Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE moves to value and protect culture

Left to right: Sita Frederic, Michael Manswell, Candace Thompson,
Jessica Phoenix and Valierie McLeod-Katz
(photo: Adanna Jones)

As you can imagine, there are so many exciting and important events in New York, and beyond, that I cannot get to, and--as a woman of Caribbean heritage--I'm grateful to Candace Thompson for putting me in touch with Adanna Kai Jones, today's guest contributor, who offers following report on Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE's May 4th gathering at Brooklyn College.

Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE 

Takes a Stance Against Cultural Appropriation

by guest contributor Adanna Kai Jones


On Thursday, May 4, a relatively quiet evening, some fyah-starters gathered in the Woody Tanger Auditorium of the Brooklyn College Library to hold the first ever Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE (DCC) town hall meeting on cultural appropriation. Walking into the auditorium, people quickly noticed “graffiti” on the walls, to use the lingo of DCC’s town hall moderator Sita Frederick. Large sheets of white paper, taped to the walls, bore questions that all participants were invited to contemplate and to respond to in writing:

1. Do you think about the creators of your favourite Caribbean music? What ways have you tried to support them (financially and otherwise)?

2. Who do you think should be able to teach Caribbean dance styles? What should the requirements be?

3. What does mastery look like? What qualities or skills make one a Master teacher?

4. Do you enjoy seeing Caribbean dance/music on the mainstream?  Why? Why not?

5. What do you think is the responsibility of mainstream artists when using our culture?

Given this already-rich food for thought, participants were next offered a taste of Caribbean creativity--a mini-class on Jamaican dancehall taught by the dynamic duo of Kendell “History” Hinds and Korie Genius (a.k.a. Genius), two members of the Black Gold Dance Crew. We learned old school dancehall dances such as the Willie Bounce, the Wacky Dip, the Gas and the Mad Run. After we practiced these steps for a bit, the teachers changed to a follow-along method, the way dances were taught and learned in the dancehalls of Jamaica. Similar to a call-and-response format, first History and Genius would execute a four-count movement, then we would be expected to repeat their steps. Although these steps were tricky, we caught the flows, styles and energies of our instructors. In effect, “responding” to their “call” got easier and easier as the class continued.

Kendell "History" Hinds and Korie Genius (a.k.a Genius)
teaching the Willie Bounce
(photo: Adanna Jones)

Following the class, five people took to the stage and the main discussion began. The panel featured dance masters Michael Manswell (Creative Director of the Something Positive dance troupe) and Valerie McLeod-Katz (Artistic Director and Coordinator of the Visual and Performing Arts Programs at Medgar Evers College Preparatory School) plus the up-and-coming game-changers Candace Thompson (Artistic Director of ContempoCaribe and Founding Executive Director of DCC) and Jessica Phoenix (founder of FIYAH Dancehall Theater). And, as aforementioned, Sita Frederick (Director of Community Engagement Programs for Lincoln Center Education) moderated the panel discussion.

Frederick started things off by posing a question to everyone in the room: “What does cultural appropriation look like?” After calling attention to Drake’s obsession with Jamaican dancehall and to Beyoncé’s invocation of Oshun, she then shifted the conversation to a discussion of how we should take on such forms of appropriations, which have become rather commonplace in today’s society.

Over the next hour, panelists discussed their training, mentors and inspirations, calling the legacies of Eugene Joseph, Pearl Primus and Katherine Dunham into the space. These are the great shoulders upon which today’s Caribbean dance makers stand.

Talking about how and why each panelist began teaching and promoting Caribbean dance and culture, everyone recalled recognizing the need–really, a demand--for their teaching as well as the need to build community. They have all created a space where cultural history is kept alive, valued and passed on for many generations that will follow.

Thereafter, Frederick opened the floor for questions and open discussion. The first audience member to speak called attention to the nuances of the term “natural,” specifically citing the exploitation of Caribbean cultural labor by people who claim a “natural” affinity for all things Caribbean. (Her line of questioning further brought to mind Rachel Dolezal’s infamous appropriation of Black identity.) In response, panelists and members of the audience prescribed the following remedies:

1. As a Caribbean community, we need to put money and value back into our own arts, culture and heritage.

2. We must institutionalize our cultural practices so that the state has no choice but to support us, especially through large grants.

3. We must make sure that our team is filled with people knowledgeable about all aspects of society--especially experts in law and policy, accounting and finance, marketing and social media, in addition to cultural masters, writers and creators.

4. We must be honest, be of integrity and hold everyone, especially ourselves, accountable.

As the first DCC town hall meeting ended, it was very clear that everyone still had much more to say. Most of the audience members and panelists lingered, getting into deeper discussions of many of the points raised.

In general, we need this type of gathering in New York City, period. In today’s fast-paced world of Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and Snapchat, there is too much at stake for us to not take more control over how Caribbean dance cultural practices are transmitted and used.

