I believe our displaced African Caribbean ancestors, from diverse geographical and socio-cultural backgrounds, danced the quadrille in defiance, for multifaceted and complex reasons.

Music and dance were important to them. It was their normal communication channels in their cultures, but during enslavement they were forbidden to engage in their cultural practices – no drumming, no singing, no dancing, and no speaking in their native languages.

Because the Africans used music and dance to communicate, the colonialists knew of its potential to incite plantation revolt, so they threatened them with punishment if caught dancing.

But it was not only the risk of uprisings; the African dances were perceived as inferior, uncivilised, frenzied and lacking elegance when compared to the European quadrille dance, perceived as superior, civilised, gracious, elegant and disciplined, beyond the African’s capabilities.

Our ancestors had a passionate love of music and dance, so the degradation and deprivation of their normal lifestyle must have been challenging. It compelled them to find new ways of coping with the lack of recreational activities forcefully imposed by the colonialist.

They were also consciously aware of the therapeutic value of music and dance to overcome pain and suffering. So learning to dance the quadrille was the most opportunistic means of gaining some relief, although temporary, from their dehumanising daily activities.

So despite the threat of punishment if caught dancing, the more privileged “house slaves” secretly observed the colonialists and their friends dancing the ballroom quadrille on special occasions in great houses on plantations and demonstrated it to the “field slaves”. They ingeniously taught themselves to dance the ballroom-style quadrille, mastered it, and defiantly danced it in their compounds. They began by secretly mimicking the colonialists’ regimented style of dancing.

In Jamaica, the enslaved Africans subsequently transformed the European ballroom dance into less regimented, non-hierarchical, linear and circular dances called Camp and Contra Styles. They creatively added more complex dance patterns and sequences, calling the “Figures/Set Pieces” by different names to remember them.

It empowered them to add their own African flamboyancy and energetic dance style to the rhythm and beat of the accompanying quadrille music they created from natural and discarded materials.

I believe our ancestors were wise in their choice of dancing styles (learn more about the quadrille here). Quadrille dancing undercover was a cunning survival strategy. It empowered them in many ways:

1. It validated their innate knowledge and skills in dancing.
   Our ancestors instinctively knew, and were comforted by the fact, that when it came to rhythm and dance, embedded in their African cultures, they had the upper hand. Unbeknownst to the colonialists, many of the quadrille dance steps were already familiar to them. The colonialists undervalued their dancing ability, referring to it as inferior, but mastering the quadrille and dancing it elegantly proved them to be wrong.
2. They were able to mimic and ridicule the colonialists’ style of dancing because mockery is an empowering strategy for the downtrodden.
3. It became a unifying force amongst them. Although from different tribal groups, they enjoyed the camaraderie associated with learning and dancing this new dance together in the limited free time they had.
4. It helped them to keep their spirits high, as they would temporarily escape the mental and physical impact of daily laborious plantation work.
5. It helped them to support each other in their common struggle to maintain the human dignity and respect they deserved but were deliberately denied.
6. It helped them to build cohesive and caring plantation communities and lasting friendships, despite being forbidden to form stable relationships or have families of their own.
7. It helped them to subversively revive and reinforce their shared African cultural and spiritual values and beliefs, unnoticed by the colonialists who thought their practices were evil (black magic).
8. It helped them to communicate, non-verbally and in coded messages, information about their emancipation plans during the closeness of the couples dance.
9. It helped them to maintain shared hopes and dreams of a better lifestyle.
10. It helped them to inadvertently tell their unwritten story of enslavement in their quadrille dance styles.

Despite being physically enslaved, our ancestors undeniably demonstrated freedom of mind and spirit, inner strength, resilience and resourcefulness in their determination to survive slavery. Their actions revealed a powerful force that “slavery” could not dominate, diminish or destroy. We are the voices and feet of our ancestors.

(Updated 2025)