Dance Gains Momentum in the Caribbean

Isabelle Calabre

Gusts of choreographic creativity are blowing through the West Indies. The island of Guadeloupe, which welcomed the Caribbean Dance Platform last October, is gradually establishing itself as a regional hub for dance. Despite historic challenges, new initiatives are emerging to support Caribbean artists, present their work, and connect them with local audiences.

In Vieux-Habitants, on the island of Guadeloupe, a small group of dancers, visual artists, journalists, researchers, poets, and musicians make their way through the Jardin de Lélène. The procession, on a Sunday in late October, ends facing the sea on Plage de l’Étang, bringing the first Caribbean Dance Platform to a close. Combining multi-disciplinary performances, film screenings, lectures, readings, master classes, and introductions to traditional and contemporary dance – which are all offered free of charge and in public spaces – the four-day event aims to honor “the rich cultural, linguistic and historical diversity of the Caribbean through dance, performance, poetry, song and the visual arts”.

The platform’s initiator and artistic director, Haitian-born choreographer Kettly Noël, has long worked to support and promote cultural initiatives in her home region. In 2018 she launched Port-au-Prince Art Performance, an international festival in Haiti’s capital. Inviting prominent figures such as performers Dorothée Munyaneza and Nelisiwe Xaba, academic Felwine Sarr, and novelist Lyonel Trouillot, the event focused from the outset on supporting emerging talents. The second edition of the event, in 2020, had a similar goal, and offered training sessions (held remotely due to Covid) to up-and-coming artists. A planned third edition was ultimately cancelled due to devastating gang violence in Haiti and the fourth one, rebaptised Caribbean Dance Platform, finally found a home in Guadeloupe this past October.

“Moving the event to Guadeloupe was a success, which gives us great hope of continuing the adventure,” asserts Noël, who is keen to associate locals with Haitian artists. As an extension of the 2024 festival, three Haitian choreographers – Mickha Mackael Sévère, Rapha Mackael Sévère and Bruce-Wily Simon – have been granted a month’s residency at Pointe-à-Pitre’s Karukera Ballet, a key partner of the event, to work on their next piece, Tutoyer la peur. “Our ambition is to make the Caribbean Dance Platform a driving force for choreographic creation throughout the sub-region,” confirms Noël. “The time is right, there’s a real revival here, and more and more artists are keen to get started.”

While Guadeloupe has no shortage of dance talent, the region nevertheless suffers from a number of challenges: there are few venues in working order that are suitable for live performance, and there is no conservatory that offers formal training. “When I arrived in 2019, there were certainly many schools, including that of choreographer Léna Blou, but there were few structures dedicated to creation and even fewer real work spaces,” says Karukera Ballet founder Julien Ficely. When the dancer and choreographer returned to the island where he had lived as a child, after many years in Europe, he contacted Delphine Cammal, then the co-director of the Guadeloupe-based company La Mangrove and the initiator of a program for young artists called Rhizomes de la Danse. “She put me in touch with the Board of Arts and Culture (Direction des Affaires Culturelles), which helped me build the Récif program from 2020 onwards.”

The Récif – Karukera Ballet program now includes a dance school open to amateurs as well as centers that offer professional training, promote holistic health, support the creation of new choreography, and raise public awareness. Its location in Bergervin, a working-class district of Pointe-à-Pitre, and the provision of a freely accessible outdoor area in addition to the three 110-square meter classrooms, are part of Ficely’s desire to “encourage local involvement, seek to create links, open up classical and contemporary dance to all, develop the local artistic presence, and promote companies from the West Indies.”

Supported by Récif, the Caribbean choreographic springboard program Jumping is part of this dynamic. Aimed at fostering and supporting emerging choreographers in the French overseas territories, Jumping offers laureates financial grants in addition to residencies in various partner venues. The promising HEDO collective, winner of the Jury Prize in the first edition in 2023, has been invited to work on their next piece at the CCN Malandain Ballet Biarritz, the Trois C-L Maison pour la danse in Luxembourg, and the Carreau du Temple in Paris.

“We feel extremely lucky,” say the members of this Guadeloupean quartet. While lamenting the lack of infrastructures on their native island, Naomi Yengadessin, Kenyah Stanislas, Mickaël Top, and Lisa Ponin hope that their example “will prove to others that it is possible.” They have even just been selected by the Office Franco-Québécois de la Jeunesse for a two-week residency in Canada, where they will finalize their lighting design. A chance to “move beyond their own territory,” and project themselves towards even wider horizons.

“A new generation is emerging,” confirms François Derudder. Head of the Cultural Affairs Department since 2019, he now receives an increasing number of grant applications, requiring his team to carry out real “budgetary pedagogy work with project leaders.” While he warns artists not to rush things, Derudder is delighted with the emergence of dancers and choreographers who are reinterpreting the issues of memory that run through the West Indies with a contemporary, open-minded view of the world. 

The question of the audience remains a crucial issue in a region where contemporary choreography intersects with everyday popular dancing, whether during funerals, weddings, or carnivals. “There is certainly significant interest in dance,” asserts Derudder. “But especially outdoors, where most shows are presented” – as in the case of the HEDO collective’s performances in public squares. “Whether in Guadeloupe or in the Caribbean in general, the question of the audience is food for thought,” agrees Noël. And she promises that “for the next edition of the Caribbean Dance Platform, I’ll go door-to-door looking for people if I have to. I want dance to shine out everywhere, and for everyone!”

Isabelle Calabre is a journalist specializing in culture and dance, who works with several magazines: Danza&Danza, CN D Magazine and Le Parisien Week-end. She is the author of the book Hip hop et Cies, 1993-2012 as well as the YA book Je danse à l’Opéra (ed. Parigramme). Additionally, she has conducted research on West Indian and Guyanese quadrilles that has led to an essay submitted to the CN D in 2023, as well as an inventory of theses Creole social dances for their inclusion in France’s Universal Cultural Heritage list. In 2024, with Caraïbéditions, she launched a new collection showcasing the diversity of dances and the children who practice them. Already published: Moi aussi je danse le quadrille, Moi aussi je danse le hip-hop.

Caribbean Dance Platform
Learn more

Dispositif Récif-Karukera ballet
Learn more 

Jumping Competition
April 2026 at the Tropiques Atrium national stage in Fort-de-France, Martinique 
as part of the CEIBA dance festival 

Douslèt
Choreography: Naomi Yengadessin, Kenyah Stanislas, Mickaël Top and Lisa Ponin from the HEDO collective
September 13 at La Bastide-Clairence 
as part of the upcoming Le Temps d'Aimer la Danse festival organised by the CCN Malandain Ballet Biarritz
Learn more