Jamal Jackson, Artistic Director
Jamal was born in Brooklyn, New York and began his formal studies of movement with the Harlem based Batoto Yetu Dance Company. His pursuit of dance led him to Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where he received the Weston Award for his contribution to the Fusion Dance Company and New Works/World Traditions African Dance Company from 1996-2000. Jamal studied with Michelle Bach-Coulibaly, Seydou Coulibaly, and Fred Benjamin and worked under M'ba Coulibaly, Salimata Soumare from Kelete Dance Theatre, and Ba Issa Diallo, director of Troupe District du Bamako in Mali, West Africa. Jamal choreographed for the New York Arts Festival and Inaya Day in 2002, marking the beginning of his African based, modern style of movement. Jamal performed with Ballet International Africans for two seasons as a principal dancer and in 2004 he founded the Jamal Jackson Dance Company, which debuted Images of the Union at University Settlement in New York and at Westport Hall in Connecticut. The company went on to perform United We Stand at the Hudson Guild Theater, Dance New Amsterdam, Mo Pitkins, and for Jennifer Muller/The Works series. Jamal has created work for the Diversity in Dance Project at The Yard featuring Urban Bush Women and the Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company and has returned to Batoto Yetu Dance Company as the Assistant Artistic Director. In 2008 and 2009, the company performed This Place Called Home, at venues such as The Big Range Festival in Austin, TX, the Yard in Martha's Vineyard, and Performance Spaces of the 21 Century in Chatham, New York. In 2010, JJDC has performed excerpts of Next Time, which will premiered in full during its NYC Season.
Asha Rhodes, Executive Director and Dancer
At Williams College, Asha participated in ballet, modern, and African dance studies and was a member of NBC, the school's Hip Hop dance group. She also choreographed liturgical dances for the Williams College Gospel Choir Concerts. Since graduation, she has been studying Ballet, Horton and Graham at the Ailey School and teaching Hip Hop Dance to high school students in a Harlem Children's Zone after school program.
DeAngelo Blanchard, Dancer
DeAngelo Blanchard is from Columbus, Ohio. He recently graduated from The Ohio State University with a B.F.A. in Dance and a minor in Exercise Science. DeAngelo received his primary training from BalletMet Dance Academy as a Community Outreach Scholarship recipient under the directorship of April Berry. He has also trained and performed with Thiossane West African Institute under the direction of Abdou and Suzan Bradford-Kounta. While in college he was a two-summer Full Tuition Scholarship recipient of the American Dance Festival. He has worked with such artist as Dianne McIntyre, Shani Nwando Ikerioha Collins, Doug Neilson and Andrea Woods.
Lynnette R. Freeman, Dancer
Lynnette holds a B.A. in Africana Studies with a focus in Creative Writing and Performance from Brown University, and an M.F.A. in Acting from the Brown University/Trinity Rep Conservatory. She has danced with Pequeño Teatro De Danza in Providence, RI, and was a former member of Dance Afrika Dance (Cleveland, OH), New Works World Traditions (Providence, RI), and Fusion Dance Company (Providence, RI). She trained with Cleveland City Dance, Cleveland San Jose Ballet, Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts (Kingston, JA), Ballet National du Mali (Bamako, Mali) and Kora Films.
Tiffani Harris, Dancer
Tiffani Harris has been a member of JJDC since 2004. She received an MFA in Dance from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts and trained at the Ailey School in the Certificate Program. She is also a member of Collectivosdoszeta with Carlos A. Cruz Velazquez and stage manager for 360 Dance with Martin Loftnes. She is honored to be performing with Jamal and thanks God for the myriad blessings in her life.
Sydnie Liggett, Dancer
Originally from the Washington DC Metropolitan area, Sydnieis a graduate of The Ohio State University with a degree in dance and a minor in communication. In college Sydnie was selected to work with guest choreographers Doug Varone, Larry Keigwin, Nicole Wolcott, Amy Raymond, Shani Collins and mentor Bebe Miller. She is also an emerging choreographer, as her work Livewire was selected and presented at the 2008 American College Dance Festival Gala Concert at Goucher College in Baltimore, MD. Sydnie has recently relocated to New York City and has had the opportunity to perform the choreography of Kendra Portier of David Dorfman Dance; as well as reuniting with choreographer Shani Collins-Achille in an adaptation of Alice Walkers Overcoming Speechlessness. Sydnie continues to train and hone her craft of dance while working as the Education Programs Coordinator at Dance New Amsterdam.
