Shake Your Hips to Jamaica's Traditional Island Dances

Music and dance are two elements of Jamaican culture that you need to consider experiencing on your holiday to the region. Many original dances in Jamaica are of African origin, and Jamaicans love to dance. The traditional dances of the area bear a striking resemblance to African dances, but the newer dance moves will be more global and infuse hip-hop, jazz, along with other international dance forms.

The single most favored and traditional dance may be the "Kumina," which originated in West Africa. This style of dance is predominantly perfectly located at the parishes of St. Thomas and St. Mary and is also referred to as "Kalunga" or "Kaduunga."

Kumina features flat-footed inching with the feet (or the kongo step), a comfortable, but often subtle forward-thrusting of the hip with all the rib cage and arms moving up against the hip, as well as wild spins and sudden breaks, all signaled through the lead drum. The dominant aspects of Kumina are dance, music, spirit possession, healing, along with the use of herbs.

The drums found in the dance would be the Kbandu, which provide principle rhythms, and "Playing Cast," the lead drum. These go along with candles, graters, shakas and catta sticks, played around the back of the drum. According to Jamaica Journal, Volume 10, No.1, "Linguistic evidence cites the kongo as a specific ethnic source to the 'language' and perchance the songs of Kumina." There are Congolese words in most of the Kumina songs performed in Jamaica, which shows Jamaica's connection to Africa.

A Kumina session involves dancing and drumming of two natures. Bailo is much more public and less sacred, where songs are sung mainly in Jamaican dialect. Country is more African in nature and it is a serious dance involving two leaders, a male as well as a female. The leaders should be in a position to control the zombies, or spirits, and assume their positions of leadership after careful trained in their feeding habits, ritual procedures, dances, rhythms, and songs of an selection of spirits, conducted by a previous king or "captain" and queen or "mother."

Jamaica has a vibrant Kumina dance group known as the Port Morant National and International Kumina Dancers. The group 's been around for as long as most members with the group can remember, including Bernice Henry, who states, "The group 's been around from when I was born. My grandmother was a well used African woman. My mother passed it on and I passed it into our kids." Bernice says the group consists of about twenty members, and infrequently they should form smaller groups, depending about the occasion.

Other traditional folk dances are Dinki Mini, Quadrille, Bruckins, Mento, Maypole, and Junkunoo. The Dinki Mini/Minnie Gerreh is a kind of dance generally carried out in the eastern end of the region, despite the fact that Gerreh is produced by the west. This dance is claimed to be done when someone locally dies, and the dancers perform this dance in celebration of the person's everyday living.

Ettu/Etu is practiced mainly in Hanover by people who claim Yoruba ancestry; this kind of dance is commonly performed at weddings, feasts, nine nights, and forty nights. The Nago dance is a Westmoreland based dance which is just like Etu, mainly practiced at dances. Buru/Burru is really a variant of John Kunnu, which is believed to get a fertility masquerade dance.

Jamaica is a real culture of dancing and dancers! Be sure that you too notice the rhythm and become familiar with a few dance moves when you adventure holiday/a>.

Hi! I’m Carmina, also known as Nana. I love Diy projects, parties, crocheting, and traveling. In this blog I share patterns, recipes, Diy projects, pet tips, party ideas, and travel tips.