The Jamaica National Dance Theatre Company will host two performances in Florida in Broward and Miami Dade starting on October 1, 2022.
Both performances are being presented by the Louise Bennett-Coverley Heritage Council and under the patronage of Jamaica’s Consul General, Oliver Mair.
The acclaim enjoyed by Jamaica’s National Dance Theatre Company ought not to seem surprising to those who have come to admire the punching power of this small Caribbean nation. Jamaicans have repeatedly captured global attention for disproportionately large performances on several of the world’s stages and the NDTC’s achievement in dance complements those achieved in music, sports, cinema, and literature.
Formed in 1962, the year Jamaica claimed its independence, the volunteer members of the company, tapped into their cultural heritage and Indigenous traditions to create and perform works of a high standard that helped the Jamaican public to better appreciate the art of dance. In doing so they astounded the world.
Sixty years later, this group of unpaid dancers, musicians and technicians, who are students, teachers, doctors, lawyers, civil servants, farmers, and bankers, among others have made over 120 overseas tours performing to wide acclaim in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Finland, Germany, Australia, Russia (the old USSR), Venezuela, Panama, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Martinique, Guyana, Grenada, Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago, St. Kitts, Antigua, St. Thomas, St. Croix (US Virgin Islands), The Bahamas and Bermuda.
Like America’s jazz and blues and several other significant cultural forms in the western hemisphere, the repertoire of the NDTC successfully melds African and European traditions to create something completely new, vibrant, and absolutely valid. Jamaica proved to be fertile ground from which to harvest traditional dance. The NDTC has tapped these roots with remarkable success, clearly evidenced by three pieces that have become standards of the company’s repertoire: Kumina, Mayal and Gerrehbenta.
A Dancing Times writer described the effect in reviewing a UK 2001 tour: “… the cultures of Africa and of Europe have come together in a unique way on this island. African dancers chose to celebrate pelvic movements because the center of the body — from which further life springs — is sacred. European dancers in contrast, chose under the influence of Christianity to censure pelvic movement and to celebrate instead bodily composure and possibilities of flowing peripheral movements and extended footwork. Jamaican dancers who have worked to absorb both traditions, can ripple like snakes and promenade like flamingoes. Their dances can vibrate with power and float with decorum… Dance companies capable of delivering such life-informing and life-embracing messages are rare.”
The company includes an accomplished group of singers, whose repertoire also taps traditional music collected from the field to form the basis of many of the scores used by the choreographers. Similarly, there is a heavy reliance on traditional instruments to augment musical scores.
