Hybrid
$20 In Person | $12 Online
Come celebrate life, fertility and death with Haiti’s raucous Gede spirits through song, dance and drums. During Fête Gede, Haiti’s Feast of the Dead, revelers dress up and dance to entice the spirits of the dead to celebrate with their living descendants. In this special workshop, you'll learn the traditional dances of Banda and Maskawon, mostly known as Yanvalou Gede in a dynamic one hour dance workshop led by Julio Jean.
To enhance the experience, we encourage you to wear black, white, purple or silver outfits and have props like a cane, dark glasses and tall black top hat.
About Gede: In the pantheon of Haitian Vodou, "Gede" names the family of raucous spirits who personify the ancestral dead and sexual regeneration. They are the guardians of the crossroads between life and death, memorable characters that mock man's inhibitions around sexuality with the most crude, comical and ‘inappropriate’ behavior. Kwa Simibo!
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 trainings. 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.
Alexandra Jean-Joseph is a dancer, educator and choreographer. Her passion for the beauty of Haiti’s culture led her to dance giant Mikerline Pierre, with whom she began her formal training of Haitian Folkloric Dance. Alexandra continued feeding her love for dance and soon became a principal dancer in Pierre’s company. In addition to her work with the Mikerline Dance Company, Alexandra continued her studies under Haitian dance master Julio Jean, who studied with Lavinia Williams and was a company member of Katherine Dunham at the National School of Arts in Haiti.
Alexandra has performed and collaborated with notable Haitian master instructors Nadia Dieudonné and Peniel Guerrier in addition to Jessica St. Vil Ulysse’s KaNu Dance Theater and Adia Whitaker’s neo-folkloric Ase Dance Theater Collective. In 2018, Alexandra co-founded Imamou Lele, an ensemble of dancers, vocalists and percussionists sewn together in the spirit of Haiti to promote and preserve the folkloric works of the island. As artistic director of Imamou Lele, Alexandra actively engages and collaborates with community partners to uplift and promote healing through offerings of dance and drum classes, workshops and performances.