Haitian dance

The tradition & historical record

The Dance of Haiti (Haitian Creole: Dans Ayisyen French: Danse haïtienne), also known as Haitian Dance, is a collection of performing art of the Haitian people's culture. They pull from roots and a mix of African traditions, Arawak/Taino, European and distinct local origins in Haitian Society. ¹

The history of Haitian Dance is as a reflection of the attitudes to the society from 1501 to the present. Dances like Mereng/Méringue were created from creolisation or hybridisation of the movements of the influences. It demonstrated how dance in Haiti served as a means of expressing religious beliefs, social interactions, and even resistance against oppression. A Haitian proverb is "Apre Dans, Tanbou Lou" which means "After dance, drums are heavy." ¹

It shows the purpose of dance in everyday life as a means to uplift despite realities in the Haitian viewpoint. ¹

The orthodoxy of Catholic Church leaders such as Bishop François Marie Kersuzan in his 1896 crusade against Haiti's "despicable African paganism," Even though Rara stems roots founded on Afro-Catholic traditions. Dance troupe members were labeled as practitioners of black magic. ¹

The Acte de l'Indépendance freed Haiti from colonial rule. After the revolution, dances were used to celebrate the victory and express the newly found freedom. Haitians actively used and adapted elements of the former colonizer's culture for their own purposes, ultimately contributing to a unique and vibrant Haitian identity as a "spoils of war". Haitians explored every facet of the arts. ¹

The US occupation introduced American genres of music to Haiti, such as Jazz, Rock, and American ballroom dancing. During that time, implementation a broader policy of martial law, censorship of the press, and general suppression of dissent in the resistance to the occupation. ¹

A political and cultural awakening known as the Négritude Movement emerged in the 1930s among French-speaking African and Caribbean writers and intellectuals. It challenged French colonial rule and US occupational slavery by affirming Black indigenous identity. It spread as an ethnocentric movement with the arrival of artists from all over the world. Its roots come from the writings and collaborations of such Haitians as Anténor Firmin and Benito Sylvain with others like The Harlem Renaissance's writers. In a movement that encompassed a philosophy of Noirism, etc. ¹

During this period, people like Katherine Dunham's legacy and work were in documenting Haitian Dance and bringing it to mainstream attention. The dances were also documented by Zora Neale Hurston's work in Tell My Horse (1938). At the End of the occupation, "Haiti attracted a sizable number of American folklorists and anthropologists, including Melville and Frances Herskovits, Harold Courlander, Alan Lomax..., and George E. Simpson." ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Dance in Haiti”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

Haitian dance is recorded in open cultural data. The structured record cited below does not describe the practice, and this entry has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²