The Dance Enthusiast Announces Island to Island-Moving Caribbean 11/16

After four successful Enthusiastic Events!, The Dance Enthusiast is thrilled to announce the 5th Enthusiastic Events! event: Dance: Island to Island-Moving Caribbean in New York City, Wednesday November 16, 6:15 PM to 9 (nibblies before and after; performance at 7 PM) at Gibney Dance, 280 Broadway (entrance at 53A Chambers Street). Enthusiastic Events! is proud to partner with PANK Elephant Catering, who will be providing tasty delicacies from all over the Caribbean chain. The event follows four successful previous Enthusiastic Events! in which The Dance Enthusiast celebrated the relationship of dance to other important fields: the world of design and fashion, the world of empowing thought and action, the world of visual art and, most recently, the landscape of dance on Broadway versus concert dance versus Reality TV.

Join host Christine Jowers, Editor of The Dance Enthusiast and Caribbean artists, Candace Thompson (Trinidad & Tobago); Nélida Tirado (Puerto Rico) and Nadia Dieudonné (Haiti) for a stellar evening of performance & conversation as they introduce us to a one-of-a kind insider experience into the beauty and complexity of Caribbean culture and performance. Each artist performing and speaking as part of Island to Island - Moving Caribbean in New York City is known for their consummate artistry as well as their active engagement with their communities as teachers and leaders.

Stated Jowers, founder and editor-in-chief of The Dance Enthusiast: "Being a person from the US Virgin Islands with family and ancestry throughout the West Indies, I am especially excited to speak to my fellow Caribbeanas about their work here, on the island of Manhattan. What it is that they as Caribbean artists hold on to and value? What can we discover about this part of the world through art? Is there a Caribbean identity? What stereotypes exist and how can we break them? Most especially I am excited that we will be able to share these artists' meaningful work in such an intimate way with our audiences."

Enthusiastic Events! remove the proscenium stage to create an intimate welcoming atmosphere that is cross between a salon performance, panel discussion, and a gathering at your best friend's home. At Enthusiastic Events! audiences enjoy short performances and engaging conversation about art and issues of the day with premiere artists and community movers and shakers. The emphasis of the events is to help people feel "at home" with dance; to illustrate the arts connection to the larger world, and to cultivate audiences by offering unique insider, unforgettable experiences.

THE DANCE ENTHUSIAST www.dance-enthusiast.com, leading an exuberant revolution in dance communication, is a vibrant, engaging digital news site and arts service organization with a threefold mission: to serve the dance community by sharing its stories and news; to offer audiences unique access to the compelling dance companies and moving artists of New York City and the world; and, to invite audiences, artists, and writers into a new conversation about dance. The Dance Enthusiast's new media work, as well as its offline initiatives illuminate, educate and inspire audiences to understand the deep value inherent in dance.

CHRISTINE JOWERS (HOST) is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Dance Enthusiast an extension of the non-profit company, Moving Arts Projects www.movingartsprojects.org. Originally from St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, she grew up in a West-Indian family dedicated to the arts, community, and service. Prior to devoting her efforts to The Dance Enthusiast, Jowers worked as professional dancer, teacher, and producer. In addition to her writing and videography for The Dance Enthusiast, Christine has been published by Dance/USA's e-journal, From The Green Room, The Dance Insider, The Johns Hopkins University's Literary Journal :The Hopkins Review, and The Huffington Post. Her writing has been highlighted by Thomas Cott, in his respected newsletter for arts administrators: You've Cott Mail. Concerned with bridging the gap between audiences and performance, she designed The Dance Enthusiast's Dance Up Close Series, a journalistic video program, to bring web audiences intimately into the working processes of New York City artists. Dance Up Close was awarded an Engaging Dance Audiences grant administered by Dance/USA through the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation in 2013. In 2014, Christine developed the offline audience engagement program Enthusiastic Events!, a project designed to address the problem of shifting attention spans, differing knowledge bases, and available free time in dance audiences. Christine created a place for Audience Reviews on The Dance Enthusiast to encourage new voices in writing, and to develop dance literacy and advocacy, once a month The Dance Enthusiast gives a prize i for participation by the Audience.

