About Quadrille in the Caribbean
The below information has been provided by the leader of the group Beverley Bogle (RN.RM.MTD.BEd (Hons).MSc).
Many thanks to Norfolk Black History month for the initial grant to help fund their trip to Norwich.
What is Quadrille?
Quadrille is traditionally a Euro-centric ballroom dance, taken to the Caribbean in the 18th century by English and French slave traders/masters and regularly performed at grand occasions in great houses. European musicians were transported to the Islands for such occasions to provide specific background music. The dance, with its traditional musical accompaniment, normally commences with a Grand Entrance, followed by up to 5 set pieces called Figures, and end with a Grand Finale to exit the stage. Quadrille is normally performed by 4 couples (quad), but can be successfully accomplished with 2 or 3 couples. The couples, working in unison, perform repetitive movements (the drill), to create geometrical patterns (e.g. circles, rectangles, triangles, diamonds and squares) with their feet on the dance floor and use their arms and upper body to accentuate these patterns.
JANUKA’s interpretation of the history of Quadrille dancing in Jamaica
The enslaved Africans were stripped of their African cultural identity. They were forbidden to sing their own songs, play their own music, speak their own languages, or do their own dances, e.g. Etu, Gerreh, Dinki Mini, and Tambo. In order to endure their physical and emotional deprivation, and intense pain, they inwardly knew they had to find some form of creative activity (apart from working tirelessly on sugar plantations), to communicate with each other, to keep their spirits high, and to develop and maintain comradeships and community support.
The opportunity arose when the privileged “house slaves” observed and sometimes participated in the quadrille dance, during the grand balls held in the great houses. They secretly demonstrated the BALLROOM STYLE QUADRILLE to the “field slaves”. This was a square dance, performed by 4 couples, involving them moving in unison to the beat of the music, marching up and down in straight lines in upright military posture, and turning their heads and feet from side to side. A strict hierarchical structure of dancing was involved where 2 couples (the head and foot couples) would dance first, whilst the other 2 (side couples) would patiently watched until it was their turn to imitate the movements. The field slaves began to secretly and frivolously mimic and ridicule their slave masters’ and their guests, however they soon concluded that the ballroom quadrille dance was too restrictive and formal, was more for visual effectiveness and social acceptance, rather than enjoyment. They thought what their masters and guests were doing could not be called “real dancing”. They instinctively knew that when it came to rhythm and dance, embedded in their African culture, they had the upper hand. They began to discretely adjust their masters’ formal ballroom dance, eventually developing a new quadrille formation dance known as CAMP STYLE QUADRILLE. In this evolved form all couples, not restricted to 4, would dance simultaneously, in unison to be beat of the music, whilst in opposite straight long lines or circles. They adopted a more relaxed posture and added their own African flamboyancy, rhythm, individuality, style in bodily movements and expressions, with friendly boastful interactions between and among couples and with the emphasis on enjoyment.
When the slave masters heard that the field slaves were secretly dancing Quadrille in the fields, they were outraged at their “insolence and mockery”. Despite threats of harsh punishment if they were caught dancing quadrille the field slaves defiantly, fearlessly and purposefully continued dancing. They were determined to use their adapted Camp Style version as their new medium of community merry making to keep their spirits high, to have fun, to support each other’s struggle to survive, and more importantly to secretly and successfully communicate within the dance, their love for each other and their plans for emancipation.
In Jamaica, the enslaved Africans creatively used natural resources and discarded materials to make their own musical accompaniment, producing a distinctive African rhythm and beat called MENTO MUSIC. We therefore use MENTO as part of the musical accompaniment to our Camp style dance.
In conclusion, it could be argued that despite being physically enslaved, our ancestors undeniably demonstrated freedom of mind and spirit. Their conscious awareness of the therapeutic value of music and dance and more importantly, the will to survive enslavement, influenced their decision to take this European dance, without permission, and with strong resistance, and utilize it to their own benefit. This wisdom, inner strength, resilience, and determination demonstrated by our ancestors, despite being in bondage, is without doubt, a powerful force that slavery could not dominate, diminish or destroy.
JANUKA can demonstrate the Ballroom style quadrille (on request) and the Camp style quadrille dance.
Contact JANUKA and how to become a friend of the group
Click here to see an interview with Beverley Bogle in The Voice newspaper.
If you would like to find out more about the history of contradance and quadrille throughout the Caribbean click here for a link to Peter Manuel’s book Creolizing Contradance in the Caribbean.
