Germaine Smith, Staff Reporter
Voisemail, and two dancers doing one of the popular dances at the FAME Road Party, held at Mas Camp, Oxford Road, New Kingston recently. - WINSTON SILL/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
Just dance, and do what you feel like,
Just, Chaka Chaka and Dip and Come up Rockaway Lean Back and do what you
feel like..."
Voisemail in 'Tribute to Bogle'
IF YOU thought that the seemingly endless array of dance moves to hit the streets would dwindle, think again.
Popular dance moves, the subject of enthusiasm, condemnation, praise and ridicule, have blown up like helium balloons over the past three years and show no sign of abating, despite predictions of demise made by dancehall pundits. The list of dance moves grows by the minute, it seems, with a new dance creator popping out every day.
MOVING FROM THE DANCEHALL
The storied journey of the dances, however, has taken these moves from the streets to the point where they are no longer dancehall-exclusive practices.
Apart from being featured heavily on the annual Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) popular dance competitions, they have left our shores and trickled into mainstream America, with several music videos in rotation bearing the signature styles. And now, even instructional videos are being produced and sold there.
The moves hit the streets just after 2000, but spiralled rapidly onto the world stage with Sean Paul's music video for Gimme The Light. The Little X directed flick displayed dazzling, authentic dancehall moves and the spark was lit.
Among the dance-heavy videos by Jamaicans which followed on the international screen were Get Busy, also by Sean Paul and Jook Gal and Pon Di River, Pon Di Bank by Elephant Man. In the hip-hop world, moves were 'borrowed' by rapper Fat Joe and the Terror Squad in Lean Back, while Usher's Yea featured dancehall moves as well.
Dance teacher and head of the L'Acadco Dancers, L' Antoinette Stines, told The Sunday Gleaner that it was only natural that our moves would hit the world stage.
"Many, but not all, of the movements are African. It satisfies the requirements of what makes an African dance and any culture that has retentions of African culture will appreciate these dances. It is only natural in us. This is the popular dances of the time and it has not only crossed over into video, but over oceans as well," she stated.
Presently, Jamaican director Jason 'Jay Will' Williams is filming a documentary about the dance phenomenon here for marketing overseas and one overseas Jamaican has stepped up a notch, with an instructional DVD How Fi Dance Reggae being sold in the tri-state area.
Rick Aiken, the DVD's producer, told The Sunday Gleaner he had toyed around with the idea for years after seeing the enthusiasm persons overseas showed for the dances, but finally acted on it in 2001 when he started filming the first DVD.
Volume two is out now, with instructions from the dancers themselves on how to do anything from the 'Water Pumpie' of the 80s to the 'Shelly Belly', 'Shankle Dip' and 'Willie Bounce' of today.
"I found out that for many people there was nothing teaching them how to do the moves. The videos showed the dances, but you couldn't learn from them," Aiken told The Sunday Gleaner.
SALES ENCOURAGING
He said the sales are encouraging, extending beyond the Caribbean community in New Jersey and New York. "Here it is not just Caribbean people doing it. It's people who are into dancing, people who are into aerobics and workouts who are loving it. The dancing creates an excitement with the music and draws people to the culture," he stated.
"We are planning a huge advertising campaign to launch with the major networks soon, to launch it even bigger," he continued.
Locally the euphoria has not translated into DVD sales, but there is increasing recognition of dancing as a part of the music industry. Promoter Danny Champagne has started a weekly dance-off which will lead up to an award next month. Though the aim was originally to honour the late Gerald 'Bogle' Levy, the show itself is to somehow celebrate the dancing culture of the dancehall.
"We want to show what makes dancehall in Jamaica authentic, what makes it unique, what makes it so special and what the appeal of it is to the rest of the world." he stated.
"People are getting more creative now, the fact that there is a dancer every day. If you go to the night-clubs, you will see the creativity taking the spotlight ... I have seen dances that I have never seen anywhere else here," Champagne said.
Stines put a suitable cap to the situation. "I can't look into the future because I am not a fortune teller, but dancehall dancing is not going to die. We are going to keep evolving and changing things. The creativity of the dancehall is dynamic and is always exploding, so it won't stop," she said.
