On the 21st July, we performed at Elim Pentecostal Church in Catford, SE London, at their Golden Years Club annual event. This afternoon event was well attended by a multi-cultural audience of senior citizens. At the end of our performance, we were pleasantly surprized when called back to the stage to receive a commendation for […]
JANUKA Achievements (2018) : Quadrille Dancing in Public Settings
Lewisham People’s Day (2018) On the 7th July, a hot summer’s afternoon, we danced and facilitated a short quadrille workshop at Lewisham People’s Day in Mountsfield Park South East London. This annual event is always well attended by local and surrounding communities. We enjoyed dancing on this stage and it was a delight to see the […]
JANUKA Achievements (2018) : Quadrille Dancing in Private Settings
During 2018, we travelled near and far to entertain, educate, empower and inspire positive awareness of our Jamaican Cultural Heritage, to multicultural audiences of varying sizes, age groups and formality. Many verbal, non-verbal and written encouraging feedbacks were received. Comments included: “Please accept our heartfelt gratitude for your wonderful performance at our Family Day event. […]
JANUKA Achievements (2018) : Introduction
The year 2018 was another action-packed, exciting, fun filled year for JANUKA dance group. As well as dancing the quadrille in public and private settings, we facilitated dance workshops in community halls, day centres and at private events. We also had many requests to sing Jamaican folk songs, with audience participation, as an integral feature […]
Tribute to JANUKA by Ella
My first experience of JÁNUKA was in September 2016, when I was invited to attended “An Evening with JÁNUKA”- “The Will To Survive” Part 2. I did not know what to expect, but went with an open mind. It turned out to be quite a spectacular evening with the parading and outburst of colours, cultural […]
JANUKA Achievements 2017
2017 was another successful year in achieving our goals, i.e. to entertain, educate, promote and inspire positive awareness of our Jamaican cultural heritage. JANUKA enjoyed dancing the quadrille at 21 private and public events and facilitated 14 quadrille workshops in local schools.
An evening with Januka… by Carmen and Sheila
By popular request, JÁNUKA plans to host another evening of music, narrative and dance in September 2018, in celebration of our 12th anniversary. This event entitled The Will to Survive Part 3 – “Independence” will be the third in a series of themed performances. The previous two events in 2015 and 2016 were entitled The […]
The Ascent of my Quadrille Dance Journey
It was an August Bank Holiday Sunday, the year 2014. My household and I were celebrating the birth of a girl child into our family, at a huge function hall in South East London.The reggae music was flowing sweetly, the guests singing out loud and dancing with much energy. Abruptly, the music ceased. We heard […]
Transformation and Transfiguration of the European Ballroom Quadrille dance
Although the enslaved Africans mastered the European ballroom quadrille dance and danced it exquisitely, they soon realised it was too formal and expressionless to fully achieve their goals. I surmise that their inborn spiritedness of freedom and defiance would have enabled them to cunningly transform and transfigure the European dance into a livelier, more relaxing, interactive and […]
Jamaican Slave Exposure to the European Quadrille dance
When the enslaved African were forbidden to engage in their cultural expressions in music, singing and dancing, I surmise they were initially forlorn. The colonialists had publicly declared their African dances inferior, uncivilised and abhorrent. The only dancing genre exposed to them at the time was the European ballroom quadrille. The colonialists and their guests […]