DCC Launches the New Traditions Choreographic Incubator Award & Caribbean Explorations Fellowship!
rooted in Cultural Leadership | Cyclical Sharing | Sankofa | Celebration | Innovation
Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE, moving to its 5th year, launches a new award program to support Caribbean artists and increase cultural production in Caribbean dance in New York City. DCC, best known for its New Traditions Festival – a high quality dance festival presenting the best in Caribbean dance in the diaspora, focuses this year on providing artists with resources and professional development. The program was created by the Founding Director, Trinidadian dancer and cultural producer, Candace Thompson-Zachery who is currently pursuing an MA in Performance Curation at Wesleyan University, alongside Assistant Director Safi Harriott, Jamaican choreographer and cultural researcher. Incubator awardees are provided with a stipend, no-cost rehearsal space, mentorship and a group showing that will take place on June 15th. Fellowship recipients work with DCC scholars to guide their conceptual research within Caribbean Culture as it pertains to their artistic work and to build community within the DCC network.
Incubator Awardees:
Sade Bully (Dominica, Jamaica, USA), Persephone DaCosta (USA/T&T), Kevin L. McEwen (USA/T&T), Gabriela Silva (Brazil/USA) and Maria Rivera (USA – Puerto Rico).
Caribbean Explorations Fellow:
Kyle Marshall (Jamaica – USA).
New Traditions Choreographic Incubator Artist Showcase
Saturday | June 15 | 5:30pm | Medgar Evers College Preparatory School | RSVP
Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE is pleased to invite you to the final sharing of works-in-progress by the awarded artists in the Incubator program. They will be sharing their work followed by immediate audience feedback. Join us to learn more about these artists and support their artistic journey.
Seats are extremely limited – RSVP early and with certainty.
Light refreshments will be served.
New Traditions Festival Incubator Award is sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC).
Meet the Artists
A West Indian native strongly influenced by the resilient, determined and prideful culture she knows. Her movement style embodies her innate Caribbean rhythms and sensibilities, fused with highly technical prowess developed through years of training in ballet, modern and contemporary techniques. Credits include principal dancer with the Company Dance Theater (Jamaica) and the world-renown Garth Fagan Dance. The NY Times describes her “razor-sharp extension and silky gusto”…as “elegance-the blazing sort.”; while the LA Times called her, “a captivating, versatile and resilient force.” Since 2017, Bully works as an independent artist and choreographer in the Caribbean region and internationally, intent on sharing her heritage through contemporary dance.
Persephone DaCosta is a renaissance woman whose passion for the arts and her community has led her to utilize dance; to preserve, educate and celebrate arts from Africa and the Caribbean Diaspora. Born of Trinidadian descent she is focused on traveling to the Caribbean and Africa to bring to life, “on stage” the commonalities of Caribbean Folk , Contemporary & Traditional African Dance. She is currently the founder and Artistic Director of Batingua Dance & Drums Productions LLC where her choreography focuses on West African, Trinidadian, Jamaican, and Haitian dances.
A native of Brooklyn, New York, Kevin is the Founder and Artistic Director of Kofago Dance Ensemble, based in Jamaica, New York. A graduate of the NYU’s Dance Education Graduate Program, His dance focus is in traditional West African dance techniques from the countries of Mali and Senegal. Kevin is also versed in Afro Cuban, Haitian Folkloric, and various Modern/Contemporary techniques. He is currently the West African dance instructor for the Gloria Eve School of the Performing Arts, and a Professor of Dance at Queensborough Community College
María “Mara” Rivera was born and raised in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico. She is a dance movement therapist, healer, and dancer living in Bronx, NY. She has presented choreographic work most recently with Afro-Inspira, Legacy Women, and Ase Dance Theatre Collective. Maria has traveled to Cuba, Dominican Republic, Trinidad, Jamaica, and Haiti to research traditional dance, which have highly contributed to her vision of incorporating Afro-Caribbean dance and African-based spiritual/healing principles into her psychotherapeutic practice, emphasizing its capacity to restore and maintain physical, emotional, and spiritual health
Gabriela Silva is a performer, choreographer, teacher and community organizer from Brazil, based in New York City. Through the guidance of many respected choreographers and educators, Gabriela has studied and performed across the United States and internationally. Influenced by cultural traditions from Africa and its Diaspora, she seeks to evoke the legacy of those who use culture as a means for unity, survival and revolution through her work. Gabriela has been a performer with Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance Group since 2016.
Dancer and Choreographer Kyle Marshall is a 2018 NY Dance and Performance “Bessie” Jury Award recipient and a NJ State Council of the Arts Fellow. His dance company, Kyle Marshall Choreography (KMC) has performed at venues including: Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out, Joe’s Pub at the Public, Actors Fund Arts Center, NYC Summerstage, and Wassaic Arts Project,. Commissions have included: “Dance on the Lawn” Montclair’s Dance Festival, NJPAC and Harlem Stage. Kyle currently dances with the Trisha Brown Dance Company and doug elkins choreography etc. Kyle is a graduate of Rutgers University with a BFA in Dance.
SUPPORT CARIBBEAN DANCE
Become a Patron of the New Traditions Incubator Award
These choreographers have been working consistently on stages and in communities both local and international, and share in the Collective’s mission, ‘to facilitate Contemporary Caribbean Dance Performance, preserve Cultural Legacy and promote Community Engagement.’
If you would like to support this trailblazing and important program monetarily, you can donate HERE.
DCC Sponsors + Partners
