ENTITY · DANCE / MOVE
Dutty Wine
Well supported
The dance that swept Jamaica and the diaspora around 2006, built on a fast whipping rotation of the head and neck. Tony Matterhorn's record of the same name carried it, and it became one of the most widely imitated — and most argued-over — dancehall dances to travel abroad.
At a glance
- Type
- Dance / move →
- Confidence
- Well supported
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Debate & reception
What people argued about this record — two documented positions each time, kept apart from verified fact. Browse every argument in the archive →
'Dutty Wine kills?' — dance spectacle vs bodily danger
One side
Acrobatic dance moves as harmless creative spectacle
The other
A medical/public-safety hazard warranting restriction
“The body was not designed to undergo that type of stress”
After the Dutty Wine (a rapid neck-and-head-rotating women's dance popularised by Tony Matterhorn's 2006 hit) was linked to injuries and the 2006 death of 18-year-old Tanisha Henry, physicians and columnists argued it was physically dangerous and that Dutty Wine contests should be curtailed or banned; defenders framed it as ordinary dancehall expression sensationalised by moral panic. The Jamaica Gleaner ran a 'Dutty Wine discussion' (6 Nov 2006), and Jamaican physician Winston Jadusingh told the BBC the body was not built for that stress. The safety debate resurfaced in 2020 after dancer Roxanne 'Bumpa' Evans died following a stunt (DancehallMag; Jamaica Star, 'Dancing Deathtraps').
Read the argument →TikTok dancehall virality: global promotion, or an uncompensated dance economy?
One side
Expanded global reach and platform licensing revenue
The other
Choreographers and originators still under-credited and under-paid
Dancehall dance moves and riddims have repeatedly gone viral on TikTok, exposing Jamaican music to enormous new audiences much as earlier viral dances once spread by camcorder and cable TV. TikTok has since moved toward licensing agreements that pay rights holders when a song is used in videos, which supporters cite as evidence the platform now shares real value with dancehall's creators; sceptics counter that the choreographers, producers and session players behind a viral riddim or dance rarely see credit or payment proportionate to the reach their work generates. Neutral framing; no verdict.
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Compiled and researched by The Jamaica Music Atlas music desk. The sources that informed it are credited above.
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