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Dropping it deadly
Krista Henry, Star Staff Reporter
No longer is balancing on one's 'head top' a show of dancing prowess. Now, dancers are performing near Olympic-style acrobatics in the dance hall, some of them quite dangerous.
With moves such as the now infamous 'Dutty Wine' and the newest 'Drop Dead' and 'Grievance', dancing has become a risky undertaking.
Sometimes coffins are brought into a dance to 'bury' a dancer after the Drop Dead, which was created by the Attitude Girls from Montego Bay. They also have bragging rights for creating the Dutty Wine.
But outside of the Drop Dead, which is done exactly as the name suggests, dancers feel it necessary to take flight to impress at dances. They climb atop trees, houses, polls, posts, or an available hefty body - anything that can, and sometimes cannot, support their weight to do their dance moves.
Another dance, the Grievance, shows the power struggle between the male and female. The male and female dancers simulate a fight.
In the Grievance the male dancer pretends to punch and beat the female dancer. She is sometimes thrown to the ground and flung at other men who form a line or are in a circle. A source told the STAR that the Grievance was created by dancer Ding Dong and his crew, the Ravers Clavers.
Efforts to reach Ding Dong for a comment on the Grievance proved futile up to press time.
However, dancehall queen Stacy says Grievance is not a real dance move, instead she sees it as a gimmick.
Dancer, Ice, who has witnessed and performed the Grievance told the STAR: "Is a dance like yuh beat di women and same time yuh wining. Yuh only fake though, yuh don't connect. A di women dem a mek di man dem do it. Really and truly, mi don't get miself involve, mi don't like it. Is only di real dancehall women who like it more dutty."
Ice says that it is usually persons who don't understand the moves who usually get hurt performing them.
Stacy believes that it is not the moves that are dangerous, but the dancers who take it too far.
"It's different when yuh can dance; when yuh can dance yuh know yuh limit. Audiences are doing dem and hurting dem-selves. Dem haffi understand is di same ting like entertainment - not everybody suppose to do it.
"If yuh see a big fat woman a Drop Dead she nuh mus hurt herself?" she asked.
According to Stacy, she was one of the first female dancers to start the aerobic moves such as climbing and dancing atop various objects. However, she says that the dancers are too extreme.
"Mi nah lie, some of di girls tek it to a different level. Dem mek di man dem a fling dem all over di place. Mi see people head buss up. Dem a overdo it cause dem want attention," she said.
Ice, however, has seen no serious injuries caused by dancing. He claims: "The dancing world gone mad, dem a go on mad, but mi nuh really see it as a violent ting."
Dancing has reportedly caused a death in the well-publicised case of 18-year-old Tanisha Henry. Henry died on October 29, last year after she attended a 'school-uniform' party in the Beacon Avenue area of Thompson Pen. It was reported that while participating in a Dutty Wine competition, she fell and was rushed to hospital where she was pronounced dead.
However, Dr. Paul Wright, a physician, who watches the dances on the local dancehall channels, says so far, he has not seen any harm in the dances. According to Wright, the dances are physically demanding but otherwise, they are fine.
"I don't see anything outlandish to worry about. I was only concerned about the Dutty Wine, the twisting of the neck, but even that has toned down. I see people climbing into trees but the only problem is if they slip, and I haven't seen anyone do that and the dances happen quite frequently."
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Dancers up to their usual acrobatics. These two ladies scaled poles to the delights of patrons at Bembe Thursday at Weekendz on Thursday, June 7. - Nathaniel Stewart
Krista Henry, Star Staff Reporter
No longer is balancing on one's 'head top' a show of dancing prowess. Now, dancers are performing near Olympic-style acrobatics in the dance hall, some of them quite dangerous.
With moves such as the now infamous 'Dutty Wine' and the newest 'Drop Dead' and 'Grievance', dancing has become a risky undertaking.
Sometimes coffins are brought into a dance to 'bury' a dancer after the Drop Dead, which was created by the Attitude Girls from Montego Bay. They also have bragging rights for creating the Dutty Wine.
But outside of the Drop Dead, which is done exactly as the name suggests, dancers feel it necessary to take flight to impress at dances. They climb atop trees, houses, polls, posts, or an available hefty body - anything that can, and sometimes cannot, support their weight to do their dance moves.
Another dance, the Grievance, shows the power struggle between the male and female. The male and female dancers simulate a fight.
In the Grievance the male dancer pretends to punch and beat the female dancer. She is sometimes thrown to the ground and flung at other men who form a line or are in a circle. A source told the STAR that the Grievance was created by dancer Ding Dong and his crew, the Ravers Clavers.
Efforts to reach Ding Dong for a comment on the Grievance proved futile up to press time.
However, dancehall queen Stacy says Grievance is not a real dance move, instead she sees it as a gimmick.
Dancer, Ice, who has witnessed and performed the Grievance told the STAR: "Is a dance like yuh beat di women and same time yuh wining. Yuh only fake though, yuh don't connect. A di women dem a mek di man dem do it. Really and truly, mi don't get miself involve, mi don't like it. Is only di real dancehall women who like it more dutty."
Ice says that it is usually persons who don't understand the moves who usually get hurt performing them.
Stacy believes that it is not the moves that are dangerous, but the dancers who take it too far.
"It's different when yuh can dance; when yuh can dance yuh know yuh limit. Audiences are doing dem and hurting dem-selves. Dem haffi understand is di same ting like entertainment - not everybody suppose to do it.
"If yuh see a big fat woman a Drop Dead she nuh mus hurt herself?" she asked.
According to Stacy, she was one of the first female dancers to start the aerobic moves such as climbing and dancing atop various objects. However, she says that the dancers are too extreme.
"Mi nah lie, some of di girls tek it to a different level. Dem mek di man dem a fling dem all over di place. Mi see people head buss up. Dem a overdo it cause dem want attention," she said.
Ice, however, has seen no serious injuries caused by dancing. He claims: "The dancing world gone mad, dem a go on mad, but mi nuh really see it as a violent ting."
Dancing has reportedly caused a death in the well-publicised case of 18-year-old Tanisha Henry. Henry died on October 29, last year after she attended a 'school-uniform' party in the Beacon Avenue area of Thompson Pen. It was reported that while participating in a Dutty Wine competition, she fell and was rushed to hospital where she was pronounced dead.
However, Dr. Paul Wright, a physician, who watches the dances on the local dancehall channels, says so far, he has not seen any harm in the dances. According to Wright, the dances are physically demanding but otherwise, they are fine.
"I don't see anything outlandish to worry about. I was only concerned about the Dutty Wine, the twisting of the neck, but even that has toned down. I see people climbing into trees but the only problem is if they slip, and I haven't seen anyone do that and the dances happen quite frequently."
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Dancers up to their usual acrobatics. These two ladies scaled poles to the delights of patrons at Bembe Thursday at Weekendz on Thursday, June 7. - Nathaniel Stewart 
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