Dancehall emerged in Kingston in the late 1970s as reggae’s harder, faster, more confrontational sibling—rooted in the sound system, the mobile institution that could turn a street corner into a dance floor, and in the tradition of music as a political act. Reggaetón grew from it, traveling through Panama and Puerto Rico before going global. In the summer of 2019, it became something else: on the day that Puerto Rico’s governor Ricardo Roselló resigned under pressure from mass protests, LGBTQ+ and feminist activists led a session of perreo combativo—combative twerking—on the steps of the San Juan Cathedral. A major exhibition, “Dancing the Revolution” brings together more than 40 artists—including Isaac Julien, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Edra Soto, and Alberta Whittle—who explore these histories. “Without music you are all dead,” Perry said, “with music you are alive. There is nothing music can’t do.” —Elena Clavarino