In Person
$35
For Class & Party
12:30 - 2:30pm Dance Workshop with Jean-René Delsoin and Robenson Mathurin
2:30 - 5:00pm Celebration with Julio Jean and Chokomanba Band. Kompa lesson with Maxine Montilus and Robenson Mathurin.
The two hour Haitian Folklore dance workshop covers the dance forms performed to polyrhythmic Haitian drumming, including the dance of Petro" The dance of Petro came into being at the Bois Caïman ritual building up to the Haitian Revolution. It is the dance of enslaved people transformed into warriors through spiritual and physical strength to attain freedom. Petro is a fire dance celebrating unity in the fight for independence against French Imperialism.
Petro dance incorporates opposition, and has a tone of strength. Accompanied by the communicative power of drumming
Stay for the Celebration of Bois Caiman - Julio Jean & Chokomanba Band will be playing to commemorate the voodoo ceremony which launched the Haitian Revolution. Learn Kompa in a demo class from Maxine Montilus & Robenson Mathurin!
Jean-René Delsoin was born in Port-au-Prince and began dance studies in Haiti, followed by training at the National School Dance of Jamaica, and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center among other prestigious institutions. His international dance credits include appearances with American choreographer Kevin Iega Jeff’s Jubilations!, and a two-year Latin American tour with Dominican singer Angela Carrasco. In 1987, Mr. Delsoin founded and co-directed Artcho Danse Repertoire and its affiliate school. In 2004, he ventured out on his own to form the Jean-René Delsoin Dance Center, as well as a company project now called the Compagnie de Danse Jean-René Delsoin (COJRD). COJRD brings the richness of cultural expression and dances in Haiti to the world. It aims to bridge diverse communities worldwide by creating and producing dances of the highest level of artistry and versatility. For Mr. Delsoin, dance is as borderless as the dancing body is both particular and universal. Dance is accessible to all: its messages resonate in Haiti and in all reaches of the globe. Fifty works by Mr. Delsoin and five choreographers from Haiti and abroad utilize modern, jazz and contemporary dance techniques and traditional Haitian dance vocabularies. These dance performances explore quotidian practices and concerns in Haiti alongside universal themes. The fusion of techniques in COJRD champions Haiti now: it is the vision of a contemporary Haitian who nurtures his traditions and mores while living in the present and bracing what the future holds.
Julio Jean is a renowned master Haitian dance teacher and choreographer. He blends traditional Haitian forms with modern and contemporary dance to create compelling movement narratives. His extensive career of over 20 years includes work with Katherine Dunham and performances of his company’s choreographies at Alvin Ailey and Central Park’s Summer Stage. Julio studied with Lavinia Williams, a company member of Katherine Dunham, at the National School of Arts in Haiti. In 1989, he moved to New York City and worked directly with Katherine Dunham, teaching traditional Haitian dance for her teacher training. He has been a guest teacher at Webster University in Saint Louis and Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany; and has taught workshops in San Francisco, Milwaukee, and at the Dance New England Dance Camp in Poland, Maine. Currently, Julio teaches in New York City and at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Julio is also a songwriter and composer of traditional Haitian music; he released the album: “Kenbe la,” which encompasses the panorama of traditional Haitian music.
Photo by CJArtPhotographie (2019)
Robenson Mathurin is a professional Haiti-based dance artist performing, choreographing, and teaching Haitian Folklore, Contemporary, Modern, Jazz, and Afro-based dance styles. Since 2012, he has been a principal dancer in the international Compagnie de Danse Jean Rene Delsoin, based in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, through which he has toured in the USA, Trinidad, and Taiwan. In 2017, he created the platform "Robenson Dance & Fitness" to support better health and dance training in Haiti and abroad. His goal is to spread joy by building awareness of Afro-diaspora dance and exchanging with fellow dance artists in this industry.
The History
On August 14th, 1791 The Haitian Revolution began with the Bois Caïman ceremony. Enslaved people led by Cécile Fatiman and Boukman Dutty met in Morne-Rouge to prepare. “Upon a given signal, the plantations would be systematically set aflame, and a generalized slave insurrection set afoot.”
The Bois Caïman ceremony takes place in a thickly wooded area where the slaves solemnize their pact in a voodoo ritual. Voodoo, both a sacred dance and a religion, was expressly forbidden in the French colonies, and from the very beginning, the colonists tried in vain to crush it. Voodoo prevailed despite the whites’ efforts, nurtured in secret by the colony’s first slaves. Voodoo dance, music and prayer played a distinct role in helping these leaders successfully unite a vast network of Africans, mulattoes, maroons, commandeurs, house slaves, field slaves, and free blacks.
During European colonialism and the Haitian revolution Voodoo played a singular role for slaves. Despite rigid prohibitions, voodoo was indeed one of the few areas of totally autonomous activity for the African slaves. As a religion and a vital spiritual force, it was a source of psychological liberation in that it enabled them to express and reaffirm that self-existence they objectively recognized through their own labor . . . Voodoo further enabled the slaves to break away psychologically from the very real and concrete chains of slavery and to see themselves as independent beings; in short it gave them a sense of human dignity and enabled them to survive.
During the revolution Voodoo brought together disparate forces in the colony, uniting various rebel factions to fight side by side. Voodoo today is still a significant and rich part of many Haitians’ daily lives and one of the many examples of how African diasporic practices have long been powerful forms of resistance against racial oppression, as well as joyful celebrations of have long been powerful forms of resistance against social disintegration and racial oppression, as well as joyful celebrations of individual and community strength and transformation.