Jamal Jackson
Dance Company
(JJDC)
Our mission is to help people obtain a strong understanding of the connection between the African and American cultures. The company has explored the history and evolution of these cultures with the use of various traditional and contemporary music accompaniments. Using performance and workshops as its medium the Jamal Jackson Dance Company has continued to spread African and American experiences through original and innovative movement styles.
Jamal Jackson, Artistic Director, 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 Mba and Bisar 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. The company is currently performing new original works This Place Called Home, which has been presented at the Battery Downtown Dance Festival, the Connelly Theater, and the Performance Space of the 21 Century in Chatham, New York.