About Caribbean/The Future
Caribbean/The Future as a title for this project underscores two urgent questions. One is a desire to see into the cultural future of Caribbean people while also proposing that many of the traits visibly inherent within the cultural practices of the region are futuring practices themselves. Taking this inquiry a step further Caribbean/The Future aims to create embodied and performed experiences to consider the deep resonances of what has been inherited as ‘the Caribbean’. Through multiple disciplines, we interrogate the boundaries of what has been given in terms of Caribbean identity, and seek to address the central question: what can the Caribbean become going forward, not only as a site of cultural autonomy and belonging but as an ongoing constructed project?
Caribbean/The Future Project is a curatorial initiative designed by Candace Thompson-Zachery, Director of Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE, that functions through the mediums of dance and movement with its intersections with visual art, discursive expositions, public engagement and installation.
About the Creator
Creator of the project Candace Thompson-Zachery, born in Trinidad and Tobago, now local to Brooklyn, NY, operates between the spheres of dance, cultural production and fitness and wellness, with a focus on the Contemporary Caribbean. She has had an established career as a performer, choreographer,
fitness professional, cultural producer, teaching artist, community facilitator and Caribbean dance specialist. In addition to her work in these areas, she leads CanDanceFit, a full service fitness and movement entity, ContempoCaribe, an ongoing choreography and performance
project and is the founder of Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE, an organisational platform for
Caribbean dance in the diaspora that spearheads the New Traditions Festival. A graduate of Adelphi University’s BFA in Dance, she has performed at the Queen’s Hall (T&T), Apollo Theater, the John F. Kennedy Center, New York Live Arts, has brought masterclasses to the Mark Morris Dance Center, Virginia Commonwealth University and The Ohio State University and has shown her work at Danspace Project, COCO Dance Festival (T&T), and the Brooklyn Museum. She has received special awards including being a part of the inaugural Dancing While Black Fellowship Cohort 2015/2016, an Adelphi University 2017 10 Under 10 program awardee, and a Dixon Place Artist-in-Residence for fall 2017. Candace is currently a candidate in the M.A. in Performance Curation at the Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance at Wesleyan University, recently completed the Executive Program in Arts & Culture Strategy at University of Pennsylvania with National Arts Strategies and most recently assisted Claire Tancons, a curator for Sharjah Biennial 14, on her performance focused platform ‘Look For Me All Around You’ .
About the Move + Discuss Series
The MOVE & DISCUSS SERIES is one of the programs under the Caribbean/The Future project. Living within the frames and myths of cultural inheritance, this program is a questioning of hyper-visible constructions of Caribbean cultural practice and speculates on their evolution, continuation and the kinds of roles they may play in the lives of those who identify with this culture. Each event is structured to open with an artistic activation, followed by a dialogic experience and closed by a community movement ritual, integrating the participant’s whole being into the event and providing real time feedback of the ideas discussed.
First Caribbean/The Future Event
Move + Discuss Series 1: Caribbean Folk to the Future
Bringing together Folk practitioners, Cultural leaders + Caribbean enthusiasts to move, dialogue and share knowledge in a Cultural space.
Series 1: Caribbean Folk to the Future – What is its role?
With contemporary cultural production being fast paced, highly visible and increasingly commercialised, practitioners of traditional and folk forms, are tasked with the responsibility of making and maintaining the relevance of their work. This conversation turns the focus to understanding what Caribbean folk practices offer us today and how might they be useful to us in the future, looking at renewed interests, research practices and new age strategies. Our goal is to create a space for intergenerational dialogue, cultural exchange and brainstorming around this issue.
Discussion + Movement
6:30PM – 9:30pm
Free w/RSVP via eventbrite: http://bit.ly/2m3JNyD
Facebook link: http://bit.ly/2lFdZja
Discussion will be recorded to be made public at a later date.
Bio of Event Presenters
as well as a Masters Degree in Dance Education from New York University. 》》
She is the founder
and artistic director of @bombazodanceco. Ms. Tucker has apprenticed and performed with
Bomba elders and distinguished families in San Juan, Santurce, Loíza, Cataño, Ponce,
Mayagüez and Arroyo, Puerto Rico. 》》
As an educator and master Bomba dancer, she lectures on
dance technique, figure and timing across the United States and the world.
Founded in 2001, La Troupe Zetwal has performed in the greater New York area for over fifteen years. Sherley Davilmar and the company aim to share Haitian pride through dance, music, and her special skill of storytelling.
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Mrs. Davilmar (St. Fort) has studied and dances under Haitian dance giants such as Pierre Desrameaux, Mikerline Pierre & Mikerline Dance Company, and Lionel St. Surin, all greats who have studied under Vivian Gauthier. Mrs. Davilmar also studies and dances with Julio Jean, a renowned master Haitian dance teacher and choreographer with 20 years of experience, who studied under Lavinia Williams, a company member of Katherine Dunham, at the National School of Arts in Haiti.