As a Trinidad-born, US-raised, winer woman, I look forward to the next town hall meeting where we can clarify our agenda, further our vision and expand our audience. In conclusion, with DCC taking the lead in creating space for Caribbean dancemakers to take a stance against cultural (mis-)appropriation, I expect that the Caribbean dance community will continue to work together and forge a path for profound social change, not only throughout New York but also throughout the world.

Adanna Kai Jones
(photo courtesy of Adanna Kai Jones)

Adanna Kai Jones received her Ph.D. in Critical Dance Studies at the University of California, Riverside, and her BFA in Dance from Mason Gross School of the Arts—Rutgers University. She has performed in professional dance companies based in NYC, including the Julia Ritter Performance Group and Souloworks with Andrea E. Woods. And in general, her research remains focused on Caribbean dance and identity politics within the Diaspora, paying particular focus to the rolling hip dance known as winin’. With regards to her own creative pursuits, she has choreographed dance-theater pieces that were not only based on her research, but were also used as tools for generating more research questions. In July 2015, she choreographed Wine & Tales in Port of Spain, Trinidad, which was presented by New Waves! 2015 and the Dancing While Black Performance Lab. And in May 2016, she performed Rum & Coke in New York City at Field Studies 2016. Both performances were rooted in her ethnographic fieldwork on the wine and Caribbean Carnivals within the US. As a visiting lecturer at Stanford University in the Department of Theater and Performance Studies, she taught a survey class on folkloric and popular Afro-Caribbean dances, as well as a composition dance class that used Caribbean aesthetics along side that of US contemporary dance practices. Currently, she is an adjunct at both Marymount Manhattan College and Temple University, teaching two lecture courses on dance and culture.


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Candace Thompson: Caribbean dance artists step forward

Dancer-choreographer Candace Thompson
performs her solo, Of Circles and Bright Colours,
in New Traditions: A Showcase for Caribbean Choreographers
(photos: Kearra Gopee)

Questions for 
Candace Thompson

Dance artist and Executive Director
Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE

EYA: How did your Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE come about?

CT: There were choreographers whose work I wanted to see more of, and when I started making my own work, I realized that it was difficult to find places to perform it. One day, I called a friend who's also Caribbean, and we got to talking, and he said, "Oh, I was having the same idea!" We had a meeting, right then and there, outlining a bunch of things that we were interested in making happen. That was the beginning, last December.

EYA: What kind of visibility would you like to see for Caribbean dance artists?

CT: Contemporary dance isn't necessarily interwoven into our Caribbean culture. It's hard to connect with audience members who might possibly appreciate the work. We are interested in taking our work to the community, to people who share our background and heritage, getting them to know about us and invest in us creating work.

EYA: Do you feel that there's a kind of stereotype or a box that Caribbean artists are put into?

CT: To a certain extent. Because a lot of Caribbean work--and this, of course, is a generalization--infuses a lot of concepts and ideas from our culture, folkloric culture, movement and vocabulary, with contemporary dance, it's just hard to put that next to traditional modern dance or contemporary downtown dance. It's hard for people to see them in the same way. It becomes hard to put that on stage in venues that are widely known for producing modern or contemporary work. It gets written off as fusion or whatever term people use when they don't know how to categorize something.

For me, it's still contemporary dance. It's just coming from where I come from, from my background, my nationality. It's like when Urban Bush Women or other companies do work that is part of the diaspora. For some reason it gets separated from contemporary dance because it has this diasporic angle.

Caribbean artists, to a large extent--and, again, I am generalizing--see identity as being a large part of how we think about ourselves. So, a lot of times, work becomes about identity, but Caribbean artists make other kinds of work, too. It gets tricky when people can't see past [identity]. Why can't that work be alongside any other work?

EYA: So far, who's involved and how are they working within the COLLECTIVE?

CT: We had our first meeting in April and decided that we would do a show. I asked people I knew to submit work for the show in June--"New Traditions: A Showcase for Caribbean Choreographers"--at St. Francis College in Brooklyn. We had works by Beatrice Capote, Shola K. Roberts, Maxine Montilus, Alicia C. Dellimore, Davalois Fearon, Adia Whitaker and myself, and it went really well. People gave of their time.

After the show, we met again to begin to solidify the structure, form a community board where people would have positions for a year and, at the end of the year, we might see who would want to serve in a new role or who else would want to volunteer their time.

Right now, I'm the Executive Director. Maxine Montilus and Marguerite Hemmings are co-directors. There are also people doing marketing, research and the like, although those positions have not yet been solidified.

About Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE

Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE is a representative body that facilitates and promotes Caribbean Dance, Caribbean Dancers and those that present and practice Caribbean dance forms and/or deal with Caribbean content.