Khori Petinaud, Dancer
Khori Petinaud began dancing at the age of 12 after seeing a Dance Theater of Harlem performance and has not looked back since. She studied at the Russells School of Ballet in Chantilly Virginia for most of her training but also studied at the Dance Theater of Harlem, North Carolina School of the Arts, the Alvin Ailey school and received her Bachelors of Fine Arts in Dance from Tisch School of the Arts under the direction of Linda Tarnay with a minor in Law and Society and Religious studies. She has had the pleasure of working with Stacy Spence of the Trisha Brown Company, Christopher Williams, Nathan Trice/RITUALS, Max Stone, Andrea Miller, Bill Young, Benoit Swan Pouffer, Cherice Barton, Camille Brown, and Azure Barton. You can currently see her in the national tour of The Color Purple as an ensemble dancer and as the role of Olivia.
Dana Thomas, Dancer
Dana is from Centreville, Virginia where she trained under Diane Yates-Biggs and Karen Studd. She graduated from NYU Tisch School of the Arts with a B.F.A. in Dance and Media, Culture, and Communications. She has danced in works by Debbie Allen, Susan Marshall, Gus Solomons Jr, James Sutton, Brian Friedman, Kay Cummings, and Laura Peterson. She has performed on So You Think You Can Dance? and other venues such as The Kennedy Center, DTW, Wolf Trap, The TANK, (le) Poisson Rouge, DNA, La MaMa, and Joyce SoHo. In addition to her work with JJDC, she works with Douglas Dunn and Dancers, skybetter and associates, Malcolm Low/Formal Structure, and cakeface. Currently, she is dancing in The Metropolitan Opera production of Faust.
Sean Anthony Thomas, Dancer
Sean holds a B.S. in Psychology from Brown University, where he held the position of director of Fusion Dance Company and received the Weledi Visual/ Performing Arts Award in 2003. After college, Sean went on to direct God's Hands, a youth sign language ministry. In 2005, he became a member of Soul Steps, LLC, an Internationally touring, Off-Broadway Step company, that he performed with for four years. Sean performed in the New York Musical Theater Festival in 2007, opened for Freddie McGregor at Celebrate Brooklyn in 2008, and performed in the Skena Up Film and Theater Festival in Prishtina, Kosovo in 2008. In 2009, he helped to establish a Brooklyn-based, praise dance ministry called Signs of Praise SDA and was selected as a Dance Consultant for an up and coming praise dance movie. Sean has performed with JJDC since its inception as well as in "Rocket", a modern dance piece choreographed by Jamal Jackson for the New York Arts Festival in 2001. He received his doctorate in physical therapy in 2011 from Downstate Medical Centers currently works at Yorkville Physical Therapy in NYC.
Bio and Photo Coming Soon....
Gabrielle Wilson, Dancer
Gabrielle is from Brooklyn, NY. She began her dance training with Batoto Yetu (New York, NY), and danced globally, reaching places such as Brazil, Portugal, and Angola. She recently received an A.B. in English Literature from Princeton University. She was a dancer/choreographer with Disiac Dance Company (Princeton, NJ) . She has performed on Good Morning America, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, Essence Awards, Michael Jackson's 30th Anniversary Celebration at Madison Square Garden, and other venues such as Carnegie Hall, New Victory Theater, Alice Tully Hall (Lincoln Center), and Jacob's Pillow.
Issa Coulibaly, Seydou Coulibaly, Sidy Maïga, and Berean Community
Drum Line, Percussionists
From Bamako, Mali, West Africa, the percussionists have performed with numerous groups including Repeat Biennale Winners, District de Bamako, and Fakoly Percussion.
"...sheer joy of movement from beginning to end...softness and swinging arms and a quality of being simultaneously floating and weighted, ending beautifully in silo, silence and perpetual motion." - Quinn Batson, www.OffOffOff.com
"...brilliant display of
vivacious musical interpretation."
- Brooklyn Eagle
"Jackson situates West African and modern dance vocabularies in such a way that traditional comes to mean "from a time-honored practice" but not of an old, fixed or quaint place. Here tradition is alive, progressive and in fluid dialogue with the present." - Maura Nguyen Donohue, www.DanceInsider.com
JJDC Press Packet.pdf
Jamal Jackson Dance Company copyright © 2012
