Dance is the thing this week as three companies host workshops and shows.
In a celebration of its tenth anniversary year, Continuum Dance Project is presenting a new work which looks at different aspects of womanhood.
A release from the company said sections of the dance have been shaped already, and the company will showcase these excerpts from the work-in-progress, whose working title is Real Women Dancing, in an open rehearsal this Saturday at the La Danse Caraibe Studios in Woodbrook at 6.30 pm.
The evening is very short and Continuum will invite commentary from the audience on the excerpts presented. The company is looking towards presenting the full-length work later this year.
Continuum's work often blurs the boundary between dance and theatre. According to founder and artistic director Sonja Dumas in the release, it is a laboratory to explore contemporary Caribbean movement.
In addition to live performances, the company has been featured in two short films, one called Tickle Me Rich in 2012, and one currently in production called Avocado and Zaboca.
In 2013, the company was selected to represent T&T at the Rex Nettleford Conference on the Arts in Jamaica.
Admission to Saturday's showcase is $20.
Also this weekend, internationally acclaimed Trinidadian dancer, Paul Dennis will return home to perform two benefit shows in support of his nephew's pursuit of the dance dream.
Generations, a solo concert from which all net proceeds will go to the education expenses of Juan-Pablo Alba Dennis will take place on Saturday at 8 pm and Sunday at 6pm at the Little Carib Theatre in Woodbrook.
A release from the organisers of the benefit shows, said Dennis will arrive in T&T fresh from Italy where he premiered his solo concert at FE Fabbrica Esperienza in Milan.
Prior to that, he was in residence, teaching and re-staging Limon repertory at Scuola di Ballo Accademia Teatro alla Scala.
Dennis is currently the associate director of the White Mountains Summer Dance Festival at Sarah Lawrence College and assistant professor at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA. His career includes work with Works/Laura Glenn Dance, Jacob's Pillow Men's Dancers: The Ted Shawn Legacy, Janis Brenner and Dancers and Scapegoat Garden as well as a 1995 White House performance.
Tickets for Generations are priced at $200 and can be purchased at the Little Carib Theatre box office, Caribbean School of Dance and the Living Water Community Centre.
A study of study the Ibo legacy of resistance in T&T has brought Adia Whitaker and Nia Austin-Edwards of Ase Dance Theatre Collective to this country to be artists-in-residence at the Dance & Performance Institute.
A release from the Dance & Performance Institute said Ase Dance Theatre Collective will be in residence until June 29 to conduct their study. They believe the research is an entry point into retelling African stories of forced migration during the transatlantic slave trade.
Ase is interested in the ways American slavery continues to impact the contemporary experiences of African people in the Diaspora.
The company will use one of Whitaker's written pieces, The Great Shrinking, as a springboard into their creative process.
Whitaker, artistic director of Ase Dance Theatre Collective, has performed contemporary vernacular movement, modern and Afro-Haitian dance in the US and internationally for 16 years.
�2 For more information e-mail institute@makedathomas.org.
Free workshops with artists-in-residence, Adia Whitaker and Ase Dance Theatre Collective.
JUNE 26
Open rehearsal
VENUE: Cascade Studios, 46 Cascade Rd, Port-of-Spain
TIME: 10 am
Afro-Haitian Dance Workshop (Beginning/Intermediate Level)
VENUE: Cascade Studios, Port of Spain
TIME: 7.30 pm
JUNE 27
Open rehearsal
VENUE: Cascade Studios, Port of Spain
TIME: 10 am
Neo-Folkloric Dance Workshop (Beginning/Intermediate Level)
VENUE: Cascade
Studios,
Port of Spain
TIME: 7.30 pm
For more information
e-mail institute@makedathomas.org.