Performances part of the 2023 International Festival of Arts and Ideas

The National Dance Theatre Company (NDTC) of Jamaica is down to perform in Connecticut this summer after a 20-year absence.

NDTC, Jamaica’s leading Jamaican dance troupe, will be performing at New Haven’s Shubert Theatre on June 2 and 3, as part of the 2023 International Festival of Arts and Ideas. The festival will feature more than 150 events and programmes from all over the world. 

The NDTC last visited Connecticut in 2004 at Hartford’s Belding Theatre for the Performing Arts at the Bushnell. The performances will take place on June 2 at 7:30 pm and June 3 at 2 pm.

Tickets range from US$29 to US$59 and are available to purchase at the Shubert Box Office. 

Organisers excited to have NDTC

Shelley Quiala, executive director for the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, commented in a press release that, “Connecticut is a global epicentre for performing arts, and New Haven, particularly, is the perfect location to celebrate this extraordinary international company”.

“I am delighted to bring this company to our stage to share their performance and the rich culture of Jamaica with our patrons,” Anthony McDonald, Shubert Theatre’s executive director and a first-generation Jamaican-American, said in the press release.

The NDTC was founded by scholar Professor Rex Nettleford and dancer Eddy Thomas in 1962 as a way to celebrate Jamaica’s culture and its newly acquired independence, following almost 500 years under Spanish and then British rule.

Its members blend the techniques and rhythms of Jamaica, African countries and the American South with ballet, dance performances and engagement programmes. 

The singers, dancers and musicians have been touring internationally since 1963, showcasing a repertoire that includes dances outlining drama stories, staged rituals showing religious ceremonies and pantomimes.

In the last 60 years, members have served as cultural ambassadors for more than 120 overseas tours and innovated Jamaican and Caribbean dance techniques.