What is Kumina dance?
What is Kumina dance?
Kumina, also spelt Cumina, is a dance-music ritual centred on communication with the ancestors. It is said to have originated in the Congo region of West Africa and as such has the greatest African retention of all the Jamaican folk dances.
What are the characteristics of Kumina dance?
One of the distinct features of Kumina is the prominence of dance and ritual as a form of religious and cultural expression. Dance and rituals are used to invoke communication with the ancestral spirits. The rituals involve singing, dancing, music and sacrificial offerings.
What is the traditional dance of Jamaica?
Bruckins, burru, dinki-minni, ettu, gerreh, gumbay, jonkunnu, kumina, maypole, myal, quadrille, tambu and zella. Dance is such a wonderful artistic expression, influenced by history and culture. Jamaica has a rich heritage of traditional dances, but today many of them are hardly known.
What is the history of dance in Jamaica?
Jamaica’s street dance culture dates back to the late 50’s early 60’s. Rocksteady, and later, reggae eventually evolved from ska in the late 1960’s. In response to ska, a dance called “the ska” was created and then later the more popular “skanking”, these were Jamaica’s first urban dance moves.
Who created the kumina dance?
Kumina is a religious group, which originated in Congo, West Africa, and was brought to Jamaica by the free Africans who arrived between the 1840s and 1860s. According to Dr.
What dances are European?
To get your toes tapping, here are some traditional dances you can expect to see when visiting these European destinations.
- Spain – Flamenco.
- Greece – Greek dancing.
- France – Can-can.
- Italy – Tarantella.
- Turkey – Belly dancing.
- Germany – Polka.
What is the most popular Jamaican dance?
Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s….
| Dancehall | |
|---|---|
| Cultural origins | Late 1970s Jamaica, especially Kingston |
| Derivative forms | Reggaeton dembow afroswing |
| Subgenres | |
| Ragga |
Who brought the dance to Jamaica?
This is a ballroom set dance, which originated in the courts of Europe and was danced in Jamaica by the gentry during slavery. There are two styles – the Ballroom and the Camp Style – the former European, the latter the Creolised version.
Where did the quadrille come from?
The dance was introduced in France around 1760: originally it was a form of cotillion in which only two couples were used, but two more couples were eventually added to form the sides of a square.
What is the most popular dance in Europe?
Popular national dances include the mazurka and polonaise from Poland; the czardas from Hungary; the fandango, bolero, seguidilla, and flamenco from Spain; the tarantella and saltarello from Italy; the waltz and galop from Germany; the polka and schottische from Bohemia; the strathspey and Highland fling from Scotland; …
What are American dances?
The American Style Smooth dances – Waltz, Foxtrot, Tango and Viennese Waltz – experience an enormous amount of freedom and expression. American Smooth evolved from social dancing and is now a fully recognized competitive style of dance.
Where does the Kumina dance take place in Jamaica?
According to Dr. Olive Lewin in her book “Rock it Come Over”, Kumina expresses the strongest African retention of Jamaican folk culture, and provides powerful clues about the religious and social customs of the African ancestry. It is generally performed in the parish of St. Thomas to celebrate special events such as engagements and weddings.
Who is the creator of the Kumina ceremony?
This is the creator among many Kongo subgroups of West Central Africa. His element is thunder. Kumina ceremonies take the form of dancing in a counterclockwise circle around drummers seated on two drums: the bandu or kibandu, and the playin’ kyas (cask).
When did the Kumina first appear in Africa?
Its presence was first noted only in the 1950s, but it was likely formulated by West Central African indentured laborers introduced by the British colonial government and British plantation owners between 1845 and 1865.
What kind of art form is Kumina drumming?
Kumina is a ritualistic medium through which our African ancestors are celebrated and appeased. It’s an art form combining dancing, singing and drumming, and has distinctive movements and cadences that make it easily recognisable. The hypnotic sounds of Kumina drums is not easy to imitate, and very hard to duplicate.