Collections — Theme
Dance & Performance
The dance floor as stage — the moves, dancers, and performance culture that gave dancehall its name.
Curated by YardRock TV · Researched by The Reggae Institute
Dance & Performance
Dancehall takes its name from the dance itself — the physical, improvisational, competitive movement culture born in Kingston's dance spaces. This section collects the Museum's research on dancers, choreography, and performance as a central pillar of dancehall culture, alongside the artists whose stagecraft defined eras of the genre.
This is a growing collection. Future additions will include a dedicated visual archive of dance styles and the dancers who originated them.
Related from the Journal
Related artists
Angie Angel
Jamaican female deejay (toaster) active from the late 1980s onward, best known for her platinum UK jungle remix of "Agony" and for blending a hard-edged dancehall delivery with Rastafari-influenced conscious lyrics.
Bob Marley
The defining figure of reggae music and a global icon of Rastafari culture, Pan-Africanism, and social-justice songwriting, best known as frontman of Bob Marley and the Wailers.
Buju Banton
One of dancehall and reggae's most influential deejays, whose 1995 album "'Til Shiloh" is widely credited with helping steer 1990s dancehall toward a more conscious, Rastafari-rooted sound; a Grammy winner whose career has also been marked by the internationally condemned song "Boom Bye Bye" and a 2011 US drug-trafficking conviction.
Capleton
Jamaican reggae/dancehall deejay known as "The Fireman," "King Shango," and "The Prophet" — a leading figure, alongside Buju Banton and Sizzla, in dancehall's 1990s turn back toward Rastafari-rooted, socially conscious lyrics.
Dermot Hussey
Jamaican-born broadcaster and musicologist known as the "Dean of Jamaican Radio," celebrated for decades of reggae journalism — including a landmark 1975 Bob Marley interview — and for bringing reggae programming to satellite radio via SiriusXM's "The Joint."
Garnett Silk
Reggae singer and devout Rastafarian whose conscious, spiritually-charged music made him one of the most anticipated voices in reggae before his death at age 28 in a house fire.