New generation of dancers of the NDTC caught in performance in New York. The work is 'Spirits at a Gathering', choreographed by Rex Nettleford and dressed by designer Aelene Richards.
JAMAICA'S NATIONAL Dance Theatre Company (NDTC) returned recently from New York after six performances to some 9,000 school-age children and two capacity-house audiences in the 2,500-seat Whitman Hall Theatre of the Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts.
Since the late 1970s the NDTC has been appearing in this theatre every two years, attracting many from the Jamaican and West Indian
diaspora in Brooklyn and other New York boroughs.
As is customary, the ancestral kumina attracted enthusiastic audience applause and standing ovations at the end of each showing. But shouts of approval greeted the solo 'Sweet in the Morning' danced by Marlon Simms, who actually reconstructed the work by labanotation from the choreography of the late Leni Wylliams.
Other dance-works winning strong were Jean-Guy Saintus' 'Incantation' based on Haitian
ritual and 'Sprits at a Gathering' based on a Pygmy-based musical score and choreographed by artistic director Rex Nettleford. Clive Thompson's 'Ode' done to the love songs by Bob Marley and dressed by his daughter Cedella joined Christopher Walker's 'Urban Fissure' in the use of contemporary Jamaican popular music.
The suite of songs from the Marley Song Book arranged by Marjorie Whylie ended with the popular One Love to tumultuous applause, as did the second suite of 'Money Songs', including Matilda, originally arranged for Harry Belafonte by songwriter Irvine Burgie who was in the audience the night it was rendered by the NDTC Singers.
The tour to New York is the first in the series of planned overseas visits for 2006/2007
