Ladies Dressed as Men Dressed as Ladies

Abstract

Can you hear that beat, that drum beat? . . . It must be a Masquerade!! Though her sons and daughters be scattered across God's great earth, it takes nothing more than sound of these drums beating with that steady rhythm mixed with that joyous fife set her children's heart and souls alight!! It must be a Masquerade!!-Thamar White, Enchantment of Montserrat's Masquerade MusicCARNIVAL PROVIDES A TECHNIQUE BOTH TO REMEMBER THE PAST and to reimagine future.1 Performing troupes, through their music, gestures and dance, teach lessons in streets during carnival. In addition, through training and rehearsal, these troupes community memory in behind-the-scenes moments when new dancers learn from expert practitioners. Public celebrations and rigorous rehearsals both communicate collective identity, based on common memory of past and futures. As scholar Diana Taylor has pointed out, performances function as vital acts of transfer, transmitted social knowledge, memory, and a sense of identity through reiterated, or what Richard Schechner has called 'twice-behaved behaviour'. Taylor highlights particular significance of this non-archival system of transfer that she calls the repertoire in settings throughout Americas, but particularly for societies that have endured traumatic change.2On Montserrat, a distinctive Masquerade tradition preserves cultural memory through music and dance in face of dramatic transformations of landscape, economy, culture and politics of island caused by volcano. Before 1995 volcano, local people formed bands in their communities. They dressed in matching costumes and concealed their identities with masks. They practised their dances behind scenes before proceeding public streets compete with other groups for supremacy in quality of their performances. Musicians accompanied processions with fifes and drums while members sang songs. In aftermath of volcanic eruption, performance practices had adapt new contexts. Montserrat Masquerade now symbolises nation as a whole, binding Montserratians at home and in diaspora. Although built on tradition, Masquerade has adapted changes in social and economic conditions on island, demonstrating its vigour and vitality.Geol ogic time an d Monts err atCultural change, like geologic processes, often proceeds in infinitesimally slow increments; occasionally, however, both geological and cultural transformations occur as dramatic fissures, as they did in Montserrat. In 1995, once dormant volcano began spewing ash before exploding on Boxing Day, 1997, generating a pyroclastic flow that buried capital city and agriculturally rich southern portion of country. People lost their homes, their possessions, and their livelihoods. After years of uncertainty and trauma, so many residents migrated that Montserrat had highest rate of emigration in Caricom during 1990s. Meanwhile, as population dispersed, new immigrants arrived from Jamaica, Guyana and Dominica, seeking economic opportunities and bringing their own cultural practices.3 The volcano shattered economy and tourism suffered when visitor arrivals dropped by 46 percent. In response, Montserrat Tourist Board hopes develop tourism in future by offering more deeply engaging intellectual experiences that highlight island's distinctive history, heritage, culture and environment in what one scholar has called knowledge-based tourism.4Montserrat Masquerade represents nation, but it also deliberately contributes economy of island. As a result, ascribing ownership of what UNESCO calls intangible heritage becomes complicated.5 Museums and historical organisations are increasingly adopting methods of shared authority in preservation, education, and exhibition of past, further de-centring notions of possession of heritage, but Masquerade has a long tradition of collective ownership. …