Limbo Teacher

COUNTRY: Trinidad & Tobago

LANGUAGE: English

GENRE: Calypso

Found on the Smithsonian Folkways CD, “Hellish Calypso.” Today in the U.S. we may limbo at a wedding reception or during a dance competition at a roller skating rink, but limbo actually began in Trinidad as an African-inspired dance performed at wakes, with the downward motion symbolizing the descent of Africans into the hold of slave ships.

Lyrics of original and All Around This World version:

I want somebody to limbo like me. Limbo, limbo like me.