Phyars-Burgess, Sasha: Travel Grant - 2017-2018

British Dancehall: Changing Culture, from the Outside in, is an exploration of the Caribbean Dancehall culture in the United Kingdom, and the manner in which Dancehall has served as a liberatory and self exploratory space of transgression and rebellion for Black youth in the UK, while also transforming British dance culture. Dancehall is the name of a genre of music made popular in Jamaica in the 1970s. An offshoot of reggae and roots music, it is it’s own genre and musical defining force, with contributions to many genres that we know today including rap and dubstep. This project will ask; what is the impact of immigration on a dominant culture by exploring the ways which the Caribbean diaspora has affected British culture through the dance and music of Dancehall. The project will focus on, Croydon, a Caribbean neighborhood in South London, and East London.