Is jus’ dancing - Academics defend ‘wukking up’ during Carnival Road March

Sunday's Carnival Road March not only saw beautiful costumes and partying, but also an expression of culture through a myriad of dances and movements.

As masqueraders made their way down the streets of the Corporate Area, gyrating to the pulsing beat of soca and dancehall music, the sexually suggestive moves have caused much debate. With celebrities such as American recording artiste Chance The Rapper being under the microscope for videos showing him 'wukking up', people question, is it really 'just a dance'?

Speaking with THE STAR, Dean of the Faculty of Dance at the Edna Manley School of the Visual and Performing Arts, Marlon Simms, said that the dancing all comes down to intent and context. Within the Caribbean, there are several occasions that require dance for various reasons.

"Within the context of Carnival, it is the whole idea of masquerade which is liberating, given that you are not yourself. You are behind the mask and that way you can be whoever you want to be. You can express yourself freely and openly because this mask has allowed me to do that. Within Carnival there is the carnivalesque of the body being liberated. It is taking ownership of the body and saying that the body is my own. When you take off that mask, you put on your other mask, which is your suit and tie and you go to work," he explained.

He explained that even with persons dancing together, consent must be given, and participants have the freedom of doing the same moves by themselves for their own enjoyment.

"It (carnival and dance) is a part of the Caribbean experience as well. A part of carnival is that healing, letting go, being immersed in something where you can control your experience and [it] is different from the humdrum of being in corporate or any other aspect of life," he shared.

Trinidadian Marvin George, who is the dean of the School of Drama at the Edna Manley School of the Visual and Performing Arts, said that a major part of carnival is 'joy' and it could be the pro and the con.

"It is about the idea of joy and being erotic as part of how black people, who have found themselves in unfortunate situations that we have with slavery and all of that, reclaim our power," he said. But George clarified that joy and being erotic is not a sexual act.

"Because nothing is ever black and white, a big part of the problem is the joy and erotic when we talk about how black bodies find liberation and how we as black people understand and see ourselves in the erotic," George reasoned.

He added that though movements may be sensual, it would not be a fair deduction to say they are correlated.

"Anybody participating in carnival, their choice to have sex or not to have sex has nothing to do with the wining. Wining is simply a part of how people dance and how people move," he said.

George, who has done research into carnival, said there are other aspects of the celebration that demand focus as it relates to unresolved issues of race, class and history, but essentially, the festival is celebration of the victory of people of African descent.