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Some of the 600 or so audience members piling into the Little Theatre at dawn on Easter morning doubtlessly thought of missing their regular church service later in the day with the excuse they had already worshipped. Some pastors might’ve even bestowed forgiveness on hearing that the “service” there contained no less than 13 God-centred messages. (That was more than my own church service at 9 o’clock was to have.)
The 6 to 7:10 a.m. Little Theatre event last Sunday was actually a particularly spiritual 44th anniversary Morning of Movement & Music staged by the National Dance Theatre Company (NDTC). Only one of its 14 items didn’t reference God.
It was the third one, an excerpt from Rex Nettleford’s 1998 dance Ritual of the Sunrise. Still, the piece is set in the heavens, and the dancers could represent both clouds and angels, being all in white and moving silently in front of a sky-blue backdrop. The silence, and the gracefulness, were surprising because the movement was generally rapid – what with the dancers running or undulating on and off the stage, with lots of twirling, leaping and falling to the floor. The inciting music was by Virginia Rodrigues.
The grace and superb physical control that the dancers showed throughout the concert was indicated from the first dance, Artistic Director Marlon Simms’ Opening Hymn, which had the music to an ancient Irish hymn. The beauty of the voices of the NDTC Singers (directed by Dr Kathy Brown) was hinted at in the second item, Faith Livingston’s heartfelt solo Ride on King Jesus, a Negro Spiritual.
As most of the pieces had been seen or heard before, the new ones were of special interest. The first of those was dance captain Paul Newman’s 2025 piece Panin El Panim, which was performed partly to speech. The words, written by company dancer Phillip Earle, were recorded by Dr Michael Holgate.
Reassuringly, they spoke of God being always ready to help us and complemented the dance’s theme published in the programme: “The vulnerability and courage to be truly honest with ourselves and with God. Shedding pretence, seeking divine guidance, and finding strength in that honesty as we confront life’s challenges.”
The seven dancers, all in earth brown costumes, showed quite a turn for gymnastics and the piece ended with one dancer being elevated above the others. It was not clear who the soloist, Tajay Henry, represented; his costume did not distinguish him from the others.
This year’s spoken word segment was movingly delivered by theatre practitioner and television and radio host Dahlia Harris. She is an accomplished writer but the programme names no writer of the poem she read, He Rose in Love, about Jesus’ resurrection.
The third 2025 item, Clipped and Fallen, was choreographed by company dancer Mattu Perry. It has two movements, Fall From Grace and Maimed Wings. Despite the title and the fact that it begins and ends with men carrying the awkwardly positioned bodies of female dancers, most of the dance is celebratory, with lots of joyous leaping and extensions of limbs.
Its images were reminiscent of an earlier dance, Kerry-Ann Henry’s Eli Eli (2016). The piece, which features Henry and Newman, was choreographed to the song T he Hanging Tree and portrays the dancers moving in pain and anguish. It ends with Newman awkwardly carrying Henry from the stage.
While the dances occasionally showed the distressing side of human existence, the singers and musicians as a group remained upbeat throughout. They performed with the dancers in Henry’s 2016 work, Haven, and sang I Speak Jesus, You Made a Way, and Our Father – arranged by past musical director, Marjorie Whylie, who was in the audience – before teaming up with the dancers again for the closing piece.
As usual, the concert got more and more cheerful the closer it got to the end, and by the time the show closed – with the Nettleford-Noel Dexter creation of Psalm 150, as usual – all was sweetness and light. Shining white outfits on both leaping dancers and swaying singers bounced brightness into the applauding audience.
The snatches of conversations one heard were mostly about the pleasures of the show, though some patrons mentioned breakfast and church. If Simms is like most artistic directors, he would’ve been thinking about the NDTC’s next show, their 63rd annual season of dance from July 10 to August 10 at the Little Theatre.
English (US) ·