National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica. - Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts, Brooklyn College, New York - dance reviews

Dance Magazine, March, 1995 by Katy Matheson

Jamaica is a nation of diverse influences; the National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica, founded in 1962, reflects many of them. In seeking a company style, director Rex Nettleford draws on his Oxford education, background as a choreographer of Christmas pantomimes, and knowledge as a political analyst and cultural historian.

The result is a group of works that combine theatricality and thought, enthusiasm and energy. His Ancestral Echoes (Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College, December 3-4, 1994) features a cast of characters ranging from the Bishop of Rome to the bush spirits of a Jamaican village. Works by two company members--the Cocoon by Arlene Richards and Cross Currents by Monica Lawrence--deal with themes of acculturation. In addition to songs by the zestful NDTC Singers and a musical interlude by its orchestra, the engagement featured Nettleford's Dis Poem (His Story, Her Story) and the intensifying swirls and regal elegance of his signature Kumina, based on local ritual dances.