A graduate of the Edna Manley College School of Drama, Clarke is an accomplished vocalist with 30 gold medals, and numerous national awards from the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission’s (JCDC) National Festival of the Performing Arts Competition. ~
He is the 2008 recipient of the Prime Minister’s Youth Award for Excellence in Arts and Culture, and in that same year he represented Jamaica at the World Championships for the Performing Arts in Hollywood, California where he was crowned Grand Champion Performer of the World. ~
In an effort to pursue his passion in theatre and music, he moved to New York City and within a year he started Braata Productions with the aim of helping to keep the Jamaican culture alive and ensure its sustained and rich legacy.
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International Theatre credits: David Heron’s Ecstasy (UK tour) and a Jamaican adaptation of James Baldwin’s Amen Corner (nominated Best Actor in a Lead Role by the International Theatre Institute – Jamaica Chapter (ITI) Actor Boy Awards, Jamaica’s Tony Awards). Off-Off Broadway: Jestina’s Calypso, Positive, In Arabia We’d All Be Kings, Space Between Two Heartbeats, Girl Without Wings, The Black That I Am, Flambeaux and most recently the World Premiere – Welcome to America: A Caribbean Musical which he also serves co-lyricist & composer on.
He studied dance at the Trinidad Dance Theater with Eugene Joseph, training in Modern, Ballet, Jazz, Ballroom, and Folkloric styles. Michael worked with Geoffrey Holder on “Dougla II”, and “La Valse des Bakas” for TDT, and toured with the company in the USA and the Caribbean. ~
A prolific choreographer, he has created many works currently in the repertoire of Something Positive, as well as “Once Upon this Island” (Packer Collegiate Inst), and “Belle” (Brooklyn College). An orisha devotee in the Yoruba religion (Trinidad & Tobago), Mr. Manswell presents lectures and workshops in dance, music, and traditional religious practice, and has worked closely with the Interfaith Center and the Caribbean Cultural Center in their programs. ~
One of “Brooklyn’s Black Men of Distinction 2000” and one of Brooklyn’s Black Dance Kings (2010), Michael also teaches for Something Positive Inc., the Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning, the Brooklyn Arts Council the Caribbean Cultural Center.
Shakeil Jones is a 24-year-old of the twin-island republic of Trinidad and Tobago. He began dancing at the age of five with the Pembroke Folk and Cultural Performers where his love and passion for the performing arts was cultivated. ~
At the age of eighteen Shakeil did his first choreographic work entitled ‘Koromante’ in the Saraca Feast at the Tobago Heritage Festival and continued his choreographic endeavors with several dance companies. ~
He has performed with companies such as the Pembroke Folk and Cultural Performers, Urban Ritual Dance Company, De Kulture
Klub Ensemble, Malick Folk Performing Company is a Company one member of the Tobago Heritage Dancers Company. ~
He is currently pursuing a Master of Arts degree in Dance with emphasis on Studio and Related Studies at the Florida State University. His career goal is to either become a Professor within the field of dance or the Minister of Community Development, Culture and the Arts in Trinidad and Tobago.
Nadia Dieudonné is a talented choreographer, dancer and teacher who began dancing at an early age. Nadia’s innate talent as a Haitian dancer grew stronger in 1990, as she began to travel back to her homeland to research and study the origins, purposes of Haitian dance and its connections to Africa. ~
She honed her skills by attending several Lakous (communities that preserve and practice specific Vodou ceremonies) in the countryside and in reputable dance schools with esteemed dancers/teachers in Port-au-Prince and New York. ~
For more than 12 years Nadia has been fortunate to have been mentored by Haitian dance icon Jean-Leon Destine and worked alongside him as an assistant teacher. ~
As part of her commitment to preserve her culture, Nadia founded in 1994 + 1995, Nadia Dieudonné & Feet of Rhythm, and Feet of Rhythm kids cultural program & Dance Company, where she creates, develops and fuses the traditional Vodou dances with her unique style and teaches young Haitian-American youth who are not aware of the vibrant culture of Haiti. ~
Presently, Nadia Dieudonné is a certified teacher for the New York City Department of Education and has a MA in Dance Education from New York University; MA in TESOL from Grand Canon University.
Dr. Rosalind October-
Rose October originates from Guyana and has been a principal dancer of the Guyana National
Dance Company until migration. She has over 40 years of dance experience. Currently, she is an
Assistant Cultural Director of Guyana Cultural Association and she is a co-chair of its Kweh Kweh
Committee. As a free-lance dancer/choreographer, Rose’s artistic involvement continues in the
Guyanese and Caribbean communities. Dr. October holds a PhD in Advanced Behavioral
Studies from Capella University and is on faculty at Suny Empire State College.
Creator + Moderator
O
Event Review + Photos!
As the creator of the project, I am pleased with what was shared, experienced and conjured, and hope that we all, ‘Walk with our own atmosphere’, as offered by Michael Manswell.
If you wish to donate to this project, you can do that via my organisation Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE: https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/dance-caribbean-collective
In the coming months I hope to write about the findings from the event and start to create more awareness publicly about the challenges faced by cultural practitioners. I hope I can count on you to spread the word.
Photos by Jessica Gaines
Caribbean/The Future Project 