"Watch Waist!"

Bele Dance in Action!
(Source: Google Images)

One of the reasons I celebrate my homeland of Grenada is its culture of dance. As a dancer of three years, I’ve had the honor of performing at live events all across the island. Usually, traditional dances are performed to traditional music such as soca, reggae or sweet, sweet calypso.

Our dances are hugely influenced by West Coast Africans who were enslaved in the Caribbean in the 17th and 18th centuries. For them, the art of movement, signifying bodily freedom, was one step closer to actual autonomy.

Dancing accompanied by goat-skin drums was common in slave quarters, especially on Sundays, their only day off. On plantations where there was the influence of multiple African nations, styles of motion mixed and blurred and eventually resurfaced to found the traditional dances that exist today.

Examples of such dances include: Quadrille, maypole, bele and call and responses.

The moves you’ll see if you venture to this nook of the planet will captivate you.

Our dances in general involve a lot of hip and waist movements, shuffling feet and bouncing bodies with raised hands. And more often than not, you’ll find someone dancing with their eyes closed, because for us Grenadians, it’s all about feeling the music, not necessarily syncing with the beats.  

     Men are usually the most impressive

     dancers when it comes to showmanship.
     He's most likely a natural.

     (Source: Google Images)

 It's about freedom, not conformity.

Each style of dance has its own special garb, and  it is not uncommon to see someone walking the streets in elaborate costumes during festival months such as July and August.                    

Like our African ancestors, it’s about being barefoot and happy and following on the waves of a song however you see fit. Creativity and variation is celebrated and no one is afraid of experimenting with a move, in the hopes that it will become the next fad.                                                                              

It is always a celebration when it comes time to dance. These occasions are not bound to a specific time and place. If you “feel de riddim, you dance it.”

I remember the first time I danced for a show. I learned at the very first practice that it was not about technique, it was about using your own character to make the moves come alive.

Sometimes, things get especially intense when someone breaks out several drums and a steel pan...

Young female performers dance various types of traditional

dance on Grand Anse beach, Grenada

(Source: Conception Dance Theatre)

     Different organizations hold dance shows every few months. These family events are frequented by many tourists and others hoping to sneak a peak of the flavor that characterizes us as a people.

None of the dances are solo and, especially during carnival celebrations, they involve hundreds of thousands of people coming together to enjoy each other's company and "move some waist" as we would say.

                                          Traditional Maypole Dancing at a Grenadian Festival

                                          (Source: Youtube)

Since coming to America for school, I tell everyone who shows any interest in diversity and new cultures that Grenada (or Greenz, as we call it) is the place to be. Anyone who visits it and catches one spell of dancing fever and will never be the same.