Patrons performing one of the latest dance moves at 'Passa Passa'.
-File photo
Germaine Smith, Staff Reporter
IT IS said that all good things must come to an end, and that death is necessary for life to go on. Strange as it may seem, these phrases seem applicable to the street dance phenomenon which hit Jamaica full blast in the latter part of 2003 into early 2004. Last year this time, normally lifeless streets in inner-city Kingston were transformed into warm and inviting party venues, crammed with bubbling masses of human bodies partaking in weeknight street dances.
Interestingly, just as quickly as how they sprung up, many have died. Some of the previously active roads are now conspicuously empty at nights, with the only bodies present being those of hungry dogs rummaging through piles of garbage.
The reasons for the failures and successes are many, yet they are linked in some ways. For some patrons, the hype surrounding the nightly sessions simply ended. For others, some of these sessions were held on the same night as more accessible ones, while others were affected as crime ballooned in the particular communities. And in at least two instances police and residents clashed, leaving bloodshed and bitter relations between them.
Added to this mix, September's Hurricane Ivan slapped the island mercilessly, shutting down the country's entertainment for days, and Kingston's night-clubs also stepped up their game to pluck the fleeting patrons from out of the night cold into the secure atmosphere of their air-conditioned rooms.
BAD MIND SUNDAYS
Among the notable Kingston street dances in the early days were 'Bad Mind Sundays' inside Northside Plaza Liguanea; 'Early Mondays' in Standpipe, Liguanea; 'Uptown Mondays' (now Hyonotiq Mondays) in Savannah Plaza; 'Kool Tuesdays' in Matthews Lane; 'Better Tuesdays' in Portmore (St. Catherine); 'Passa Passa', close to Tivoli Gardens and 'Weddy Wednesdays' on Burlington Avenue; 'Stress Free Thursdays' on Windward Road, and 'Jiggy Fridays' in Arnett Gardens.
Later came 'Blazing Wednesdays' in August Town; 'Blazay Blazay' on Melrose Hill in Manchester; 'Hype Fridays' in Duhaney Park and, more recently, 'Chaka Chaka Tuesdays' on Dillon Avenue, plus countless others which never got off too well.
The survivors to date are 'Hypnotiq Mondays', 'Weddy Wednesdays', 'Passa Passa Rebound', 'Blazay Blazay', 'Chaka Chaka Tuesdays' and 'Hype Fridays', intermittently.
In some ways, the sceptics who last year predicted that the session fever would go away were right. It has left some communities, but at the same time it has solidified in others.
The promoter of 'Better Tuesdays' in Portmore is the colourful MC, Nuffy. Nuffy told The Sunday Gleaner that his physical absence from the session in successive weeks caused it to flop.
"Dat (session) stop cause I got too busy as an MC this year," he said. "Nuff things start happening in my life and yu find seh mi couldn't be at the session every week and that flop it out."
In Nuffy's view, his trademark antics and microphone utterances made him an important feature of the session. His absence, therefore, meant less interest from patrons.
In other communities, violence slammed the door shut in the face of party people. Arnett Gardens' 'Jiggy Fridays' was one of the earliest hit. Tension between different sects within the community reached high levels in March 2004, leading to a series of merciless shootings which began on Good Friday.
In August Town, 'Blazing Wednesdays' blazed along every week until what the police described as gang warfare erupted in late October. In the midst of that tense situation, things were compounded when the police and a member of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) were involved in a shooting incident which left two residents dead. That session has not been held since.
In May, the Allman Town police and residents clashed as the lawmen reportedly tried to turn down the sound system at a session which was just blooming as a regular on the street dance calendar. It has not been held since.
EARLY MONDAYS
'Early Mondays' in Standpipe went on with tremendous support until April, when a man from another community was reportedly followed into Standpipe and killed there by men he was feuding with in his own community. The session was held subsequently, but the police eventually became reluctant to grant the required permission and it has stopped.
Snoop, the promoter of Standpipe's 'Early Mondays', disputes the notion that people simply got tired of the nightly phenomenon.
"It is not that people got tired of it; it's just situations which came up in the areas," he notes. "You see if Jamaicans can go out every night and not have to watch their head backs, they will do it. Some people will look at Standpipe and feel that it's a war zone but it's not like that. The perception play a big part in keeping people away."
The promoter of 'Stress Free Thursdays', Marc Johnson, told The Sunday Gleaner recently that his session has temporarily stopped, but violence was not the problem.
"It is not that we have cut off completely, but we have taken a break until early this year," he stated. "We had to find a formula that would make Stress Free Thursdays really stress free. We checked it out and saw that our disadvantages superseded our advantages, so it is on break for now. We wanted to incorporate many things, but it did not add up to the dollar value in the end."
Even as these promoters give the causes of their sessions' hopefully temporary departure from the entertainment calendar, others are still flourishing. Dancehall rules apparently are like those of the jungle, where only the fit and sometimes plain lucky survive.
