National Dance Theatre Company (NDTC) 46th Season of Dance, held at Little Theatre, Tom Redcam Drive on Saturday July 26. The dance "Millennial Beings". - Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer

KUMINA, The ancestral dance, is back on the boards for the National Dance Theatre Company's (NDTC) 46th Season of Dance which is now on at the Little Theatre, Tom Redcam Drive.

Based on the African-Jamaican kikongo ceremony, the rites are held for occasions such as mourning, tombing, healing and thanksgiving. In addition, the traditional dance is enacted when help is needed to win a court case or for winning a lover. And, its practice is found in St Thomas.

Scholars

Kumina has attracted many studies by scholars such as Edward Seaga, Maureen Warner Lewis, Olive Lewin and Kamau Brathwaite as well as choreographer Rex Nettleford who in 1971 exposed the entire company of dancers, singers and drummers to the ceremony in Seaforth.

The signature piece of the NDTC and arguably the most performed dance-work in the repertoire, Kumina enjoys continuing sponsorship from Carreras Limited which first commissioned it in 1971. This means that none of the artists performing it now were even born at the time.

The season continues until August 24 to be followed by a tour to The Bahamas.