Visualizing Caribbean Performance (Jamaican Dancehall and Trinidadian Carnival) as Praxis: An Autohistoria of KiKi’s Journey

Abstract

ABSTRACTI discuss my journey in the construction, pedagogy, and philosophy of the dance technique CaribFunk™. CaribFunk fuses Afro-Caribbean (traditional and social dance), classical ballet, modern, and fitness elements. It also encourages exploration of self while investigating identity, citizenship, and culture through a kinesthetic expression of the rhythmic gestures of the pelvis. The technique visualizes Caribbean performance (Jamaican Dancehall and Trinidadian Carnival) as a celebration of bodily truths, history, and desire. I argue that this expression is a (re)imagination of culture, destabilizing and decentering order in social spaces (curriculum), illustrating how this ideology can serve as praxis, how these ideas of bodily narratives and social and political expression find their way in CaribFunk technique, and how CaribFunk as a transcultural dance technique serves as a model and catalyst for change.