Latonya Styles

File - The Swizzle Body Dancers.

Female dancers fight for right to 'Pretty Wine'

CURTIS CAMPBELL, STAR Writer

When the popular Dutty Wine dance move broke in 2006, many female dancers came to the forefront claiming to be the creators of the dance.

Now, fast forward six years later, and female dancers are at odds once again over the rights to another popular dance, this one called the Pretty Wine

At the head of the controversy are professional dancers Cartoon and the Swizzle Body girls, who claim that they are the originators of the Pretty Wine dance and not Latonya Styles.

Cartoon and the Swizzle Body girls say they built the dance move in 2006. The creation of the dance they say was a collaborative effort between Cartoon, who is a solo dancer, and the Swizzle Body girls, a popular dance group.

Cartoon spoke to The WEEKEND STAR on behalf of the group, and says the Pretty Wine is over two years old.

"Over two years ago, from Dutty Wine time, we had a performance and we built a routine and the dance was part of it, but it never had a name. Dutty Wine was popular and we said that we are pretty so we wouldn't do Dutty Wine we would do Pretty Wine because wi pretty like flowers, so that is how the name came about," Cartoon said.

In 2012, however, she decided to expose the Pretty Wine dance move and approached dancehall artiste Khago to do a song endorsing it.

dance song

"I went to Khago and told him to make a dance song for the women because the man dem nah mek nuh song fi wi, suh Khago do the song and now people a drop from nowhere a sey a dem mek Pretty Wine," Cartoon said.

One such person Cartoon said was female dancer Latonya Styles of First Class dance group. According to Styles, she has been doing the Pretty Wine since 2010.

"Mi a duh di dance from 2010, Munga gave me the name for it and I uploaded it on YouTube from then. Cartoon dem know sey mi have dance name Pretty Wine so I was surprised to see Khago performing at Dancing Dynamites on national TV and using other girls to do the dance move," she said.

Styles, however, said the dance moves were not the same, but the name is what belonged to her.

"They are doing a different dance move but it is the same name as my dance move, so this goes to show that it is important that we have trademark over our things, because now they are trying to buss a dance that buss already. Mi nuh war over dance because mi have dance stock and pile," she continued.

"Dancehall people fi learn how to work together and stop fight each other, and if unno want it unno can have it because wi have nuff more dance move," Styles said.

Styles and the First Class dancers are currently promoting new dance moves like Ketch A Fire, Quality and Chuh. While Cartoon is promoting her dance move called Push and Pull and the Swizzle Body girls have one called Settle Down.