Tweet
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>It all started with Bruckins</SPAN>
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>BY BASIL WALTERS Observer staff reporter
Sunday, March 02, 2003
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=160 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>L'Antoinette Stines demonstrating one of the moves linking dancehall with the traditional Bruckins, at the Institute of Jamaica recently. (Photo: Joseph Wellington)</SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>To those who thought otherwise, the dancehall is not a new phenomenon that sprang out of Kingston's ghettoes. According to dancer/choreographer, L'Antoinette Osun Ide Stines, founder of the L'Acadco dance troupe, it has its roots firmly planted in Africa.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"When I Look at Bruckins (dance movement), I see the beginning of dancehall," Stines told an audience, February 20, at the Institute of Jamaica. "Dancehall started on the African plantation...there was the chairman who sounded like a deejay, and now the deejays are emulating a similar style. Plus it was pageantry, a lot of clothes and competition," she went on.
"Bruckins was created because the Africans wanted to celebrate the emancipation of slavery...the whole experience was like the beginning of dancehall."<P class=StoryText align=justify>Speaking under the theme,"The Dance as Ancestral Memories" , Stines complemented her presentation with some delightful dancing which linked the moves of Bruckins to the styles of dancehall.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Chief among the moves, she said, is the Tic Tac. "The Tic Tac is a fertility step in a ritual which is done by a bride for her bridegroom on the night of the wedding. All these steps have a connection to Africa. It is a trip, you can traverse your traditional folkform and find it in Africa," Stines asserted.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Stines - who has dedicated her work to the documentation, presevation and protection of Jamaican folk traditions - expressed her disappointment with the lack of attention "ancestral memory" (oral tradition) is given in this country.
The L'Acadco principal is spearheading the inaugural Kumina Congress on March 1.
The event was staged by the African Caribbean Institute's Divison of Jamaica Memory Bank in celebration of Black History Month.
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>BY BASIL WALTERS Observer staff reporter
Sunday, March 02, 2003
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=160 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>L'Antoinette Stines demonstrating one of the moves linking dancehall with the traditional Bruckins, at the Institute of Jamaica recently. (Photo: Joseph Wellington)</SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>To those who thought otherwise, the dancehall is not a new phenomenon that sprang out of Kingston's ghettoes. According to dancer/choreographer, L'Antoinette Osun Ide Stines, founder of the L'Acadco dance troupe, it has its roots firmly planted in Africa.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"When I Look at Bruckins (dance movement), I see the beginning of dancehall," Stines told an audience, February 20, at the Institute of Jamaica. "Dancehall started on the African plantation...there was the chairman who sounded like a deejay, and now the deejays are emulating a similar style. Plus it was pageantry, a lot of clothes and competition," she went on. "Bruckins was created because the Africans wanted to celebrate the emancipation of slavery...the whole experience was like the beginning of dancehall."<P class=StoryText align=justify>Speaking under the theme,"The Dance as Ancestral Memories" , Stines complemented her presentation with some delightful dancing which linked the moves of Bruckins to the styles of dancehall.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Chief among the moves, she said, is the Tic Tac. "The Tic Tac is a fertility step in a ritual which is done by a bride for her bridegroom on the night of the wedding. All these steps have a connection to Africa. It is a trip, you can traverse your traditional folkform and find it in Africa," Stines asserted.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Stines - who has dedicated her work to the documentation, presevation and protection of Jamaican folk traditions - expressed her disappointment with the lack of attention "ancestral memory" (oral tradition) is given in this country.
The L'Acadco principal is spearheading the inaugural Kumina Congress on March 1.
The event was staged by the African Caribbean Institute's Divison of Jamaica Memory Bank in celebration of Black History Month.