Two of a kind

“Two dance companies one great show,” is how Nancy Herrera, artistic director of Metamorphosis, sees the production which opens the company’s 2017 dance season.

“It is a curated show where the companies present various choreographers who work with them,” Herrera shared with Sunday Newsday.

The history of Herrera and Trinidad-born London, the artistic director of Global Dance Company, goes back to the 1970s when they were trained by Pat Roe at the Caribbean School of Dancing.

London’s company features performers from the Caribbean, United States and other nationalities.

“What is interesting about Peter’s work,” said Herrera, “is that it is influenced by who he is, being from the Caribbean and having New York connections, his work has all the things that have gone into his background and reflects his journey, starting as an acclaimed dancer in the Caribbean and now internationally.” London extended an early welcome to audiences “to what we hope is our first annual cultural exchange season”.

“We are grateful and happy to be invited by Metamorphosis to share this special home-coming programme with her dancers. We are inspired by Ms Herrera’s support,” he said. London’s company receives tremendous support from arts foundations including The Knight Foundation, The Miami Foundation, Legal Link Cannon Ball and The Little Haiti Cultural Center as well as the Miami-Dade College/New World School of the Arts.

Herrera was also grateful to London for supporting Metamorphosis, when as an associate artistic director of the Martha Graham Company he gave the company the opportunity to perform one of his choreographies, Steps in the Street, in 2007.

“It was the first time that a Caribbean company performed a Graham piece,” said Herrera, who also noted the piece was in tribute to the Caribbean School of Dancing’s 40th anniversary. “This ranks for us as one of our great achievements.” For Metamorphosis’s segment of Two of a Kind, Herrera has five choreographers creating numbers to live musical accompaniment. “This makes it very interesting because in professional theatre you often have an orchestra that accompanies the dance so this makes the big difference. Special thanks to Dominique Le Gendre for the gift of her musical score, Songs and dances of the islands.” Herrera’s University of Trinidad and Tobago colleagues are also part of the musical and design cast.

They include Yevgeny Dokshansky on clarinet, Caitlyn Kamminga on double bass and Hayward Mickens on piano with set design by Edwin Erminy.

In one performance, Dokshansky will be accompanied by Aidan Chamberlain on trombone.

Herrera continues to think outside the box for dance in this country. Seven years ago, together with Sonja Dumas, Dave Williams and Nicole Wesley, Herrera founded the Contemporary Dance Collective and the annual CoCo Dance Festival which showcases cutting edge contemporary dance choreography of local and international choreographers.