I remember when Ele hit the stage and all the nice and decent people wondered about the place of hardcore dancehall, gangsta rock style, up in the place at Shaggy’s benefit concert held to raise funds for the Bustamante Hospital for Children in Kingston, Jamaica. Well, it was a night to remember as Ele mash up di place, taught some dance moves, and showed off his gucci ‘from head to toe’ sartorial ensemble. Go deh Ele….
Elephant Man at Shaggy's Benefit Concert
Dance Hall 
Sonjah, what an exciting site! Gwaan same way. Just wondering about the particular identity of the ‘South American’ dancers. What’s the context of their performance? Could it be that they are deliberately copying and adapting our own dancehall moves? Or are you suggesting that the similarity of the moves is evidence of inter-dependent origins?
Thanks Carolyn!….so happy to see you on WordPress and to see that you are blogging…About time that we take over the virtual landscape, a sort of ‘virtual colonization in reverse’. I am still in the process of researching the South American dance which I understand is called ‘choke’. I certainly think the dance is influenced by Jamaican dancehall moves such as daggering, and as I mentioned to a colleague recently, the fact that we can see similar kinaesthetic patterns particularly referencing African movement aesthetic, there is ground for analyzing inter-dependent genealogies. The research on dance for me is more about such genealogies and kinaesthetic genres than it is about origins per se. My research on limbo for example gave me clear possibilities for arguing about origin in war dances and puberty rituals on the African continent, but since we do not always have access to those histories and contexts, I am mindful of looking deeply at origins. So, I am still awaiting the information on the present context of that South American dance and will update as soon as I get it.
Hey Dr.Niaah! I was led here by one of your posts on facebook. I started browsing around and came across your conversation above with Dr. Cooper. I was surprised to hear you both talking about “el choque” its so funny because I am very interested in doing my research in the relationship, and transference of culture, more specifically music-related culture between Latin america and Jamaica. I have witnessed and experienced el choque in full force while living in Colombia. It’s actually a Colombian dance I believe. It caused and is causing quite a stir in the country and there have many news broadcasts and articles about the whole phenomenon. I would love us to have a discussion about the whole thing when the time comes– which I think will be very soon 😉
That is simply serendipity, and a fine project to pursue! Thanks for sharing on this post. Looking forward to seeing you soon for that discussion. 😄