About Bruckins
Bruckins, also spelled brukins, is a Jamaican dance performed primarily to celebrate Emancipation Day.
A dance, whose music has both European and African elements, Bruckins is a "stately, dipping-gliding" dance, and may be derived from the Pavane.
Bruckins is accompanied by an elaborate pageant, in which participants dress as European royalty and/or members of the royal court (courtiers, pages, soldiers, etc.).
Sabine Sörgel has said that the first Bruckins was celebrated in 1834, after the formal abolition of slavery; however, Olive Lewin states that the first Bruckins was only in 1839, after the elimination of the "apprenticeship" system.
Bruckins is associated with Jamaica. Explore related traditions below or compare it with the most popular dance styles in the United States.