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Tuesday, May 17, 2022

Jamaica's Dancehall Reggae Dances (History Of And Influences Upon Dancehall Dances & Descriptions Of Some Old School Examples Of Those Dances)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part I of a five part pancocojams series about Jamaica's Dancehall Reggae dances. 

This post presents some online excerpts about the history of Jamaica's Dancehall dances. A partial list and descriptions of some Dancehall dances are also included in this pancocojams post.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/05/information-about-jamaican-dancehall.html for Part II of this pancocojams series. That post presents information about legendary 
Jamaican dancer/choreographer "Mr. Bogle" ("Mr. Wacky") and showcases three YouTube videos that feature Mr Bogle.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/05/how-dancehall-dance-willie-bounce-got.html for Part III of this pancocojams series. That post showcase a YouTube video of the Dancehall dance "Willie Bounce" and provides information & comments about that dance got its name. Information about Elephant Man who first recorded the "Willie Bounce" in 2006 is also included in that pancocojams post.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/05/jamaican-dancer-latonya-styles.html for Part IV of this pancocojams series. That post showcases a YouTube video demonstration of some of the dances that were created by Dancehall  dancer/ creator "Mr. Bogle". Selected comments from that video's discussion thread is also included in that pancocojams post.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/05/comments-about-some-dancehall-dance.htmlfor Part V of this pancocojams series. That post presents online article excerpts and discussion thread comments about some Dancehall dances that inspired or are similar to or the same as certain African American Hip Hop dances.

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The content of this post is presented for historical and cultural purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those musical artists, choreographers and dancers who have contributed to Jamaica's Dancehall music and dance. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post.
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Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/05/excerpts-about-history-of-jamaicas.html for the closely related pancocojams post entitled "Excerpts About The History Of Jamaica's Dancehall Reggae Music".

Also, click the Dancehall Reggae tag below for other pancocojams post about that music and dances.

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ONLINE EXCERPTS ABOUT JAMAICA'S DANCEHALL REGGAE DANCES
These excerpts are numbered for referencing purposes only.

Excerpt #1
From https://tabankadance.com/dancehall-lecture-noted/ [no publishing date cited]
"Dancehall is a popular dance genre springing out of English speaking Caribbean, and spearheaded from Jamaica. It is the mix and coming together of African retention dances of the region and Jamaica in particular, with popular culture, and youthful “innovation”.  Dancehall has in the later years been used to package and sell Jamaican and Caribbean culture. It has for that purpose been restructured in order to sell more on the international market. Dancehall is one of the larges industries in Jamaica.

Dancehall has informed several other Dancestyles, predates Hip Hop culture, and has enjoyed several rounds of mainstreaming and crossover since the 1960s. The movements that inform Dancehall come predominantly from Jamaican traditional dance retentions. Reggae however is in itself also a fusion of these styles although not allowing for the same rhythmical diversity as Dancehall has. Dancehall springing out of Reggae and still being considered as a reggae sub-genre always adhers to the Reggae “feel” or “pulse”. This predominantly drawing from Kumina, nyabinghi (Rastafari), and Maroon roots. The 16 rhythmic genres of dance that Dancehall predominantly draws upon are the following: 

[Pancocojams Editor's Note: This article lists and then provides an overview of 16 dance forms, all of which are African or -less often-African/European dances.]

The majority of these are considered to be religious dances, and have evolved considerably over the years. One of the few to not be associated with faith, the Junkanoo dances, still exist today in their original style. As well as the characters of the Junkanoo is very much what has informed the different styles of Dancehall.

[Pancocojams Editor's Note: This article continues with the following descriptions of Jonkannu and of Tambu.]

JONKONNU
A strong dance and musical tradition in Jamaica, Jonkonnu has been preserved the most accurately through the years, recognized as the oldest dance style on the island. A fusion of African mime and European folk theater, Jonkonnu always tells a story, and is often cast like a play with each dancer receiving a specific character to portray. Much of the humor and play, very much used by for example “Les Twins”, involving theatrics, dancers forming together to make bikes, horses and saddle etc etc comes from this form.

