Khara Per­sad

Think en­er­gy. Think elec­tri­fy­ing.

That is go­ing to be the vibe at to­mor­row's open­ing of the first ever col­lab­o­ra­tive dance pro­duc­tion of Fun­da­cion Coreoarte, a Venezue­lan dance com­pa­ny, and T&T's No­ble Dou­glas Dance Com­pa­ny Inc (ND­D­CI).

The pro­duc­tion Ve­ci­nos...We Are Neigh­bours is a cross-cul­tur­al col­lab­o­ra­tion be­tween two of the re­gion's fore­most con­tem­po­rary dance com­pa­nies that will de­but to­mor­row at the Queen's Hall.

Char­lene Har­ris, as­sis­tant artis­tic di­rec­tor at ND­D­CI, gushed with ex­cite­ment over the phone on Wednes­day af­ter­noon, as she was on her way to col­lect the Venezue­lan dancers from the air­port.

"They are very ex­cit­ed to get here, and we are hap­py to work with them," she said.

Pa­trons can ex­pect mod­ern con­tem­po­rary dances from both com­pa­nies, as well as spec­tac­u­lar fu­sions of mod­ern with tra­di­tion­al Venezue­lan folk dance from Coreoarte.

Har­ris went on to de­scribe oth­er unique com­bi­na­tions, in­clud­ing bal­let and jazz as well as post-mod­ern dances.

"The en­er­gy is go­ing to be elec­tric," Har­ris promised.

Added to that, Coreoarte will be host­ing two, two-hour work­shops that will be open to the pub­lic and oth­er dance schools to at­tend.

Har­ris added that the ND­D­CI plans to vis­it Venezuela next year to al­so put on a work­shop.

"We are hop­ing that this is the be­gin­ning of a very long re­la­tion­ship," she said.

Per­form­ing on Sat­ur­day is T&T's Ter­ry Springer, one of Coreoarte's lead dancers, teach­ers and re­hearsal di­rec­tors. His port­fo­lio is ex­ten­sive, as he has danced in the an­nu­al Best Vil­lage Folk Com­pe­ti­tion, the ND­D­CI, Caribbean School of Danc­ing, and the Bent­ley Pot­ter School of Dance. Har­ris said Springer will per­form the so­lo piece in Al­lan Bal­four's Red Clay–a bal­let and jazz fu­sion piece.

The ND­D­CI falls un­der the No­ble Dou­glas Lil­liput Foun­da­tion for the Arts' (NDL­FA's) and its founder was al­so hap­py about the in­com­ing danc­ing vis­i­tors.

"We are ex­cit­ed to wel­come our Venezue­lan neigh­bours. These types of col­lab­o­ra­tions in­spire growth and de­vel­op­ment. We look for­ward to Ve­ci­nos birthing clos­er ties and work in the fu­ture," Dou­glas, NDL­FA's founder and artis­tic di­rec­tor said in a press re­lease.

The prospect of shar­ing dance moves and ideas al­so ex­cit­ed Har­ris, who said this event was the start of fu­ture col­lab­o­ra­tive events and work­shops.

If you can't make it on Sat­ur­day, there will be an en­core per­for­mance on Sun­day.

IN­FO BOX

Tick­ets cost $250 for the low­er house and $200 for the up­per house and are avail­able at Cros­by's Mu­sic Cen­tre, St. James and the Queen's Hall box of­fice.