ABSTRACT
In Chapter 7, the corporeal dancing body is explored in relation to transformation and transcendence, focusing on the ‘female section’, exploring the articulation, control and competitive nature of the female dancehall engagement in dance. Through the lens of spirituality's transcendent functioning (Lynch, 2005), exploring the performance and performative gestures articulated by female corporeal dancing bodies, gendered approaches to dancehall dances are interrogated related to the transformation of female participants from their normative selves and genealogical connections between dancehall and African/neo-African practices.
Whether and how gender differences affect corporeal manifestations of spirituality within the dancehall space is studied through the nature by which dancehall practitioners ‘let the music take control’ (Crazy Hype, interview, 2017). The temporal corporeal communication of females performing in response to the external vibrations and internal stirrings created within the dancehall space is what is studied here. Female transcendence progressing into the full myal state of possession, or not, is analysed through the nature of their kinaesthetic ‘gestures’ (Uzukwu, 1997) and actions, to identify how meaning construction takes place within dancehall dances and the importance of repetition, identity and signification to the process.
