Germaine Smith, Staff Reporter 
The Vibe Ihatas, Stacia (left) and Chelsea. - CARLINGTON WILMOT/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
"She's a dancehall queen for life,
Gonna explode like dynamite,
And she is moving out of sight,
Just a mash up the place like dynamite..."-
Chevelle Franklyn
Dancehall Queen
CHEVELLE FRANKLYN'S lyrics in 'Dancehall Queen' capture the essence of the female dancer in the dancehall. She pulls attention, not necessarily from people who 'approve' of her movements, but she is an attention-grabber nonetheless.
In the past, dancehall moves carried no real rewards for female performers, only unwanted gropes. This has, however, changed. Female dancers have now graduated from gyrating in darkened night-clubs and on gritty street corners to dancing under the glitzy stage lights of posh venues across Europe, the United States and several other countries and they are earning hard, cold cash.
Currently, there is a crop of women who have been commanding respectable fees for their appearances on stage shows which feature prominent Jamaican artistes. This overseas scene has been booming for roughly the past four years, but memories of the 'down days' still linger.
One of the more popular dancers is Dancehall Queen Stacey. A staple at sessions since the early 1990s, Stacey shot to prominence in 1999 when she grabbed the Dancehall Queen title in the competition's blossoming stages. Just before that, Stacey had toured as a back-up dancer for deejay Lady Patra.
Presently, she gets booked every now and then for one-off dancehall shows in several Caribbean and European countries, plus a few annual ones in the US and UK.
"We just never used to popular so at that time, so we used to go dance but mostly the ghetto shows dem," she states about the earlier days.
"After an audition I got to tour with Patra in 1998 as a back-up dancer. We went to Africa and I never got any recognition overseas, but personally the trip changed me. It mek mi start look at the power of what I was doing," she continues.
With the Dancehall Queen title under her belt, Stacey started appearing as a guest at more shows. She is now known as a fierce competitor in the dancehalls, who can be suggestive with her moves as well as explicit.
Keiva and 'Mad' Michelle are also well-known personalities and get their lioness' share of stage shows overseas. Like Stacey, they had to fight in the trenches.
"The earlier days, as mi remember, I used to have to bum drive to go to the dances," Keiva recalls. "I remember four or five of us going out; we had to pool together and mek up the fare. We did have money to go out, but not to go home."
"Inside the dancehalls, crazy fight we get from dem time deh from females who never like we - and males too. Yu find seh we used to dance and the man dem used to throw us out of the ring. Some step pon we toe and waa start fight wid we. Everybody used to fight for the videolight and we never get any recognition fi the moves dem that time."
Michelle identified the turning point as when selectors started calling out dancers' names over the sound systems. Then the attention of the audience and that roving videolight, which records the dances for overseas audiences, shifted to them.
This, plus 'big-ups' by deejays, brought popularity and hence more acceptance, Michelle argues. Once they were accepted, it was not long before they were requested to appear on stage.
Stacey's also states that why female dancers have got more accepted is that each comes with a package. Stage presence and saucy personality, plus the recent shift in dancehall music to incorporate synchronised and often complicated movements to match increasingly fast-paced music, have all helped to earn her the status she now has.
"Sex sells, but that does not mean you are going to sell your body," she explains. "But yu cyaa be a dancehall queen and look regular."
"A next thing is that more dancing in the dancehalls now, so more of us to get work. Before dem time, all yu used to do was get back-up work. When I just started it was only back-up, but now I get spotlight with the dancing music."
"The dance wave help both male and female," states Keiva. "Remember people couldn't put a name to the dances one time. When we make up the dances nobody never know who name them until the deejay seh so, so we put a face to it. It (the dance wave) helped everybody. The selector dem start by calling up our names and asking us to do the moves dem, so when people see we we started getting popular."
"The artistes start doing tunes with out names in them, so yu find that people started knowing our names and started asking for us," Michelle notes.
The salary range is wide. Based on their comments, female dancers snatch anywhere from US$500 to US$5000, plus hotel and travel accommodations, for individual appearances overseas. Nothing is fixed, however, and here is where one problem lies.
The IHATAS (Intelligent, Hardworking, Ambitious, Talented, Attractive Sisters)group is headed by Stacia, aka 'Fire' the Element. She tells The Sunday Gleaner that they are a professional unit, with choreographed moves and a professional approach.
"We make sure we differentiate ourselves with our moves. One thing which affects us is that some other acts underprice themselves, so we look as if we are charging too much for our professional skills. We kinda different, so when we quote a price and the other female says a lower price, they get chosen over us and we look as if we are overcharging," argues Stacia.
Another problem facing the female dance fraternity is that the rapt attention they receive is perceived as eclipsing the dancehall artiste.
"It's been a road with fighting, even now," Stacia continues. "We placed ideas to artistes we work with and I suggested certain moves on stage at shows, but not many of them are up to that yet. They are afraid, I suspect, that we will take the attention from them. Probably they think we will take the limelight from them. In fact, we got cursed for doing that already. One said to us 'dancer cyaa dance when artist a work'."
"We kick down some doors, but we have some more fi kick down," Michelle argues. "Because the man dem still have it easier. It is easier for a promoter to carry a man dancer than a female. Him prefer look 'bout a work permit for a male then for a female dancer, so we still dealing with things like those and we will continue fi push till everything level."
