Dancing the bamboula
Drums and heartbeats
Ella Laloba
The bamboula a dance, and music and drumming tradition, with African origins, is cousin to the "bomba,” a folkloric tradition, which still thrives in Puerto Rico.
Brought to the Caribbean by enslaved Africans, the bamboula is a dramatic dance of rebellion and determination.
Versions have survived in Guadeloupe, St. Lucia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Marked by swaying hips, trembling of the body and dramatic drum accents, the bamboula dance can go on for hours, with audience members joining in.
A traditional heartbeat played on the drum speeds up and inspires the dancers’ movements, which accelerate and climax in response to the drums.
Chenzira Kahina, managing director of Per Ankh Institute in St. Croix in the Virgin Islands. dances the bamboula at cultural events and teaches it too.
She says it’s a powerful dance, where the dancers and drummers are both animated, and "the dancers are fully engaged with feet, shoulders, waist, hips and breasts."
Photo: Chenzira Kahina dances the bamboula in St. Croix.
virginvoices.com photo by D. B. Bostdorf
Ella Laloba has danced the bomba, but not the bamboula.
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