Traditionally-assigned characters, each with their own choreography, include:

Pitchy Patchy – a lively character with small and rapid steps. He also moves in circular patterns that take up much of the dance space, and includes basic acrobatics like cartwheels into his movements.

Devil – though the title sounds ominous, Devil is actually charming and entertaining, with an alternation of small and bouncy steps with long and fluid ones. Combined with turns and jabs with a pitchfork, this character is noted in many Jonkonnu

Cow Head – low to the ground and sticking to bucking movements, this dancer moves much like an actual cow head.

Belly Woman – performs belly movements in sync with the rhythmic beats of the music

Set Girls – costumed groups of female dancers who fill out what can be considered the ensemble or chorus line of Jonkonnu

TAMBU
The tambu dance takes its name from the drum referred to as “tambu” and is performed mainly for entertainment with couples facing and moving towards each other using the Shay-shay, Saleone and Mabumba sequence. The shay-shay features rotating action of the hips, shuffling along with one foot on the ball."....

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Excerpt #2
From https://www.my-island-jamaica.com/jamaican_dance_steps.html Jamaican Dance Steps, contributed by Tracie Blake. Originally posted: 8/7/08, updated 7/5/2014
…."The early stages of Jamaican Dance Moves started with the Dinki Mini and Bruckins Parties which are now mainly practiced at Independence/Emancipation time.

These are processional dances where all participants dress up in costumes and the dance moves are performed in a uniformed way depicting naturally exhumed choreography. Over the years, these foundations have remained but evolved and progressed into new dances which are a graze worldwide.

After these dances came the ska (fast movements of the hips and flailing of the arms between the legs) and rock steady (slow movements of the hips and arms being held close to the body) which has culminated into dance hall moves consisting of a vast combination of movements.

 Here are a few of today's contemporary Jamaican dance hall moves:

The Bogle
Well, although not to 'new' anymore, it is still a favourite. The dancer points the hands toward the air in a flailing steady motion while moving the body back and forth in a snake-like movement.

Heel-And-Toe
This dance involves jumping slightly off the ground and landing with your right foot directly in front of your left foot with one foot landing on the heel and the other on the toe and pivoting in a circle with the arms and upper torso moving to the rhythm of the music.

Pon the River, Pon the Bank
This dance includes jumping to the music and tilting from the heel to the toe from one invisible line to the other while focusing on the rhythm of the music.

 jamaican dance steps

Signal the Plane
In this dance style, the dancer stands in one position and waves his/her arms toward the sky as if signaling to a plane to land. This is repeated to the rhythm of the music and the body is thrust in a back and forth rocking motion.

Hot Wuk
This dance is done by women and involves the “whining” or gyrating of the hips and buttocks while flashing the fingers in an outward motion and bearing an expression of pain/discomfort on the face.

Tek Weh Yuself
In this dance, the dancer makes small tapping movements with the feet while bouncing to the music and moving from side to side pointing in the direction they are going (left to right).

Beyonce Wine
This is another dance ideally done by women where she stands in one position and gyrates the buttocks while looking “sassy”.

Dutty Wine
This dance is mainly done by women and involves standing or kneeling firmly on the floor while swinging the head vigorously in a circular motion while rotating the buttocks.

Of course, there is the latest dance, called the Gully Creeper, but more to come on that.

These are just a few of the popular Jamaican Dance Steps from old to new and the beat plays on"….
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Here's a list of "the latest" Dancehall dances noted in that article without descriptions, presumable as part of its 2014 update.

"-Flairy

-Lebeh Lebeh

-Fling You Shoulder

-Genna Bounce

-Tip

-Skip

-One Drop

-Kotch

-Bruk It Dung

-NoLinga"

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Excerpt #3
From https://jamaicans.com/jamaicanstreetdancehistory/ Jamaican Street Dance History by Martinoaka Breakboy NRG, 2012
"Jamaica’s street dance culture dates back to the late 50’s early 60’s. In anticipation of Jamaica gaining independence from Britain, the late 50’s brought about a new found spirit of nationalism. Inspired by this, local jazz musician and pioneering producer “Coxsone” Dodd was driven to create a uniquely Jamaican dance sound. This music was called Ska and fused American jazz and R&B with Jamaican mento, and featured a strong bass and drum rhythm section, guitars, keyboards and brass. Rocksteady, and later, reggae eventually evolved from ska in the late 1960’s.

