Matamuerte is a traditional Garinagu dance

Dance

Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....

. It is found in the Garifuna cultures in Central America

Central America

Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...

, especially Honduras

Honduras

Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...

 and Belize

Belize

Belize is a constitutional monarchy and the northernmost country in Central America. Belize has a diverse society, comprising many cultures and languages. Even though Kriol and Spanish are spoken among the population, Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official...

. The dance is performed with a background of rhythmic drums, common among Garinagu dances. Matamuerte is a humorous dance that conveys the image of people coming across a body on a beach and poking it to see if it is dead or alive. http://www.seinebight.com/drumsdance.htm

Matamuerte can roughly be translated from Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

as "death kills".

External links

• The Garifuna History, Language and Culture
• Seine Bight—Garinagu Dances With Drums