Ding Dong

Kemar Christopher Dwaine Ottey, known professionally as Ding Dong, is a Jamaican dancer, dance creator, crew leader, recording artist and songwriter who reshaped how dancers and their authorship function within dancehall culture. Born in Kingston in 1980 and raised in Nannyville, east Kingston, Ottey grew up immersed in dance and football before committing to movement as his primary work. In the early 2000s he participated in Kingston's street-dance ecosystem, including the Flatbush crew, before founding Ravers Clavers in 2003—a group that became both a performing unit and a collective workshop where dancers generated, refined and circulated steps.

Ottey's breakthrough as a recording artist came through Bad Man Forward / Bad Man Pull Up, released in the 2005–06 period. This record established his durable creative method: a song provides a repeatable verbal cue, while dancers supply a concise physical phrase that can travel through sessions, videos and social participation. He subsequently linked releases including Fling, Flairy, Dweet (Genna Bounce) and Bounce to movement vocabularies, each title anchoring a specific step for circulation and social uptake.

Beyond his releases, Ottey worked to change the economic and symbolic position of the dancer within dancehall. In a 2014 interview he spoke directly about the limited earnings available to dancers even when their ideas drive dancehall visibility. A 2024 Jamaica Gleaner profile described his influence as extending to community building, fashion, corporate partnerships and advocacy around dancers' rights. His work demonstrates how dance creation, music production, crew organization and public circulation operate as interdependent systems rather than separate domains.

In 2025 Ottey released his debut studio album, From Ding Dong to World Ding, nearly two decades after his first hit. The album formalized the arc from community dancer and crew leader to recording artist with an international-facing catalogue, while continuing to foreground dance in titles, videos and performance.