In response to ska, a dance called “the ska” was created and then later the more popular “skanking”, these were Jamaica’s first urban dance moves. “Ronnie and Jeanette” a popular local dance team visited the 1964 World’s Fair in New York along with renowned Jamaican musicians in order to demonstrate the phenomenal music and dance innovations.

By the late 60’s early 70’s, “Teenage Dance Party” a popular weekly radio program which showcased the most popular North American music along with the emergence of reggae, made the regular creation of new dance moves essential. These urban dance moves were to become a vital component in defining Jamaican dancehall culture. The innovative dancers in every community prided themselves as being pacesetters by how successful they were in creating and spreading their moves through parties or “dances.” These dancers would eventually form dance troupes, troupes such as Blacker Spades, GQ, and LTD added the element of theatrics and acrobatic moves to popular moves and took their act to the stage. By performing at talent shows, school barbeques, high school parties and entering dance competitions, these troupes would expose the greater public to the amazing dance culture emerging from the ghettos in Kingston. In addition, to the many stage shows showcasing the skills of the talented dancers, television also played a major part.

In 1971, a young cameraman for the local TV station JBC (Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation, now TVJ) named Alphonso Walker created a program aimed at young people. This TV show had two segments one which was geared to promoting and showcasing local talent in a party like atmosphere (not unlike Soul Train) and the other a forum where issues affecting young people in the society were discussed. The Show was called Where It’s At, and would take Jamaican urban culture into almost every Jamaican home. Eventually the show was overhauled, according to Alphonso ‘the show did not have the right type of energy, it was too bland”. He decided then to take out the forum, and replace the “uptown” dancers with dancers from the inner city, which included members of the Funky Phonics who he thought was more energetic and creative. He was right, the result was a more potent show, and appealed to a greater audience. The show lasted for 15 years. People would tune in weekly to find out what the new dance was, as a result the Where It’s At dancers became very popular, and you could see their influence on the dance floors of Jamaica. The mid to late 70’s brought a wave of R&B and funk music to dance floors, dancers would now need a new repertoire of dance moves to respond to this music. Their affiliation with JBC allowed the Where It’s At dancers access to satellite transmissions of U.S TV programs, one program of particular interest to them was Soul Train. Soul Train gave the dancers an inside track to what was going on in urban dance in America and allowed them to be up to date on the new music and dances that went with them.”…
-snip-
This article is reformatted to enhance its readability.

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Excerpt #4
From 
https://jamaicansmusic.com/learn/origins/dancehall Origin Of Dancehall [no author of publishing date cited]
"Some would consider Dancehall to the most popular music in Jamaica. It began in the late 1970s and has now impacted all different types of musical genres worldwide. Initially Dancehall was a more sparse version of Reggae than the roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s. In the mid-1980s, digital instrumentation became more prevalent, changing the sound considerably, with digital Dancehall becoming increasingly characterized by faster rhythms.

The popularity of Dancehall has spawned dance moves that help to make parties and stage performances more energetic. Many dance moves seen in Hip Hop videos are actually variations of Dancehall dances. Examples of such dances are: "Like Glue", "Bogle", "Wine & Dip", "Tek Weh Yuhself", "Whine Up", "Boosie Bounce", "Drive By", "Shovel It", "To Di World", "Dutty Wine", "Sweep", "Nuh Behavior", "Nuh Linga", "Skip to My Lou", "Gully Creepa", "Bad Man Forward Bad Man Pull Up", "Keeping it Jiggy", "Pon Di River", "Willie Bounce", "Wacky Dip", "Screetchie" and "Daggering.”

With so much more to come, Dancehall has changed the face of music. It is one of the most versatile genres out there and so many artistes all over the world collaborate on tracks that feature Dancehall riddims or try to cut it close to the musicality if its uniqueness. With world renowned artistes such as Beenie Man, Mavado, Vybz Kartel, Busy Signal, Aidonia, and Konshens; Dancehall music has produced some of the most charismatic and energetic artistes with massive sounds. "...

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This concludes Part I of this pancocojams series.

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