CHARLES KONG SOO

charles.kong­soo@guardian.co.tt

The As­tor John­son Reper­to­ry Dance The­atre (AJRDT) of T&T–found­ed by the late dancer, artis­tic di­rec­tor, chore­o­g­ra­ph­er, and Hum­ming­bird Gold Medal Awardee As­tor John­son–marks 50 years this year.

As part of its 50th An­niver­sary cel­e­bra­tions and in ho­n­our of John­son, the group is hav­ing a dance event ti­tled “For As­tor–50th An­niver­sary” at Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s, on Sep­tem­ber 16, 17 and 18.

Look­ing from a wider win­dow of dance through the eyes of John­son, the group will “Awake his Lega­cy.”.

The AJRDT founder is recog­nised as one of the fore­most Caribbean chore­o­g­ra­phers, and the work done by the dance the­atre has re­ceived na­tion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al ac­claim.

Over the last sev­en years, the AJRDT has been fo­cus­ing on high­light­ing the pro­found and time­less work of its founder to young peo­ple, the di­as­po­ra and the in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty, through week­ly class­es and re­hearsals of John­son’s pieces, per­for­mances, sym­posia, the host­ing of school work­shops and so­cial me­dia ex­changes.

The management team of The Astor Johnson Repertory Dance Theatre of T&T from left to right, Kyle Young, Terry Springer, Stephen Seepaul, Marlon Phillip. Seated from left to right, Susan Shurland, Joanna Charles, Allison Seepaul, and Roxanne Fung.

This up­com­ing pro­duc­tion con­tin­ues the mis­sion to share John­son’s work with the world by show­cas­ing his chore­og­ra­phy through gen­er­a­tions of dancers com­mit­ted to the com­pa­ny and his lega­cy.

Au­di­ences will ex­pe­ri­ence ful­ly-staged re­mounts of works like “Stay Up, Zim­bab­we”, “Grave­yard For The Liv­ing”, “Fu­sion”, and sec­tions of As­tor’s Bob Mar­ley suite, as well as the pre­miere of brand-new works by com­pa­ny mem­bers.

AJRDT Di­rec­tor Al­li­son Seep­aul said “Al­though As­tor John­son passed away in 1985, his work con­tin­ues, it is time­less and has more rel­e­vance in to­day’s world.

“The ob­jec­tives of the com­pa­ny re­main the same; to con­tin­ue re­search in­to our folk­loric tra­di­tions, to ex­pose our work na­tion­al­ly and in­ter­na­tion­al­ly, and above all, to ce­ment our­selves as a peo­ple through the medi­um of dance, our most nat­ur­al form of self-ex­pres­sion.

“Mem­bers of the man­age­ment team are al­so dancers as well, they are known in the field of dance per­for­mance and al­so ed­u­ca­tion.

“Some of them are Rox­anne Fung, Joan­na Charles, Mar­lon Philip and Ter­ry Springer. “

She said the group al­so had young dancers from the UTT and lead drum­mer Steve James, plus bands of drum­mers will al­so be per­form­ing at the three-day event.

Seep­aul said that it was a team ef­fort by mem­bers of the group to put on the show, in­clud­ing the tech­ni­cal co­or­di­na­tor re­spon­si­ble for light­ing, sound, and man­age­ment of the stage, Stephen Seep­aul and oth­er man­age­ment team mem­bers such as Su­san Shur­land and Kyle Young.

Per­former, chore­o­g­ra­ph­er, teacher, film­mak­er and writer Son­ja Du­mas has been a per­form­ing mem­ber of AJRDT since 1986 wear­ing dif­fer­ent hats such as artis­tic di­rec­tor, pro­duc­er, and his­to­ri­an of the com­pa­ny re­spond­ed that there are over 20 peo­ple in the group, the work of the chore­o­g­ra­phers will fig­ure promi­nent­ly in the shows.

Drummers from The Astor Johnson Repertory Dance Theatre of T&T.

She shared that John­son’s chore­og­ra­phy will be high­light­ed in much of the work that will be seen from his well-known and beloved clas­sics, such as ex­cerpts from Trib­ute To A King, which was chore­o­graphed af­ter the death of Bob Mar­ley.

Du­mas con­tin­ued John­son’s oth­er works such as “Grave­yard For The Liv­ing”, which dealt with the per­ils of in­car­cer­a­tion still rel­e­vant to­day, and a his­tor­i­cal jour­ney in­to the lib­er­a­tion of Rhode­sia when it be­came Zim­bab­we is high­light­ed in “Stay Up Zim­bab­we.”

Re­gard­ing the all-time favourite “Fu­sion”, the com­pa­ny’s sig­na­ture piece, she de­scribed it as a mix­ture of jazz styles and tra­di­tion­al African-Caribbean move­ments and was orig­i­nal­ly arranged by the late An­dré Tanker.

The show

“For As­tor–50th An­niver­sary” per­for­mances at Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s:

*School Show–Fri­day, Sep­tem­ber 16 from 10 am $50

*Gala/Per­for­mance night–Sat­ur­day, Sep­tem­ber 17 from 6 pm $250

*Per­for­mance night–Sun­day, Sep­tem­ber 18 from 7 pm $150 For in­for­ma­tion and tick­ets, con­tact: in­fo@reptt.com