by Caroline Muraldo

Did you know that the people of African-Caribbean descent have a rich and diverse folk dance culture? Sadly, most people of African-Caribbean descent, born in this country, will more than likely answer no, or ask if you mean Ragga/Limbo. While Ragga and Limbo are obviously part of Caribbean dance, they are hardly representative of the hundreds of traditional dances which could not and do not exist anywhere else.

 

Why ‘could not’? Because like every other part of African-Caribbean culture, the Caribbean dance traditions emerged out of the forced encounter of specific diverse cultures, on a land foreign to those cultures. In the face of almost unspeakable adversity, a new culture developed. While many characteristics can be traced back to African or European origins, the emergent Caribbean culture has its own style, idiosyncrasies, and traditions, which are specific to the Caribbean.

 

The fact is that in this country generally, very little of known about Caribbean dance. Why then, are so few people aware of traditional Caribbean dance? There are a number of reasons.

 

Firstly, much of the general attitudes and regard for traditional dance is a direct result of the legacy of colonialism. By the time that the Europeans had begun the slave trade, dance within their own cultures was already becoming a marginal entity. Dance in Europe, other than the dance of the courts, was regarded as vulgar and dancers were not even allowed burial within the grounds of a church. Add to this the propaganda that was fed to the European nations which denigrated the character, nature and culture of the black races in order to justify the inhumane treatment of nations of peoples. These values held by the slave masters as a result, were forced on their slaves, and served not only to ensure that dance and all that was obviously African, to not have the status and central importance within Caribbean society that it had enjoyed on the African continent. Here lies the chrysalis from which traditional black dance along with the rest of black culture, gained its gross misrepresentation, which has perpetuated to present times.

 

For example, how do you see traditional African dance? Most people answer, women with bare breasts jiggling about, men brandishing spears and howling, men and women making erotic pelvic gestures and jumping around the place. This is popular narrow view that has perpetuated through the centuries. The nonsense dances portrayed in ‘jungle films’ which fulfil the Western perspective of African dance, only help to confirm these ideas.

 

African dance, has integrity, amazing power, precision, beauty and depth of feeling that is inherent. Unfortunately, if there are bare breasts, few can actually get past the Western perspective of merely linking bare breasts with sex. Quite often nudity is included in visiting African dance company performances, simply to ‘put bums on seats’ and having the adverse effect of distracting audiences from enjoying and appreciating the dance itself.

The qualities of traditional African dance are also to be found within traditional Caribbean dance but as with African dance, this dance form is far from being given the attention it deserves either here or in the Caribbean. If you wanted to read up on Caribbean dance you would find the location of books on the subject very difficult to say the least. During a recent visit to the Caribbean I made sure that I visited all the book shops I could in Barbados and Trinidad. The reaction was the same where ever I went, the sales assistants would look at me as if I was mad, while informing me that they had books on ballet only. Here in England the situation is hardly better.

There are books by authors such as Molly Ahye, Beryl McBurnie, Katherine Dunham and Hilary Carty, which solely concentrate on Caribbean dance along with W.S. Sidney and S. Price’ Caribbean Contours which includes some interesting chapters on Caribbean dance and its music. There are also authors who include in their books anything from a few words to a few pages on Caribbean dance, e.g.. Rex Nettleford, Edward Thorpe, Lynne Fauley-Emery, amongst others. However, of these books, those by Molly Ahye, Beryl McBurnie and Caribbean Contours are no longer in print, and therefore extremely difficult, if not impossible to get hold of ( I’ve been trying to get hold these books for four years now)

Caribbean dance and music were born out of necessity, as the enslaved African people found themselves without any other means of conversing with one another. In spite of the low regard for traditional dance that gradually pervaded Caribbean society, as explained above, traditional dances continued to be enjoyed as a social pastime and at family celebrations. However, the advent of the American popular media has directed interest, especially of the young, away from continuing these traditions. New forms of social dance have also developed generally at the expense of traditional dance. While change and development is valid and important, equally important is not to lose the roots or where our culture came from.

 

It may appear to be a contradiction to say that dance as a social pastime has always been an important and essential part of Caribbean culture. It needs to be explained that the status and importance that Caribbean dance failed to inherit form Africa had nothing to do with the actual enjoyment of dancing. In Africa there was no aspect of social life in which dance did not have an important and essential role to play, e.g.. education, work, rites of passage, preparation for war, the retelling of historical events etc. Dance in Africa was inextricably part of the fabric of society.

The popularity of carnival has also taken its toll on involvement in traditional dance, as those who take part can find themselves involved in the preparations for this event all the year around.

 

It is not surprising that the low interest in traditional dance has meant an equally low regard for the profession of being a dancer. Individuals are not encouraged to be professionally involved in dance in general and definitely not in traditional dance which, if taken up at all, would more than likely, be in the form of a hobby.

 

As a result there are few professional dancers in this country, born and bred in the Caribbean, who have the knowledge and skill to teach traditional Caribbean dance. Such people can however, be found within the ex-members of the Grenadian ‘Bee Wee Ballet’, i.e. founder Allistair Bain, Alex Pascall, Gertrude Sobers and other practitioners from other professional dance backgrounds, e.g.. Jackie Guy, Everol Puckerin, Ray |McLean, Corinne Skinner. Along with the number of practitioners being few, some of these who have first hand knowledge, no longer dance or have past away such as the late Elroy Josephs.

 

While there are a small number of dancers who have had the opportunity to learn from these practitioners and now teach, an urgent need is growing for travel to the Caribbean to learn first hand. While there are an extremely small number of dancers such as H Pattern or author Hilary Carty who in previous years have managed to secure funding to study dance in the Caribbean, as each year passes securing funding becomes increasingly difficult generally. Caribbean dance has to compete not only with the rest of dance, but with the rest of the Arts who much more established, for the decreasing small pot of available funding.

 

In spite of all this, the fact is that Caribbean dance is a rich part of the African-Caribbean’s cultural heritage. A part that needs to be rediscovered and valued for its potential contribution to social and cultural understanding, appreciation and knowledge. In the Caribbean there has been moves to encourage the performance of traditional dances at public events as a means of encouraging national pride in Caribbean culture e.g. inter-island events such as Carifest, or The Better Village Programme in Trinidad, and traditional dance will also take place as part of official functions.

 

But what of Caribbean dance itself? Caribbean dance, as with much of Caribbean culture exists along a continuum. At opposite ends are the purely European and African influences, where dances can be traced directly back to their origins, while at the centre lies traditions which cannot be found anywhere but in the Caribbean.

 

Dances such as the Quadrille, Calenda or the Congos del Espiritu are merely three of the dances which belong the European end of the continuum, which in common with many of the other dances in this category, were derived from European court dances. At the other end you will find dances such as the Shango, Kumina, Gumbay steeped in African spiritual ritual and beliefs. As the practice of African traditions were prohibited, these traditions were combined with Christian practices to fool the slave masters, which became an integral part e.g.. Shango-Baptists While at the central point there are dances like Bel Air (Bele), Jonkunnu, danced during Caribbean public holidays and celebrations.

As an integral part of each dance tradition, specific costumes, music/drumming, and special preparations have developed not only to create the special individuality of each tradition but to make each one a vessel of some part of Caribbean’s history and culture.

 

In future issues of Body Boo I will take great pleasure in focusing on some of the dances from this rich tradition, spotlighting this aspect of Caribbean culture in an effort to give Caribbean dance a little of the attention it rightly deserves.