Earl Jarrett, head of JNBS.

Jamaica National Building Society billed as 'the largest building society in the Caribbean' has extended itself into the theatre arts in its commissioning of works by the Caribbean most celebrated dance-theatre ensemble, the National Dance Theatre Company (NDTC), of Jamaica.

The arts and culture and entertainment industries have been the beneficiaries of Jamaican private sector support for decades. JNBS has once again extended its sponsorship to the NDTC of Jamaica by commissioning a new work created for the 2006 season of dance running at the Little Theatre, Tom Redcam Drive, St. Andrew, until Sunday and sponsoring the remounting of a masterwork "Blood Canticles".

Explores music and movement

The new work Variations A Ska, choreographed by Chris Walker, one of the new-generation dancers and choreographers working with the NDTC. The dance-work explores the music and movement qualities that emerged from one of the most lasting and exciting periods of experimentation and exploration in Jamaican contemporary popular music. That the form remains a thing for all seasons is marked by the continuing popularity of the music all over the world, with a recent resurgence in Europe and North America as well as in certain quarters here in Jamaica due, according to afficenados, to the integrity and aesthetic weight of the music.

JNBS first commissioned an NDTC work in 2005 when it made the creation and mounting of Odyssey (choreographed by artistic director Rex Nettleford), in tribute to the great reggae icon Robert Nesta (Bob) Marley and which won enthusiastic audience acclaim. The new commission - Variations A Ska - will travel with the NDTC on its projected tour to Panama after the season closes here.

JNBS has for some time responded enthusiastically to the artistic output of Jamaica and the great attraction it has among people in the Jamaican diaspora on both sides of the Atlantic where JNBS is well known and operates. The building society joins such other private sector organisations as Carreras which commissioned the ancestral Kumina way back in 1971 and the former Eagle Merchant Bank Ltd. which in 1983 made possible in the creation of another favourite from the roots Gerreh-benta as well.