Tobago's Cultural Heritage Lives On Through Dance

[00:00:00]Tobago's culture is rich in artistry of dance. Original committee member of the Tobago Heritage Festival and former dancer Binley Benjamin said Tobago's dance style was influenced by African and European traditions.

[00:00:15]>> So the Congo was African dances. You well as I say the ebo African dances, the the ballet was from the French, the the real and from the British. So we we we were having we had a a very large cadgery of dance performers and of course the limbo I used to do 9 in off the floor.

[00:00:39]>> There are other dances such as the PK.

[00:00:42]>> It's a French is a French P dance or a French you know a belly which which comes out with the grace of the movement the costumeuming the dancers on stage you know feeling you could actually feel you know the the the gracefulness. Mr. Benjamin shared that over time some of those influences were combined to form new dances such as the Congo belly which was developed by Tobago dance legend Henry James >> and um he was more doing African dances and then he came up with the idea of merging the African dance with the French. So the African dance the Congo and the and the French dance the ballet.

[00:01:24]So he made a merger of those two cultures towards those two dances and came up with the Congo belly.

[00:01:31]>> Dances often go hand in hand with folk songs.

[00:01:42]You see it's it's soothing and it blends with the dance, right? So they so each each each each dance had specific songs.

[00:01:55]>> Mr. Benjamin also contributed to developing songs to accompany the more modern dancers.

[00:02:01]>> But the Eb was African.

[00:02:15]So the rhythm change, you know. So, so this the song would change with the rhythm.

[00:02:19]>> The lyrics are in PWA the meaning of which was lost over time just like some of the choreography in some of the traditional dances on the heritage stage. You you don't get the the the sense of you know what we knew as cultural practice practitioners you know the steps that you use the head movement you know you go to the side and you turn around you see you see a lot of whining going on you >> Mr. Benjamin hopes that the younger cultural practitioners would learn and preserve the island's traditional dances before it is lost. Candace Jackson, TDT News.