Most visitors to our country, who have never had the privilege
of viewing a live Junkanoo parade, often ask the question: What
is Junkanoo dancing? Before our African ancestors came to The
Bahamas some two and a half centuries ago, the dance was led
by an African whose name is recorded as Yokonomo or Jankomo.
His original version of this hypnotic, gyrating, pelvic shaking
dance, was simply accomplished by taking on step forward and
two steps backwards. Through the ensuing years, the Junkanoo
dance was a free spirited, free style dance where Junkanooers
did whatever they wanted to do.
However, it was during the 1950’s that Richard “Sweet
Richard” Dean ushered in a new era in the development
of Junkanoo dance choreography, with the introduction of the
“Shuffle”. Likewise, when Percy “Vola”
Francis came to the forefront of local Junkanoo as leader of
the “Saxons Superstars” in the 1960’s he brought
with him his own version of the dance affectionately known as
the “Vola Shuffle”, which has continued to be the
most famous dance to this day.
In the 1980’s Junkanoo dance choreography took on a new
look. For a time, many of the local stage choreographers would
take the steps showcased on the street Junkanoo parade and incorporate
them into their productions on stage. Now the time had come
for these plagiarized steps from the stage to make their way
to the real Junkanoo stage, which is the world-renowned Bay
Street.
The year was 1988. The venerable Paul Knowles, who was then
co-leader of the Valley Boys Junkanoo group, required the services
of the Carolyn Vogt Dance Company to come up with the choreographed
routines for the parade. Their fancy steps and routines brought
tremendous success to the already seasoned Valley boys, as they
became almost unbeatable.
The other major groups soon realized the advantage to be gained
from having their own routines, and now hire the services of
choreographers and dancers for the Boxing Day and New Year’s
Day parades.
As the Junkanoo music and dance is distinctly African in nature,
most modern day Junkanoo dance choreographers try to make their
routines as ethnic as possible. At the present time, individual
prizes for the best dance category are not given, but hopefully
this anomaly will soon be alleviated in the not too distant
future. Such a prize would undoubtedly serve as a tremendous
incentive for both groups and individuals to come up with even
more fanciful moves and steps to add the enjoyable parades.
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