Name: Candace Thompson
Neighborhood: Crown Heights/Prospect Lefferts Gardens
Favorite thing about your neighborhood: Friendly neighbours, West Indian food, Labour Parade, Eastern Parkway
BAC: What project did you receive funding for? Tell us about it.
CT: I received funding for New Traditions Festival 2016: Dance Your Caribbean! It’s a performance festival run by the initiative I started, Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE, to create a platform for dance artists creating work for and about their Caribbean heritage. Through New Traditions, Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE is committed to presenting concert dance works rooted in Caribbean cultural traditions and experiences. The 2016 festival will be a two night dance festival on June 11th and 12th, featuring 7 choreographers: Chris Walker and Kevin Ormsby, Candace Thompson, Jessica St. Vil, Maxine Montilus, Safi Harriott, and Shola Roberts.
BAC: How does BAC funding help sustain your work? Is there anything you’re creating or doing now that you wouldn’t be able to do without the extra support?
CT: BAC’s funding was key to us being able to afford a venue that could accommodate concert dance in Brooklyn. Our work this year requires a traditional proscenium theater which is unfortunately super-expensive in our borough. Through the grant funding we’ve been able to secure a venue and ensure that all participating artists would be paid independently of ticket sales.
BAC: Tell us about some of the most exciting collaborations and performances you have coming up.
CT: Our next event is the Dances of Jamaica & the Caribbean: New Traditions Masterclass, which is a masterclass led by Chris Walker on May 29th, and then the big show on June 11th and 12th at Gelsey Kirkland Academy. I’m super excited that Chris Walker and Kevin Ormsby will be bringing their work Facing Home: Love and Redemption, a piece that’s toured Toronto, Wisconsin, and Jamaica, right here in New York City! Walker and Ormsby come with a wealth of knowledge of Caribbean and contemporary dance and I can’t wait for the dance community here to get to experience them. The show will see their work paired with the work of local choreographers.
BAC: Who or what inspires you most right now?
CT: The kids I teach, actually. I’ve been teaching at a few elementary schools and it’s been amazing to watch these little humans operate who are so free with how they express themselves.
BAC: Tell us a bit about your creative process. How does the work get done?
CT: Well, that’s a good question. I research topics that are related to themes of the work and then write tons and tons of notes. I spend a lot of time sitting down creating entire dances in my head. The worst is when I create an entire section in my head and forget to write it down and then I lose it. But then I’ve learned that, somehow, another idea always presents itself. As much as creating dance work is a refined skill, it is also just play. So I try to think about it that way to make it less terrifying. In terms of practice, I teach a Soca Dance class every week so that vocabulary is very much in my body and it’s the source of a lot of my work. I’ve also been lucky enough to work with two dancers recently, Alicia Dellimore and Shola Roberts, who share my passion for Caribbean culture and bring their own perspectives to the work.
BAC: When you’re not making art, you are:
CT: Teaching in various in-school and after-school programs, personal training, doing administrative and organizing work for DCC and dancing in others’ work.
BAC: What’s next for your work and for your organization? How are you planning your next steps forward?
CT: Personally, I have a few choreographic opportunities coming up in the fall through 2017 that I’ll be focusing on. Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE will be taking time after the show to figure out its next steps but for sure there will be more workshops, events, and possibly education programs.
BAC: Any words of advice for artists hoping to apply for BAC funding or other grants or support?
CT: Just that it takes time. It took me about three weeks of intense focus to get through writing the grant. Give yourself time to write, review, rewrite if necessary, and to be clear about what your project is about.
Candace Thompson of Trinidad and Tobago, is a dancer, a choreographer, and a performer. A graduate of Adelphi University fluent in several forms including Modern, Contemporary, Caribbean/Diasporic, and Soca Dance, Thompson currently performs with Areytos Performance Works, Renegade Performance Group, Sydnie L. Mosley Dances, and dances and produces her own work ContempoCaribe. She is the founder of Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE.
Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE will present Dance Your Caribbean: New Traditions Festival 2016 at Gelsey Kirkland Academy ArtsCenter on June 11th and 12th. Tickets are available now: http://dccnewtraditions2016.bpt.me.
Photo credit, top portrait of Candace Thompson: Rachel Neville.
