moko jumbies



amazing sight




dressing while waaaaay up in the air




Anders and Katie intrigued by the spectical



getting the costume just right



hanging out on top of vehicles




Kathryn and friend, Kai watching the moko jumpies walking to their performance



At World Food Day we were treated to Moko Jumbies--stilt dancers who were getting ready to go on stage.  Here is an explanation of the tradition of Moko Jumbies from another website, http://www.repeatingislands.com/

In an interview in Toronto’s Star newspaper, Willard John of St. Croix discusses the moko jumbie dancing tradition of his native St Croix. John, a 58-year-old St. Croix stilt dancer, has made it his life’s work to pass along the lively, lofty art form of his African ancestors. Here are excerpts from the article, which also includes a lovely description of the building of the island’s lovely church, built by slaves from live coral.







The colourful craft of stilt dancing came to the Caribbean with enslaved West Africans, who brought their culture and indigenous religions with them.






The “moko” or “mocker” was the spiritual guardian of African villages, tall enough to reach the evil spirits, and drive them off by mocking them with supernatural, magical powers.






It’s believed that another job of the African moko jumbie was to frighten children into adulthood – so maybe Willard had good reason to be scared as a kid.






Moko jumbie stilt dancing is mesmerizing. Rhythmic sounds of African drums evoke the spirits, while masked stilt dancers in colourful costumes appear from nowhere – gliding, almost floating in thin air.






“This current generation of stilt dancers has taken the art form to a level never seen before, skilfully combining dancing and acrobatics with complex synchronized choreography,” says Mr. John of his gifted students at the Guardians of Culture Moko Jumbies and Moko Jumbie Academy.






“The Caribbean moko jumbies combined influences from different religions of Africa, Europe and their new environment,” says the stilt dancing historian, pointing out that in the mid-1800s the traditional costume in the U.S. Virgin Islands was a European woman’s dress, adorned with African motifs, and petticoats underneath.






“It wasn’t until the 1960s, after too many curious people kept trying to look up under the dress and upsetting the precarious balance of the stilt dancers, that pants became part of the modern costume,” he laughs.






Whether in pants or a dress, moko jumbie stilt dancing is just as hard as it looks.






“It’s very physical and very taxing to your muscles and your bones,” says John, who has been performing the gliding, almost slow-motion movements on metres-high stilts for 34 years now, and is “planning to do this when I’m 100.”






“The passion that I had when I first got on my stilts and did my first parade in 1975 – that passion and spirituality is still there today. And I’ve got all these young people around me, so I’m encouraged to keep up with them,” says the talented teacher of his pleasure in sharing this leggy legacy.






“The art form originated in Africa and I want to always remind people of its spiritual African origins.”