By NAN STAFF WRITER
News Americas, BELMOPAN, Belize, Sun, Mar. 20, 2022: Prince Williams hit the dancefloor in Belize with a new partner Sunday as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge marked the second day of a Platinum Jubilee Royal Tour of the Caribbean.
Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, danced with a Garifuna Belizean national at a traditional Garifuna festival in Hopkins, Belize. The Prince showed off his dance moves with 57-year-old Laura Cacho.
“They are an amazing couple and we would love them to come any time with their children Charlotte, George and Louis,” Cacho, who helped host the visit told PEOPLE. “They really know how to dance. They took the culture from me and I didn’t need to teach them. They’re so good at it. They were excellent.”
Williams showed off some seriously great dance moves and grooved along to the drumming as The Duchess of Cambridge also hit the floor and shyly got into the gunjei rhythm.
Vkeveen Martinez, 15, one of the teens from the Light of Hopkins dance group who tempted the couple onto the floor, said: “It was amazing. It was a lot to get a prince out to dance, and I held his hand.”
Martinez even asked William what it was like living in a castle.
“He said ‘it’s tricky — my grandmother lives there,’ ” she shared with PEOPLE.
And Kate told her that “she wants dance classes” she said.
The Garifuna are descendants of Africans and indigenous Kalinagos who moved along the islands and coast of the region to escape slavery. Prior to independence Belize had been a British colony since 1862, changing its name to Belize from British Honduras in June 1973.
The tour to the small village on the coast of Belize, which is considered to be a cultural centre of the Garifuna community came after some discord Saturday that sawSebastian Shol, chairman of the indigenous Indian Creek village in Belize saying the couple could land anywhere “but not on our land.”
The Duke and Duchess subsequently cancelled the visit to the Akte ‘il Ha cacao farm, after a small protest Friday morning over what Kensington Palace called “sensitive issues” involving the local community.
On Sunday, the couple did the Che’il Mayan Chocolate tour as well as both ground cacao seeds on the ka’ah, a traditional stone tool used by both Q’eqchi’ and Mopan Mayas.
William and Kate are next set to visit Jamaica after they depart Belize on Tuesday, and then travel to the Bahamas.
In Jamaica, their visit will include engaging with the Jamaican Defence Force and celebrating the seminal legacy of Bob Marley and other ground-breaking Jamaican musicians.
The Cambridges’ royal tour will come to an end in the Bahamas where Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis’ parents will spend time with communities across a number of islands and experience the junkanoo parade.
The last senior royal to visit the Bahamas, Jamaica, and Belize was Prince Harry in 2012 as part of a Diamond Jubilee Tour. In addition, Princess Anne visited Jamaica and the Bahamas in 2015 and Prince Edward and Sophie visited the Bahamas in 2016.
The Caribbean visit will focus on causes that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge care about, including mental health and early childhood education. According to Kensington Palace, “Their Royal Highnesses are keen to understand more about the impact that the pandemic has had across the Caribbean, and how communities have pulled together to respond to the challenges they have faced.”
Barbados severed ties with Britain on Nov. 30, 2021, becoming a republic after almost 400 years of various forms of British rule.
Calls for Jamaica to become a republic especially intensified after Barbados left the Commonwealth and Jamaica’s prime minister Andrew Holness declared in December 2021 that “Jamaica has to become a republic.” Holness added, “We have put together a plan to move towards that in a way that is meaningful and substantial in function and form. That is what we are going to do.”
Belize’s leader, too, has spoken about the need for a change in government structure. Prime Minister John Briceño said in July 2021: “Probably one of the things we will be talking about in the near future [is] whether we want to stay with the parliamentary system, or do we want to go to a republican system, or find a hybrid between a parliamentary system and a republican system?”
See the dancing moves HERE