CANDACE THOMPSON (GUEST), a Trinidad and Tobago native, is a dancer and choreographer .She is Artistic Director of ContempoCaribe and Founding Executive Director of Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE. Her dance training is extensive, beginning in Trinidad and Tobago, where she received instruction in modern dance and ballet, at La Danse Caraibe under Heather Henderson-Gordon. She is a graduate of Adelphi University's BFA in Dance with the Ruth St. Denis Award for excellence from the dance department, and has gone on to work in various dance styles including Afro-Caribbean, Classical Modern, Modern/Contemporary, Contemporary Floor Technique, Jazz, Soca and West African. Candace produces her own dance work under two umbrellas: ContempoCaribe and Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE. ContempoCaribe, a choreography and performance project, creates art that reflects and embodies the plurality of experiences of people within the Caribbean Diaspora. Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE, a collaborative and organising body, creates platforms for artists developing work from a Caribbean perspective, to show their work within the local diaspora community in NYC. .Candace is driven to perform work that is challenging both physically and emotionally, and is especially motivated to dance the stories of the Caribbean and its Diaspora. She currently performs with Areytos Performance Works, Elle NYTT, Renegade Performance Group and Sydnie L. Mosley Dances and is a part of the Dancing While Black Fellowship Cohort 2015/2016.

NÉLIDA TIRADO (GUEST) Hailed "magnificent" and "utterly compelling" by The New York Times, Nelida Tirado has been recognized around the globe for her intense grace and powerful style. She began her formal training at Ballet Hispanico of New York at the age of six. Barely out of her teens, she was invited to tour the U.S. with Jose Molina Bailes Espanoles and work as a soloist in Carlota Santana's Flamenco Vivo, soloist/ dance captain of Compania Maria Pages and Compania Antonio el Pipa, performing at prestigious flamenco festivals and television in Spain and throughout France, Italy, UK, Germany and Japan. She has performed in "Carmen" with the Metropolitan Opera of NY, World Music Institute's "Gypsy Caravan 1 ", "Noche Flamenca" and was featured flamenco star in Riverdance" on Broadway. Ms. Tirado currently was recipient of the 2007 and 2010 BRIO Award for Artistic Excellence, was featured as one of Dance Magazines "25 to Watch" and opened with her company Summer 2010 for Buena Vista Social Club featuring Omara Portoundo for the Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival. Most recent highlights include "Amores Quebrados" at the Repertorio Espanol, "Dance Under the Influence" 2011 & 2012 in collaboration with the Flamenco Festival USA and collaboration with jazz great Wynton Marsalisat Harvard University and the 2016 premiere of her solo show "Dime Quien Soy" in the Flamenco Festival NY. She is currently the recipient of the 2017 Rosario Dawson Muse Fellow.

NADIA DIEUDONNÉ (GUEST) has a lifetime of experience in traditional Haitian dance. By the age of 12 years she was performing with the well known Haitian folk singer and activist Myriam Dorism. Today, after more than 15 years of dancing, Nadia is regarded as one of the best Banda dancers outside of Haiti. She regularly returns to the island where she attends various Lakous (rural communities that preserve and practice Vodou), deepening her skills and understanding of the traditional practice. In 1994, Nadia founded Feet of Rhythm Afro-Haitian Dance Company, which was created to preserve and promote the rich cultural traditions of Haiti. Feet of Rhythm has been featured at several venues within the US and abroad. Since 1995, through her creation of the Feet of Rhythm Kids Cultural Program & Dance Company, Nadia has taught Haitian music and dance in public schools, community based organizations, and daycare centers. Nadia has also conducted adult master classes at several prestigious institutions, including New York University, Lincoln Center, and the Katherine Dunham Dance Institute. Classes focus on the folkloric repertoire of Haitian dance, and choreographed elements and movements of traditional dances, and live drumming is often used.