Frome, Westmoreland – Pulsating drums and gyrating bodies took over the Frome Sports Complex last Thursday as the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) celebrated the bicentennial of the abolition of slavery with a show featuring “gerreh”, one of the island’s surviving traditional dance forms.

The dance which, especially in the western parishes, is performed at the nightly observances designed to console a bereaved family following a death, has been kept alive in the parish for generations.

It features pairs of dancers – male and female – gyrating to lively Mento music created by using a rattle drum, a bass drum, clanging “duchie” pot covers, rubbing a grater with a fork and chanting traditional folk songs.

Neville Gordon, 51, leader of the Hot Top Gerreh Group from Burnt Savannah, one of the leading groups in Westmoreland, said the predominantly gyrating and meeting of the pelvic areas of the male and female dancers during a gerreh performance symbolises birth, and at a “wake” is designed to give the grieving relatives hope in the promise of new life.

“Gerreh itself also is a portrayal of giving birth,” said Gordon, who founded the group and has been dancing gerreh for 17 years. “In giving birth the woman and the man will actually meet together.”

On Thursday, members of Hot Top and the Heart of Stone group from Strathbogie left the audience in awe at their dexterity, eliciting squeals of laughter and calls for more of the sensuous action.

However, Gordon explained that gerreh actually includes elements of other traditional dance forms, namely quadrille and revival, but that crowds usually have an insatiable appetite for the sexually suggestive aspect of the dance.

“Many times they (the dancers) just do a thing for the crowd, but there are certain rules and guidelines that you have to follow,” he told the Observer.

Apart from JCDC events, Gordon said his and other gerreh groups in the parish and a few in neighbouring Hanover are kept occupied on the hotel circuit along the north coast, where they even perform at weddings.

He said the art form has been kept alive in the parish due to the strength of the groups and persons who want to see tradition continue, despite the shift from traditional “set up” or “wake” observances after the death of a person to commercialised dancehall-type celebrations.

“People have been breaking away from the tradition and they are actually using the last night prior to the funeral as a more dancehall and commercialised event,” he said. “But because of the strength of our group, even in our section in Westmoreland, that’s why we keep the gerreh on a high.”