The Dance & Performance Institute is gearing up for the 2nd New Waves! Institute in Port of Spain, Trinidad. To be held 18 July to 1 August 2012,  New Waves! offers intensive master classes and workshops in contemporary dance, Caribbean dance, composition and repertory with an outstanding faculty of international dance artists. Through informal dialogues and Institute programs, participants create community, build connections with other dance professionals, and experience the unique cultural landscape of Trinidad & Tobago. The program is being held at the University of Trinidad & Tobago, Academy for the Performing Arts, held within the National Academy of the Performing Arts in the heart of the nation’s capital, Port of Spain.

2012 NEW WAVES! FACULTY will see the return of Makeda Thomas, Chris Walker (on faculty at University of Wisconsin and long time member of the National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica), Ananya Chatterjea (2011 Guggenheim Fellow for Choreography), Dyane Harvey-Salaam (co-founder of NY’s Forces of Nature Dance Company), international hip-hop ambassador, Rennie Harris, Trinidad-based choreographer Sonja Dumas, and experimental performance artist, Akuzuru.

New additions to the faculty include the mighty Queen GodIs (who recently packed The Brooklyn Museum in an outstanding performance for the Elizabeth Sackler Feminist Art series), Bessie award-winner and former member of Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE, Shani Collins-Achille, Ras Mikey C (former principal with Pilobolus Dance Company), and playwright Tony Hall (who will lead a special 4-day workshop on Jouvay Process). The Folk Workshop Series include Trinidadian faculty, Emelda Lynch-Griffith and Gregor Breedy.

There are more exciting developments for New Waves! this year:

The New Waves! Commission Project will present Ananya Chatterjea’s Moreechika and Chris Walker’s Palm Oil Rosary for the International Choreographers Commission Program (ICCP) and Local Dance Commission Program, respectively.  The Local Dance Commission Program supports Caribbean-based choreographers to create and premiere new work during the Institute.  ICCP supports the creation of new dance work by international choreographers.  The project is developed in partnership with COCO – Contemporary Choreographers Collective. Performances will take place on Friday, 27 July and Saturday, 28 July 2012 at 8pm in The Dance Studio at the Academy for the Performing Arts. Limited seating is available.  Tickets are $150 TTD and can currently be purchased online at www.makedathomas.org/tickets.

The Pearl Primus Archive Project, which utilizes the archives of Dr. Pearl Primus as inspiration for generating original choreography, will be permanently installed at New Waves! The project will live as an embodied archive – in the corporeal and cultural terrains of the existing archives.  It is being directed by Ursula Payne and supported by the Pearl Primus Collection of the American Dance Festival Archive Collection with materials created or collected by Primus and by others dating from circa 1920 to 1994, including correspondence, writings, legal documents, research and teaching materials, clippings, programs, printed materials, photographs, sound recordings, films, videos, and artifacts.

The Studio Visit Series seeks to further connect the dance community of Trinidad & Tobago, with interactions hosted by some of the country’s dance-makers:  Noble Douglas Dance Company, Continuum Dance Project, Dave Williams, Heather Henderson-Gordon, Candace Clarke-Andelle, Elle NYTT, and Mundira Balkaransingh of Nathangalie.
The public is welcome to participate in New Waves! through these events:

The OPENING GALA at the Cloth: Join us as we celebrate the arrival of our faculty and participants with a joyous gathering!  Wednesday, 18 July at 8pm.  Music by DJ Shy Guy. The Cloth is located at 24 Erthig Road in Belmont, Port of Spain.
Commission Project Studio Performances:  Performances of “Moreechika” and “Palm Oil Rosary” will take place on Friday, 27 July and Saturday, 28 July 2012 at 8pm at The Dance Studio at the Academy for the Performing Arts.  Limited seating is available.  For additional info, visit www.makedathomas.org/tickets.

ROUNDTABLE SERIES: Transnational Body Histories & A Mapping of the Future and Contemporary Dance at Home and Abroad: New Perspectives in the Global Village will collectively focus on the diverse professional contemporary dance landscape in Trinidad & Tobago and its relationship with practices in the diaspora.  Saturday, 21 July and Saturday, 28 July from 9am – 12pm at Alice Yard. 80 Roberts Street at White Street in Woodbrook.

“Last year’s New Waves! Institute was a huge success,” says Director Makeda Thomas. “We’ve focused on creating new, bigger successes – the development of the Commission Project, with major goals to build the dance audience in Trinidad, and embedding more innovative programming across the board.  We’ve laid the foundation for something truly powerful and we’re committed to building on it.” In March, Thomas delivered “Making Stage”, a lecture on the development of the Institute at the University of the West Indies, Centre for Creative & Festival Arts as part of a course on “Cultural Organizations”. She also recently participated in the African Diaspora Dance Research Group at Duke University, in discussion of the Institute’s vision.

ABOUT THE INSTITUTE

The Dance & Performance Institute is an international community of dance and performance artists, a forum for exchange, and a series of programs on traditional and contemporary dance and performance. Since 2010, the Institute has engaged 300 people from around the world in groundbreaking programs which are a precedent in arts organization and community building in the Caribbean. The Dance & Performance Institute has forged partnerships and collaborations with leading cultural institutions in Trinidad & Tobago to extend its network and further its programs. Partnerships have included University of Trinidad & Tobago/Academy for the Performing Arts, National Dance Association, Studio 66, University of the West Indies, Centre for Creative Arts, Tobago Division of Culture, National Council on Indian Culture, COCO Dance Festival, Alice Yard and Trinidad Theatre Workshop.

The inaugural New Waves! SUMMER Institute was held in 2011 with 60 participants – from India, the United States, Canada, St. Croix, Jamaica, and Trinidad & Tobago. Over the course of two weeks, more than 108 classes workshops, programs and events took place. Since 2010, the Artist in Residence Program has hosted 20 international dance artists and scholars in self directed artist residencies. Many AIRs are experienced artists and scholars with PhDs in Theater Arts & Dance, Cultural Anthropology, Performance Studies, International Relations, and Critical Dance Studies. The program extended to include a writer and 2 accomplished photographers. More than 25 free public programs have been presented alongside the artist residencies, involving hundreds of participants from throughout Trinidad & Tobago.

In concert, the breadth of these programs render the Institute’s vision to position Trinidad & Tobago as an important site for thought and experimentation in contemporary dance and performance.  For further info on the Dance & Performance Institute, email .  For info on New Waves!, email Candace Thompson (Coordinator) at .

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