An ex­cit­ing slate of 21 in­ter­na­tion­al chore­o­g­ra­phers will light up the stage at Queen’s Hall as the CO­CO Dance Fes­ti­val re­turns to in per­son-per­for­mances from Sat­ur­day - Sun­day (Oc­to­ber 29 - 30) at 6 pm, fol­low­ing a two-year piv­ot to on­line-on­ly shows, dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

Live and “dance on film” per­for­mances from Ja­maica, Bar­ba­dos, the USA and Mex­i­co, along with some of the very best from T&T will once again put the spot­light on con­tem­po­rary dance and the chore­o­g­ra­phers who dri­ve it.

As part of the Fes­ti­val, CO­CO will be ho­n­our­ing the work of the late As­tor John­son, whose com­pa­ny, The As­tor John­son Reper­to­ry Dance The­atre, is cel­e­brat­ing its 50th an­niver­sary and will per­form the 1979 clas­sic, Stay Up Zim­bab­we—one of John­son’s ear­ly works which has been per­formed at home and abroad to stand­ing ova­tions and crit­i­cal ac­claim.

Overcoming by Terry Springer.

Edison Boodoosingh

The Reper­to­ry Dance The­atre will al­so present a work­shop for younger gen­er­a­tions of dancers to un­der­stand John­son’s tech­nique and phi­los­o­phy of dance.

Oth­er on-stage per­for­mances in­clude Over­com­ing—a com­men­tary on fac­ing ad­ver­si­ty and bounc­ing back, chore­o­graphed by Trinida­di­an-born Ter­ry Springer—a high­ly-ac­claimed in­ter­na­tion­al dance artist who chore­o­graphed per­for­mances at the open­ing cer­e­mo­ny of Car­ifes­ta XIV in 2019; while De­on Bap­tiste’s Trib­ute to OYA!, will cel­e­brate the pow­er­ful fe­male or­isha god­dess of wind, change and trans­for­ma­tion, in a per­for­mance that mix­es mod­ern and folk, as it delves in and out of au­then­tic Orisa move­ments.

Al­so on stage will be Kon­flikt II•IV. by Mex­i­can-Amer­i­can chore­o­g­ra­ph­er, Daniel Gar­cia, which ex­plores the in­ti­ma­cy and pow­er of hu­man con­nec­tiv­i­ty, jux­ta­posed against the dis­com­fort of be­ing con­strict­ed by it.

The dance on film per­for­mances, which will be screened each evening, in­clude: Mind­ing the Void, by US chore­o­g­ra­ph­er Tate J Navar­ro,—a piece which in­ter­ro­gates what it might look like if the feel­ings we keep bot­tled up, fi­nal­ly got a mo­ment in the light.