Limbo Dance

The Limbo is a different and unique dance and is also called the “Under Stick Dance”. The limbo dates comes from the mid to late 1800s in Trinidad. It reached mainstream popularity during the 1950s. The Limbo was was popularized by dancer pioneer Julia Edwards (known as the First Lady of Limbo) and her company, which also appeared in several films, like “Fire Down Below”, and toured internationally in the 1960s. A film “Julia and Joyce” was produced in 2010 by Trinidadian and American dance researcher and choreographer Sonja Dumas,and features the evolution of the Limbo and the contribution of Julia Edwards to the explosion of its popularity.
The Limbo dance was originally a ritual performed at ‘wakes’ in Trinidad from the mid or late 19th century it does not appear to have any roots from West africa where most African traditions within the diaspora have emerged. It is believed, that the people of Trinidad that during this dance portrayed going
In its adaptation to the world of entertainment, groups started reversing the traditional order. Julia Edwards added a numerous amount of features that are now considered standard, such as human bars formed by the limbs of other dancers, and the use of fire in the performance of limbo.Limbo dancers generally move and respond to a numerous amount of specific Afro-Caribbean drum patterns.
As Limbo got very popularity as a tourist activity and a form of entertainment, pop music started using Caribbean rhythms to respond to the emerging craze in the United States. One major example is the song "Limbo Rock", which became a number 2 charted hit on the Billboard Top 100, from which emerged the popular chant that is associated with limbo "How low can you go?" Limbo was also brought into the mainstream by Trinidadian Calypsonian Brigo (Samuel Abrahams) with his popular Soca song "Limbo