti and famu; girls' dances - mokgibo, play dances, ndlamu and bale dances; men's dances - mohobelo, mokorotlo, diphotha and setapo; boys dance the same dances apart from the mokorotlo. Wedding dances and thojane are also danced together by both sexes. The four dances which were documented include the wedding dance Ausi o manele, a play dance (Tikwe ha malome), ledingwana-women's dance (Diponono ha kena basadi) and mogogopelo women's dance (Ke lelekuwe bohadi). The main findings of the study indicated that dance is still closely interlinked with the cultural life of the South Sotho and that the purpose of the dance manifests itself mainly in terms of social recreation. Specific dances of the South Sotho can be utilized in a meaningful way in the physical education programme for girls because of the educational value, the link with the cultural objectives of the folk dance section of the syllabus and the relevance to the present needs of society. / Thesis (MA) -- PU vir CHO, 1985