Dancehall
Dancehall was created in the street parties and dance halls of Jamaica’s ghetto communities by youth disempowered by high unemployment, social and economic inequality. Dancehall is both the adjective describing the place, and the name of the culture lived by Jamaica’s underprivileged communities who find meaning, purpose, status, and a means of survival through being part of the Dancehall fraternity, both past and present. Dancehall was and still is a powerful tool in combatting violence and crime by creating a platform for creative expression, belonging, and employment for many. Dancehall is a reflection of Jamaican lifestyle and culture and since it’s infancy in the 1970’s has evolved alongside societal changes, as well as influences from American popular culture. Dancehall is not just a dance style, but a way of life as a creative expression of life experienced in Jamaica, where dancers and dance teams create dances that become their very own historical signature and mark on an ever evolving culture. It is for this reason that non-Jamaican’s can not create Dancehall moves. To be authentically Dancehall it must come from those born, living and breathing the culture in Jamaica.