"No" To 'Dutty Wine' Ban

Despite calls for the Dutty Wine to be cut from stage shows, promoters in Jamaica are saying that they will not support any calls to ban the dance. "People dance how they want to dance, our precautions are for the general public safety, (however) individuals are free to express themselves," said FAME Road Party personality Francois St. Juste. "The suggestion out of all of this is that maybe there should be a Dutty Wine police walking around the parties stopping the people from doing the Dutty Wine (but) there is not anything that we are going to be doing about it at this time," he said. A controversial dance almost since it gained prominence on the dance hall scene, the Dutty Wine again took centre stage when fresh concerns emerged about its safety after an 18-year-old St. Catherine woman collapsed while doing the dance last week Sunday. Reports are that the teen, Tanisha Henry, was attending a 'school uniform' party at Beacon Hill, Thompson Pen, when at about four o' clock Sunday morning, while doing the popular dance, she collapsed. She was then rushed to the nearby Spanish Town Hospital where she was pronounced dead.