How to Keep Up with Dancehall? A Guide for Anyone Who Feels Like They're Constantly Falling Behind

The longer I've been involved in dancehall, the more I feel like I'm missing something. You'd expect the opposite to happen, that with more experience, everything would gradually become clearer. But the deeper I dive into dancehall, the more I realize just how vast the constant flow of new information really is.

Dancehall may be a single dance style, but behind it lies decades of history, countless unofficial substyles and eras, an endless stream of new moves, new music, and the social realities that continue to shape the culture. By the end of this article, I'll also share how I've learned to stay at peace with this process while still trying to approach it as responsibly as possible.

Politics, Independence, and Everyday Life

Dancehall's roots stretch all the way back to Jamaica. Its development has been shaped by colonization, independence, politics, language, and the everyday lives of Jamaican people. All of this is reflected in the music, the movement, and the way people express themselves. That's why I believe you're never just learning a dance - you are learning an entire culture.

At the same time, there is no single official curriculum that defines how dancehall should be taught or passed on. Every dancer has a slightly different perspective on its history, different experiences, and their own interpretation. It's not unusual for different people to describe the same period or even the same move in different ways. And that's exactly what makes learning dancehall both beautiful and incredibly challenging.

Maybe that's why I feel like you'll never truly finish studying dancehall. Not because it's impossible to improve, but because the culture itself never stops evolving. We're constantly building our own understanding of what dancehall really is.

For me, keeping up with the culture isn't just about having a general idea of what's happening. I want to stay informed because I genuinely want to understand dancehall. I want to understand the music, its evolution, and the reasons why the dance continues to change. At the same time, I have deep respect for Jamaican culture, and preserving its authenticity matters greatly to me. I believe that's something Jamaican dancers themselves care deeply about, and I think it's equally important for those of us outside Jamaica to make that effort as well.

Authentically dancing dancehall, however, is much more complex than it may seem at first glance. Many people only see individual moves. In reality, those moves are often connected to a specific period, a story, or a deeper meaning. Once you begin to understand that context, the entire dance opens up in a completely different way.

Constant FOMO

As I mentioned earlier, keeping up with this constant evolution isn't easy. I still often feel like I'm missing something. The difference is simply in how I deal with that feeling today compared to a few years ago.

Back then, I put enormous pressure on myself. I felt like I had to know every new move, every trend, and always stay one step ahead. If I didn't know the latest trend, I felt like I wasn't a good dancer. It was essentially a constant state of FOMO.

Today, I approach it differently. Not because I've stopped caring about what's happening in dancehall, but because I've accepted that it's impossible to know absolutely everything.

I no longer believe it's necessary to master every new move or follow every trend that will probably disappear within a year anyway. That doesn't mean we shouldn't pay attention to them. Quite the opposite. It's important to know what's happening within the culture, to understand it, and to stay curious. But we don't need to feel like we have to learn everything immediately or feel guilty when we can't.

To me, understanding the foundations is far more important. Understanding the history, knowing how dancehall has evolved, and building everything else on top of that foundation.

Sometimes I feel like we're collecting moves the way people collect Pokémon. As soon as we discover a new one, we're desperate to learn it. But the moment we finally do, we put it aside and immediately chase the next one. Instead, we should spend much more time returning to what we already know. Refining it, improving the quality of our movement, and developing a deeper understanding of the dances we've already learned.

Social media also plays a huge role today. It creates enormous pressure to constantly produce exciting content, new moves, and new music, making the entire culture evolve even faster. Sometimes I wonder whether new moves or songs are created mainly because there's always a demand for something newer, fresher, and more attractive. In that process, I sometimes feel that some of the sincerity and quality behind the creativity gets lost. I can't say for certain that's the case, but it's something I find myself thinking about more and more often.

At the same time, I do believe trends have an important place in dancehall. Very often, they're exactly what introduces people to the culture in the first place. One viral move or one popular choreography can become someone's first encounter with dancehall and inspire them to learn more. And I think that's a wonderful thing.

I just wish trends were more often the beginning of someone's journey rather than the final destination.

Whenever a new move or movement catches my attention, I try to find out where it came from, who created it, and why it exists in the first place. It feels like a shame to dance something simply because everyone else is doing it. If I could encourage people to do just one thing, it would be this: stay curious. Not only about the movement itself, but also about the people behind it.

So How Do You Keep Yourself Sane?

I'd like to share a few practical things that help me maintain a balance between studying dancehall's history and keeping up with its current evolution. Thanks to these habits, I feel like I don't get lost in the overwhelming amount of information while still staying focused on what matters most.

Whenever I have the opportunity, I choose classes that focus on the old school and middle school eras - roughly from the 1980s until around 2010, or sometimes moves created between 2010 and 2015. Whether I'm in Jamaica or attending a dance camp, these are the classes I make sure not to miss.

The reason is quite simple. Most instructors naturally teach the newer moves they're currently working on. That means I'll keep encountering those moves from different teachers over time, and it's much easier to catch up with them later. Information about the earlier eras of dancehall (or even the foundation moves themselves) is shared by far fewer instructors today. Very often, you only learn them if you intentionally seek them out or specifically ask for them. So whenever I can choose what to study, I almost always choose the older eras.

For me, it's never just about learning the moves themselves. I'm interested in how dancers experienced those times, what particular movements meant to them, and how they remember them today. Whenever I have the chance, I stay after class to talk with the instructors, ask questions, hear their perspectives, and learn as much as I can about the historical context. Only then do I shift my attention to today's trends, which I can understand much more deeply because of that foundation.

I also try to revisit the key movements that shaped dancehall history at least once every six months. I usually do this before battles, going back through the most important foundation moves, especially the Bogle moves. These are movements that I believe will always remain relevant. It's not enough to learn them once, you need to keep returning to them, repeating them, and constantly improving their quality.

And if I could give one piece of advice to anyone who wants to study dancehall in depth, it would be this: choose your teachers carefully. Whenever possible, learn directly from Jamaican dancers or from instructors who have built a long-term relationship with Jamaica and actively study its culture. And whenever a particular move inspires you, try to find out who created it. If the creator no longer teaches (or is no longer with us) look for dancers who worked closely with them and can pass on both the movement and its context as faithfully as possible.

Because I believe that's where genuine understanding of dancehall begins. Not when we've learned the greatest number of moves, but when we begin to understand where they come from, why they were created, and what place they hold within the culture's history.

And maybe that's exactly why dancehall never stops fascinating me. The more I learn, the more I realize how much I still don't know. I don't see that as something frustrating. Quite the opposite. It's a reminder that dancehall is a living culture. One that never stops evolving. And I believe that's where its true beauty lies. You never reach the end. There is always something new to discover, something to understand more deeply, and someone new to learn from.