ENTITY · PERSON
Ding Dong
Well supported
Ding Dong is a Jamaican dancer, recording artist and leader of Ravers Clavers, known for turning street dances into records and videos that carried moves from Kingston parties into global dancehall classes and social-media circulation.
At a glance
- Type
- person
- Confidence
- Well supported
- Era
- Open era →
Connections
Watch & listen
Debate & reception
How people argued about the music — praise, criticism and public debate. See all debate & reception →
debate
Who owns a dance move?
Dancehall moves often circulate faster than formal credit or royalties. This starter item flags the recurring editorial question of how to credit dancers, artists, video directors and overseas teachers fairly.
Stance: community authorship vs individual credit
debate
Male dancers and the effeminacy charge
The rise of male dance stars and crews in the 2000s (in the lineage of Bogle/Gerald Levy and the Black Roses Crew, then Ding Dong's Ravers Clavers) sharpened a gender argument: elaborate, fluid, fashion-forward male moves and 'out and bad' styling were read by some in a homophobic dancehall context as effeminate or 'gay', while dancers and scholars argued the moves were a legitimate, hyper-visible form of masculine artistry and inner-city creativity (Jamaica Observer, 'Masculinity and dancehall', 2011; academic work by Patrick Helber). The tension coexisted with dancehall's broader documented homophobia and the international 'Stop Murder Music' controversies.
Stance: acrobatic, stylish male dancing as valid masculine creative artistry vs suspicion that expressive/effeminate movement signals homosexuality