Music and dance are two elements of Jamaican culture that you should consider experiencing during your visit to the island. Many original dances in Jamaica are of African origin and Jamaicans love to dance. The island’s traditional dances bear a striking resemblance to African dances, but the newer dance moves are more global, infusing hip-hop, jazz, and other international dance forms.
The most popular and traditional dance single is “Kumina”, which originated in West Africa. This style of dance is found primarily in the parishes of St. Thomas and St. Mary and is also known as “Kalunga” or “Kaduunga”.
Kumina features a flat-footed forward crawl (or the kongo step), a constant but often subtle thrust of the hip with the ribcage and arms moving against the hip, followed by wild twists and snaps. , all signaled by the main drum. Kumina’s dominant elements are dance, music, spirit possession, healing, and the use of herbs.
The drums used in the dance are the Kbandu, which provides the basic rhythms, and the “Playing Cast”, the main drum. These go along with candles, graters, shakas and catta sticks, played on the back of the drum. According to the Jamaica Journal, Volume 10, No.1, “Linguistic evidence cites Kongo as an ethnically specific source for the ‘language’ and possibly the music of Kumina.” There are Congolese words in some of Kumina’s songs performed in Jamaica, showing Jamaica’s connection to Africa.
A Kumina session involves dance and percussion of two natures. Bailo is more public and less sacred, where the songs are sung mainly in the Jamaican dialect. Country is more African in nature and is a serious dance involving two leaders, a man and a woman. Leaders must be able to control zombies or spirits and assume their leadership positions after careful training in their eating habits, ritual procedures, dances, rhythms, and songs from a variety of spirits, led by a previous king or ” captain”. and queen or “mother”.
Jamaica has a vibrant Kumina dance group called the Port Morant National and International Kumina Dancers. The group has been around for as long as most group members can remember, including Bernice Henry, who states, “The group has been around since I was born. My grandmother was an old African woman. My mother passed it on and I passed it on to our sons”. Bernice says that the group consists of about twenty members, and sometimes they have to form smaller groups, depending on the occasion.
Other traditional folk dances are Dinki Mini, Quadrille, Bruckins, Mento, Maypole, and Junkunoo. The Dinki Mini/Minnie Gerreh is a type of dance that is usually performed on the eastern end of the island, although Gerreh is from the west. This dance is said to be performed when an individual from the community dies, and the dancers perform this dance to celebrate the person’s life.
Ettu/Etu is mainly practiced in Hanover by people who claim Yoruba ancestry; This type of dance is normally performed at weddings, parties, nine nights and forty nights. The Nago dance is a Westmoreland based dance that is similar to the Etu, mainly practiced at dances. Buru/Burru is a variant of John Kunnu, which is believed to be a fertility costume dance.
Jamaica is indeed a culture of dancing and dancers! Be sure to feel the beat and learn a few dance moves the next time you visit.