The Jamaica Dance Festival 2022 – A Celebration of Jamaica’s Rich Dance Legacy and Its Dynamic Future

FANIKE! AFRICAN DANCE TROUPE + NAVATMAN DANCE

FANIKE! African Dance Troupe is an African dance company that embraces and respects the dance, rhythm, historic and growing culture tied to African movement. Our mission is to perpetuate the survival of African and African Diaspora culture and arts through dance and percussion presentation. We encourage the exchange of passion, wisdom and knowledge of African arts within our communities, especially between the elders and their juniors. For the last 14 years, FANIKE! artists have come together to provide cultural presentations in southeast Queens, in the greater Jamaica area, and throughout the New York City metropolitan area.

Omar Edwards + VENZA DANCE / Quaba V. Ernest + Jeremy McQueen’s Black Iris Project

Quaba Venza Ernest born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He began his dance training at Dance Theatre of Harlem under the direction of Arthur Mitchell & Robert Garland. Continuing at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts, and SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance. There he was selected as a recipient of an Adopt-A-Dancer Scholarship and was awarded the 2019 Thayer Fellowship in the Arts for Dance & Choreography. He began his career with Ballet BC for their 2019/2020 season. He has danced in works by Kimberly Bartosik, George Balanchine, Ronald K. Brown, Sidra Bell,

valerie green/DANCE ENTROPY

HOME, is an international cross-collaborative dance project featuring choreographers from six countries including Sweden (Maria Naidu), India (Ashley Lobo), Burkina Faso (Souleyman Badalo), Colombia (Paola Ramirez Lopez), Lebanon (Bassam Abou Diab) and the USA, with Dance Entropy’s Artistic Director, Valerie Green. These commissioned world re-known choreographers were brought to NYC to work with VG/DE company members in two- week residencies to create a dance work exploring what home means to them from their country of origin. The full evening presenting this work explores identity, culture, environment, ritual, history, and community.

BALLET NEPANTLA + WHITE WAVE YOUNG SOON KIM DANCE COMPANY + Earl mosley's diversity of dance

Ballet Nepantla originated from a series of pláticas between founders Andrea Guajardo and Martín Rodríguez, two artists whose early professional identities emerged from distinct genres: Andrea from classical ballet and contemporary dance, and Martin from traditional Mexican folklórico. They envisioned a new form of expression that fused the two modalities, and they envisioned an aesthetic that would speak to the historical, cultural, and social realities of a broader narrative of being Mexican, Mexican American, immigrant, and trans-cultural. Drawing inspiration from Gloria

FANIKE! AFRICAN DANCE TROUPE + NAVATMAN DANCE

Omar Edwards + VENZA DANCE / Quaba V. Ernest + Jeremy McQueen’s Black Iris Project

valerie green/DANCE ENTROPY

BALLET NEPANTLA + WHITE WAVE YOUNG SOON KIM DANCE COMPANY + Earl mosley's diversity of dance

Rufus King Park is the exclusive home of The Jamaica Dance Festival.