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A Tuk Band tearin’ it up

Our favorite tuk band from Barbados, is EVERY tuk band.

Landship is a tradition from Barbados that refers to both a dance performance group and an essential social-cultural community organization for the African-Barbadian community. Landships organize themselves into individual “ships,” named after British vessels, which unite into “fleets” under the leadership of “Lord High Admirals” and other “officers.” Landship performers will tell you they are not doing a dance; instead they are executing “manoeuvers” to the command of the Captain in the course of a parade. The primary musical “engine” of a landship is the Tuk Band, a drum/fiddle/triangle ensemble based upon British regimental military bands. In this video we hear “tuk” in action.

Why does our Landship plait a maypole?

We end our week in Barbados with the Barbados Landship Association. A popular Landship dance is the “plaiting” of a Maypole. The choreography of Landship often tells the story of the “Middle Passage,” the brutal transport of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic. In a favorite dance, eight dancers “plait a Maypole,” turning multi-colored ribbons around a maypole until they’re very short, then them unwinding again. This tradition connects dancers with West African stories of the clever Anansi, an eight-legged spider, who was said to have helped the Akan people learn to weave and build houses. Watch the Barbados Landship Association in action.

All Aboard the Landship!

Bajan landship is guaranteed cheer you up. (And you didn’t even know you were sad!)

Landship, a tradition unique to Barbados, developed during the several centuries of British rule as a way for African Barbadians to emulate (and also satirize) the strict hierarchies of the British navy while using playful dance moves to reference a harsh history of slavery and colonialism.  A landship is a Barjan community dance society (“a ship on land”) whose members dress up like British naval officers and support staff and dance in processions like British naval officers do–sort of.