Feel the Rhythm: The Origins and Culture of Soca Dance

Soca dance style is a lively and energetic form of dance that originates from the Caribbean, specifically Trinidad and Tobago, and is closely tied to soca music — a fast-paced, rhythm-heavy genre that evolved from calypso.

This Caribbean dance is characterized by the following qualities:

● Upbeat and rhythmic: Movements match the quick tempo of Soca music from Trinidad and Tobago (typically 115–160 BPM).

● Hips and waist movement: A lot of emphasis is placed on isolating and rotating the hips and waist circularly or rhythmically.

● Jumping and whining: “Whining” (also spelled “wining”) is a signature Soca move involving rhythmic circular movements of the hips. Jumping, waving arms and expressive footwork are common.

Trinidadian musicians birthed not only the instrument most frequently associated with the Caribbean — the steel pan — but also calypso music itself. Innovation, evolution and creativity, so pervasive in this area, have only continued to reinvent the culture, sharing new sounds, flavors and ideas with the rest of the world.

While calypso first landed in Trinidad sometime in the 1700s, imported by enslaved Africans, in the 1970s, a new style of music began to emerge called soca, or "soul of calypso." The term was originally coined by Trini musician Garfield Blackman, who took the stage name Lord Shorty. Though eventually, Blackman would move away from soca to explore other styles of music, his granddaughter, Nailah Blackman, continues the soca legacy today.

Whereas calypso is an Afro-Caribbean style of music characterized by bright and tinny melodies produced by Trinidad's national instrument, the steel pan, soca punches up the rhythm to the next level with hard-racing beats and instrumentals imported from India.

Lord Shorty and the soca musicians that would come after him infused calypso with the East Indian influences that are so emblematic of Trinidad and Tobago, alongside so many other cultures, creating a fusion musical export as uniquely delicious as the food you'll find here.

While on vacation in Tobago, you'll find that festivals are celebrated monthly in various villages around the island. There, you may find soca, as well as other traditional music and dances that pertain to culturally and historically significant events, such as the cocoa harvest.

In April, you'll find soca dance performed along with jazz, reggae, calypso and other music at the Tobago Jazz Experience. The We Beat Festival celebrates local culture in Trinidad with Pan Night, in addition to soca and other musical stylings.

In Trinidad during the Christmas holiday season, you'll find the traditional parang. Similar to the Latin American parranda, the parang is a tradition that involves traveling from house to house, eating and drinking merrily with friends and neighbors, accompanied by rich Trinidadian soca or chutney melodies (chutney and chutney soca are still more East Indian fusion music styles developed in Trinidad).