National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica Comes To Brooklyn Center 3/6, 3/7

Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College completes its 2009-2010 World Stages: Dance series with the return of the National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica (NDTC) on Saturday, March 6 and Sunday, March 7 for two programs of New York City premieres celebrating West Indian culture.

NDTC returns to Brooklyn with a new generation of young artists who, since the ensemble's last visit two years ago, have come to embody the Company's dual principles of renewal and continuity, working to integrate a strong hold on the ancestral legacy of Jamaican music, movement and rituals with a ready response to contemporary life. For the company's 2010 Brooklyn appearance, renowned Haitian dancer and choreographer Jeanguy Saintus creates a new work entitled Incantation, a tribute to the Haitian people inspired by the recent tragedy in Port au Prince. The piece draws on traditional Haitian lore. Mr. Saintus recently won the Prince Claus Award of the Netherlands for his work in Caribbean dance theatre.

NDTC's 2010 repertoire also includes Asi Somos by the Cuban-born Arsenio-Andrade Calderon (a strong, athletic dance work featuring an all-male cast); Vignettes of Life, a modernesque suite of solos and duets by Clive Thompson (an alumnus of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre Company and the Martha Graham Contemporary Dance Company); and Tintinnabulum, a social-commentary piece on sons and mothers, peer group pressure and youth violence created by Artistic Director and principal choreographer Rex Nettleford.

Both presentations will end with the newly designed work by Nettleford entitled Apocalypse, which explores the anguish and the hope of contemporary Caribbean life. Using the traditional ritual of zion revivalism, a community bypasses traditional law enforcement and instead invokes ancestral spirituality to reform the violence-prone wrongdoer.

As in past seasons, the dancers are accompanied by the NDTC Singers, under the direction of Musical Director Marjorie Whylie. The singers act as a choral orchestra in many works of the Company, including Apocalypse and Sly Mongoose.

The Saturday evening performance includes the following pieces:
Incantation, choreography by JeanGuy Saintus, music by Toto Bissainthe, Martha Jean Claude, Zao
NDTC Singers
Asi Somos, choreography by Arsenio-Andrade Calderon
Tintinnabulum, choreography by Rex Nettleford
Vignettes of Life, choreography by Clive Thompson
Reflection, choreography by Arsenio-Andrade Calderon
Apocalypse, choreography by Rex Nettleford

The Sunday afternoon performance includes the following pieces:
Sly Mongoose, choreography by Rex Nettleford
Asi Somos, choreography by Arsenio-Andrade Calderon
NDTC Singers
Tintinnabulum, choreography by Rex Nettleford
Vignettes of Life, choreography by Clive Thompson
Reflection, choreography by Arsenio-Andrade Calderon
Apocalypse, choreography by Rex Nettleford

About National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica
Founded in 1962 after Jamaica's liberation from Great Britain, the
National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica (NDTC) is known for an energy and creativity characteristic of the Caribbean. Led by founding member Rex Nettleford, the company's dancers, choreographers, musicians and designers are dedicated to the creation of works rooted in the Jamaican and Caribbean cultural experience. NDTC has demonstrated its versatility in storytelling, pantomimic play, and fusion of elements of Caribbean dance with classical ballet to the Brooklyn community in biennial performances since the 1970s. To date, NDTC has completed more than 100 tours throughout North America, Europe, Australia, the former Soviet Union, Latin America and Puerto Rico.

About Rex Nettleford, Artistic Director and Principal Choreographer
A seminal contributor to the "NDTC system", Rex Nettleford has documented the work of the Company in numerous articles and published lectures as well as in two major works, Roots and Rhythms and Dance Jamaica with a sequel entitled Renewal and Continuity. His interest in dance and theatre began early in life growing up in rural Jamaica. As an undergraduate at the University of the West Indies (UCWI) he became a member of the Ivy Baxter Creative Dance Group. His time at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar was shared between his studies in Politics and choreographing for venues, operas and Shakespearean drama. His return to Jamaica also led to intensive work with LTM pantomimes and the founding of NDTC. His parallel academic career has earned him honorary Doctorates from several U.S. Universities as well as a Presidential Medal from Brooklyn College. He is the recipient of the high national of Order of Merit, the Gold Musgrave Medal of the Institute of Jamaica, the Order of the CARIBBEAN Community and numerous overseas awards including the Living Legend Award from the Black Arts Festival in Atlanta, GA and the Zora Neale Hurston-Paul Robeson Award. Professor Nettleford is currently the Vice Chancellor Emeritus of the Mona campus at the University of the West Indies.

National Dance Theater Company of Jamaica
Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts
Saturday, March 6, 2010 at 8pm
Sunday, March 7, 2010 at 2pm
Walt Whitman Theatre at Brooklyn College, 2900 Campus Road, Brooklyn, NY 11210

Online orders: BrooklynCenterOnline.org
Box Office: (718) 951-4500, Tuesday - Saturday, 1pm - 6pm
Groups of 15 or more: (718) 951-4600, ext. 33
Tickets $40 orchestra, $30 mezzanine

Support for National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica is provided by Air Jamaica and Caribbean Royal Delight. Major support for Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts' World Stages: Dance series is provided by Macy's and by The Harkness Foundation for Dance.

Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts' programs are made possible in part with public funding from the City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs and the National Endowment for the Arts. Funding for the 2009-2010 season is provided by: Target; JP Morgan Chase; Brooklyn Community Foundation; Con Edison; National Grid; TD Bank; the Carnegie Corporation of New York; and the Lila Acheson Wallace Theater Fund, established in the New York Community Trust by founders of The Reader's Digest Association. Additional support provided by CNG Publications, The Brooklyn Eagle, and WBGO. Marriott New York LaGuardia Airport is the official hotel of Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts 2009-2010 season. Backstage catering graciously provided by Applebee's.

Brooklyn Center acknowledges the support of Assemblymembers Karim Camara, Steven H. Cymbrowitz, Rhoda Jacobs, Alan Maisel, Joan L. Millman, N. Nick Perry, Annette Robinson, and Helene E. Weinstein, members of the Brooklyn Delegation to the New York State Assembly, and New York State Senators Martine Malavé Dilan, Kevin S. Parker, and John L. Sampson. Special thanks to Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn, Councilman Domenic M. Recchia, Jr. Councilmembers Kendall B. Stewart and Albert Vann, and Cultural Affairs Commissioner Kate D. Levin.

 

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