Recently, 'daggerin' videoshave appeared on United States cable stations and on the Internet, and they sometimes portray Jamaica in a negative light.

A few months ago a two-minute clip of 'Dutty Fridaze', held in California, appeared on the American cable station Tru TV. The main dancer, Skerrit, was jumping off high speaker boxes and other objects, landing on females. Other times he used his shoes and the table to hit them. The analysts all bashed the video, referring to it as dangerous.

There was also another video, 'Girl dies while dancing', that was quite popular on websites like Youtube and Facebook, as well as on mediatakeout.com. In this video, the dancers also behaved like acrobats.

But these are only a couple of the 'daggerin' videos that are uploaded to the Internet daily. The comments left for these videos are never very flattering, sometimes refering to Jamaicans as barbaric.

However, Montego Bay-based dancer Dyema says she does not believe Jamaica is being viewed negatively because that is what her audiences abroad want to see.

enjoy themselves

"Overseas people like that. When we go overseas a weh dem watch pon DVD dem waan see or dem nah go enjoy themselves," she told THE STAR, noting that people who make comments on Youtube can say anything, but their views are not necessarily a good representation of how people feel.

"Maybe to how the video look, it look like we a get hurt but a something weh wi practice. A mostly me dem do dem style deh wid (in reference to dancers Garth Sample and Marvin)."

Garth Sample said the videos might look bad but this is what he does for a living and this is also the case with other dancers like Dyema, Marvin, Back It Up and Iyla.

"Dem fi know seh a we job we a do. Is jus' our way fi mek money but some a it a stunt. Nuff a wah gwaan nuh real. We rehearse it so we know how fi land and how fi hold the woman dem so dem don't get hurt. Sometimes the move will go wrong, like when Marvin knock out the girl," Garth Sample said.

positive and negative aspects

Another dancer, Mystic, said she has seen many of these videos and, like dancehall artistes, she said there will always be positive and negative aspects in dancing.

"Di one dem weh a dash out dem thing pon de sand make women in the dancehall look bad. Men get away with things that women cannot get away with," Mystic told THE STAR while noting that she does not want to seem as if she is bashing anyone.

"Maybe dancers like me, Dance Xpressions and Mad Michelle can pretty up the product little bit."

Creator of the dance move '90s Rock', Shelly Belly, said he feels some level of remorse about how negatively Jamaica is represented. But, "a our work we a do and we can't do no better".

However, Shelly Belly placed some of the blame on the selectors at dancehall events where he has had to display his dancing skills.

"Yuh know seh a di selector dem boost di dancer dem fi mek that happen. A di vibes weh di selector have the dancers under," Shelly Belly told THE STAR.

"More time me deh a some place a gwaan easy and a selector seh Shelly Belly 'go fi har' and yuh caan flop yourself. Yuh ago go hard," he explained.
NASTY ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR IT IS .BOUT DAGGA HISS UGGH