Welcome to the Routine Rewind series on the Diamond Dolls blog! We will be taking a look back at some of our past routines and giving them a historical and cultural context covering things from song inspirations, artist highlights, discussing the origins of the dance styles, and more. Join us on the first of every month right here to follow this new series.
This month we are taking a look back at our routine “Jump in the Line” from 2017 choreographed by Lindsay Ragsdale and Melissa Mullins.
Photo: Jessica Keener Photography
The song "Jump in the Line" was recorded by Harry Belafonte on November 17, 1961.
Harry Belafonte is one of the most successful Jamaican-American pop stars in history; he was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s. His breakthrough album Calypso (1956) was the first million-selling LP by a single artist.
The album introduced American audiences to calypso music (which had originated in Trinidad and Tobago in the early 20th century), and Belafonte was dubbed the "King of Calypso", a title he wore with hesitation since he had no claims to any Calypso Monarch titles (annual calypso competitions held in Trinidad).
Prior to “Calypso,” Belafonte worked as a stage actor and a jazz singer, but in the early nineteen-fifties he became gripped by vernacular music, and particularly by the idea that a folk song could be an engine of actual social change. Eventually, Belafonte would become integral to the civil-rights movement of the nineteen-sixties.
Harry Belafonte Calypso Album Cover
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago during the early to mid-19th century and spread to the rest of the Caribbean Antilles and Venezuela by the mid-20th century. Its rhythms can be traced back to West African Kaiso and the arrival of French planters and their slaves from the French Antilles in the 18th century.
It is characterized by highly rhythmic and harmonic vocals, and is often sung in a French creole and led by a griot (historian, storyteller, and musician of oral traditions). As calypso developed, the role of the griot became known as a chantuelle and eventually, calypsonian. As English replaced "patois" (Antillean creole) as the dominant language, calypso migrated into English, and in doing so it attracted more attention from the government. It allowed the masses to challenge the doings of the unelected Governor and Legislative Council, and the elected town councils of Port of Spain and San Fernando. Calypso continued to play an important role in political expression, and also served to document the history of Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago.
Traditionally, musicians use drums, claves, and the steelpan, created in Trinidad, and reported to be the only non-electrical instrument invented in the 20th century that has been hammered down in different areas to create a wide range of different notes.
Photo: Yelp Denver
The Trinidad and Tobago Carnival is an annual event held on the Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday in Trinidad and Tobago. The event is well known for participants' colorful costumes and exuberant celebrations.
Trinidad and Tobago is multicultural (Amerindian, European, African, Indian, Chinese and Middle Eastern), and all of its groups have contributed musical influences to the sounds of Carnival. These cultures have combined to create music vastly different from that of Carnival in Spain, Venice, or New Orleans.
Known as the biggest street party on Earth- Trinidad and Tobago’s Carnival festivities start just after Christmas and continue until Ash Wednesday- loaded with dozens of high energy parties and premier cultural competitions.
Carnival Monday opens with J’Ouvert at 4am, when revellers parade through the streets immersed in paint, grease and mud until sunrise. Later in the day on Monday and all day on Carnival Tuesday, thousands of masqueraders flood the streets throughout the islands in bold, colourful costumes, waving flags, and dancing through the parade routes to the exhilarating sounds of soca, steelpan and calypso music.
Watch the Dolls perform Jump in the Line!
Interested in dancing with us? Check out our schedule to join the Diamond Dolls. Right now we are doing classes virtually so you can join from anywhere!
Sources-
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/harry-belafonte-and-the-social-power-of-song
https://www.gotrinidadandtobago.com/trinidad-and-tobago/carnival-in-trinidad.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Belafonte
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calypso_music