The Ponum Dance is St. Maarten / St. Martin's only national dance and dates back to the 19th century. It is considered to be over 150 years old. The Ponum dance was created when slavery was abolished on St. Maarten / St. Martin. It is referred to as the dance of emancipation or freedom, and recollects the period of slavery and eyewitness testimony of how slaves celebrated the day when slavery was abolished. The Ponum Dance was chosen to be filmed because only a few practitioners / performers are