The COLLECTIVE aims to:

* Create a platform for Contemporary Caribbean Dance Practitioners, Dancers, Choreographers, Dance Scholars to network, communicate and share resources

* Representative body for Caribbean Diasporic Dance in the NYC Area community

*Create an information hub listing classes, events, performances, teaching opportunities and other resources for Caribbean artists and dancers in the NYC

* Share information on events happening within the Diaspora worldwide

* Support the creation of new works by Caribbean Artists that represent our Contemporary experiences

* Support newly arriving artists from the Caribbean to NYC/USA

CT: For next year, our goals include designing a curriculum based around Caribbean heritage that we can take into schools through residencies. We will train artists so that they can get more work and be directly involved in the community through the schools.

We also want to start master classes in the city over the next year, bringing Caribbean artists, like Cynthia Oliver, who have extensive experience in this contemporary dance work. Also, we want to start a choreographers task force so that we can plan the year of performances together and support one another in producing and presenting our shows.

EYA: Do you see an eventual path towards establishing relationships with contemporary dance presenters and venues around the city?

CT: I would like that, when what we could do with one of these venues would be mutually beneficial. Right now, it's probably better for us to collaborate with smaller arts organizations. We self-produced our first show in collaboration with the Caribbean Cultural Theatre.

EYA: You're a dancer performing in your own work and those of other companies; a dance instructor and fitness trainer, teaching in various venues around town; and now you're leading this burgeoning organization. How do you manage your time and priorities?

CT: I never really had an option to do less. I guess because I'm an immigrant. The stakes are higher. If this fails, I have to go back to Trinidad to a life that I haven't lived for ten years! I've always had to do more, find more, create what I didn't have.

It's possible because I have people around me who really support me and believe in the work that I do. My family in Trinidad are extremely supportive. And there are people that I have been fortunate to meet here, like Sydnie Mosley and Andre Zachery, the companies I've worked with. Bringing ideas or reaching out to people on my behalf or sitting down to help me write proposals. By no means has it been a single-handed effort. I am only able to do it because other people are involved.

EYA: How did you get started in dance...and why dance?

CT: My mom put me in dance classes when I was five. She’d always wanted to get involved with dance, but her mom was a single parent. It was hard for them, schedule-wise and financially. But when she was able to, she put me in, and I never really turned back.

What attracted me to dance is that it was always a challenge, always something new to learn. You never really arrive!

*****

Candace Thompson will present Colliding Scopes/Circles of Inquiry, a new duet (with Nehemoyia Young) as part of the "Dapline! Five on the Black Hand Side" series at University Settlement on July 31. For complete information and ticketing for Dapline!, click here.

Contact Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE: Click!

Candace Thompson
(photo: Rachel Neville)

Candace Thompson, a Trinidad and Tobago native, is a dancer, choreographer and certified fitness professional, specializing in personal training and group fitness. Her dance training is extensive, beginning in Trinidad and Tobago, where she received instruction in modern dance and ballet, at La Danse Caraibe under Heather Henderson-Gordon. She is a graduate of Adelphi University's BFA in Dance with the Ruth St. Denis Award for excellence from the dance department, and has gone on to perform Afro-Caribbean, Classical Modern, Modern/Contemporary, Contemporary/Floor Technique, Jazz, Soca and West African.

She has worked with several companies in Trinidad and Tobago including Trinity Dance Theater, Astor Johnson Repertory Dance Company and Elle NYTT (for Machel Montano HD) as well as US based companies and choreographers including, Andrea E. Woods-Valdez, Andre Zachery, Christal Brown, David Gordon, Forces of Nature Dance Theater, Germaul Barnes, Leda Meredith, Lynn Parkerson, Makeda Thomas, Sita Frederick, Sydnie L. Mosley and Trebien Pollard.

Candace is driven to perform work that is challenging both physically and emotionally, and is always seeking new performance opportunities and experiences to hone her skills. She currently performs with Areytos Performance Works, Elle NYTT, Renegade Performance Group, Sydnie L. Mosley Dances and in her own solo performance work ContempoCaribe. Candace looks forward to adding to the dance landscape in the U.S. and the Caribbean, through her latest collaborative initiative, Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE, and to deepening her mastery in performance.

Candace's career in fitness began haphazardly in high school, where she entered and won the aerobic burnout competition. She has since become an IFTA certified Group Fitness Leader, ACE certified Personal Trainer, Int. Pilates Mat instructor, TRX® Suspension Trainer, TRX® Rip Trainer, TRX® FORCE certified instructor and a Level 1 Kettlebell Concepts Instructor. Candace has taught at gyms around NYC including, Harbor Fitness, Lucille Roberts, Fluid Fitness NY, New You Fitness and Crown Heights Yoga & FItness. Currently, Candace does in-home training for clients in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, and teaches Soca Dance at Mark Morris Dance Center.