British-Caribbean choreographer Jeanefer Jean-Charles MBE reawakens the unwritten language of St.Lucian Patois, telling a story of culture, lost languages, longing and belonging. Of the movement of people across continents and the dialect which is at risk of being lost forever.
Blending captivating traditional folk dance with exhilarating contemporary choreography and an original musical score, Patois celebrates cultures, stories and generations of the past.
Without Walls,
Ralph Kennedy
SUN 12 MAY, 11.30AM & 2PM - NORFOLK & NORWICH FESTIVAL (Norwich)
SAT 18 & SUN 19 MAY, 1PM & 3.15PM - BRIGHTON FESTIVAL (Brighton)
SAT 6 JUL, 4PM & 6.15PM - HAT FAIR (Winchester)
SAT 13 JUL, 5.45PM - NATIONAL THEATRE RIVER STAGE (South Bank, London) - Hosted by Greenwich+Docklands International Festival (GDIF)
SAT 24 AUG, 1PM & 3.30PM - GREENWICH+DOCKLANDS INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL (GDIF) (Cutty Sark Gardens, Greenwich)
THURS 29 AUG, 1PM & 3.30PM - GREENWICH+DOCKLANDS INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL (GDIF) (General Gordon Square, Woolwich)
SUN 1 SEPT, 1PM & 3.30PM - GREENWICH+DOCKLANDS INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL (GDIF) (Abbey Wood Park Playground, Abbey Wood)
SAT 7 SEPT, 2.45PM & 5PM - GREENWICH+DOCKLANDS INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL (GDIF) - as part of Dancing City (Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, BBC Waterfront, Stratford)
Choreographer: Jeanefer Jean-Charles MBE
Producer: Alison Holder
Composer: Danilo DJ Walde
Designer: Marsha Roddy
Writer: Hassan Mahamdallie
Creative Consultant: Martha Stylianou
Rehearsal Director: Cherilyn Albert
St.Lucia & Patois Consultant: Pearl Jordan
Stage Manager: Cynthia Chika Franklin
Saint Lucian Voices: Auntie Jane, Uncle John, Mr Remy
Songwriter & Vocalist: Lorna Jean-Charles
Costume Assistant: Yunhye Choi
Runner: Lauren Schofield
Creative Dance Artists: Melissa Bravo, Dani Harris-Walter, Oluwaseun Olayiwola, Nosiphiwo Samente, Duja Sinada, David Bennie
Photo credit: Claire Leach
Patois is supported by Without Walls and commissioned by Greenwich+Docklands International Festival (GDIF), Norfolk & Norwich Festival and Brighton Festival.
Date: Monday 1st May 2023
Location: Thomas Steers Way, Chavasse Park, Liverpool, UK
On 1st May 2023 1,000 volunteers came together to celebrate Eurovision, Ukraine and Liverpool.
Jeanefer Jean-Charles MBE from Jeanefer Jean-Charles & Associates and local choreographers; Lisi Perry and Grace Goulding invited local communities from across Merseyside and beyond to come together to create a vast human artwork - a giant Ukrainian flag and the iconic Eurovision heart, right in the centre of Liverpool at Chavasse Park documenting an unforgettable moment in Liverpool’s history.
Edward Morgan, Executive Director, and Alison Grist, Broadcast Director from Northern Town Film company, captured this mass spectacle using drones and up close cameras to create a 2-minute film which forms part of EuroFestival - celebrating Liverpool as the host city for Eurovision 2023.
With a specially commissioned soundtrack by DJ Walde, and lyrics by Pete Wylie - the message is bold and simple; by standing together in the heart of Liverpool, we welcome the world to the Eurovision Festival 2023.
Jeanefer Jean-Charles & Associates
Jeanefer Jean-Charles MBE
Photo credit: David Edwards
Paul Doyle - Co-Choreographer
Kirsten Peters Roebuck - Recruitment Manager
Natasha Khamjani - Show Support
Chloe Robinson - Assistant Dance Artist
Tomo (Christopher) Tomlinson - Movement Assistant
Daz Scott - Jeanefer's Projects Assistant
Julie Karlsen - LIPA Movement Volunteer
Kathryn McEvilly - Movement Volunteer
Mary Lamb - Design Consultant
Molly Lacey Davies - Design Consultant Assistant
Along with 500 individuals from all over the UK, 22 local groups took part in the film, including:
OOMOO - Open Door Charity
The Choir with No Name Liverpool
Men!Dancing! & 50 Moves
Gods Dance Group (Growing Older Disgracefully)
Daisy Inclusive UK
Anchor Women’s Club
The Hammond Dance School Powered by Hip Hop (UC Crew)
Barbara Johnston Stage School
LIPA 6th Form Dance & Musical Theatre
The Dance Depot Theatre School
Batala Mersey
Merseyside Polonia
Jan Williams Theatre School & Christopher Linzie School of Dance
Gateacre School
Create Dance Wirral
7th Liverpool Boys Brigade and Girls Association
Stagecoach Wilmslow
Natalie Green School of Dance
Off The Ground Youth Theatre
George Ferguson School of Irish Dance
LIPA Core Group
For further information about EuroFestival please visit the EuroFestival website.
Jeanefer Jean-Charles & Associates
Jeanefer Jean-Charles MBE
Written and directed by Julie McNamara and Hassan Mahamdallie, Quiet Rebels is based on the true life but forgotten stories of white working-class women who fell in love with men of the Windrush generation. A drama-noir, with film, music and movement, set in a dystopian, authoritarian state England where people who marry across the race lines are considered traitors.
The cast included Lottie Bell, Joe Conteh, Deni Francis, and Fiona Whitelaw.
Quiet Rebels premiered at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry on 10 September and completed its run at The Albany in London on 11 November.
For more information, please click here.
Simon Kenny, Designer
Gabriel Finn, Lighting Designer
Stephen Rudder, Filmmaker / Visuals
Mohammed Ali, Digital Artist
Jeanefer Jean-Charles MBE, Movement Director
Awate Abdalla, Composer / Sound Designer
Troi Lee, Deaf Rave
Paul Burgess, Creative Captions Designer
The Reviews Hub
Anna Ambelez
Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, September 2022. Photos by © Rehan Jamil.
This powerful and moving dance performance by Artistic Director and Choreographer Jeanefer Jean-Charles MBE is inspired by nineteenth-century studio photographs of black men, women, and children. Exploring a complex, but often forgotten black presence in pre-Windrush Britain, this performance calls attention to previously hidden figures and challenges historical and contemporary perceptions.
The Guardian
Sanjoy Roy
SUN 2 JUN, 1.30PM - Taliesin Dance Days Festival (Swansea)
SAT 13 JUL, 2.15PM - National Theatre River Stage part of Greenwich+Docklands International Festival (London)
FRI 26 JUL, 12.50PM & 5.05PM - Latitude Festival - The Waterfront Stage (Suffolk)
FRI 14 JUL - SUN 16 JUL - Festival Dos Canais (Portugal)
THURS 27 JUL - SUN 30 JUL – Gratis Festival (Antwerp)
SAT 12 AUG – Kensington + Chelsea Festival (Kensington, London)
SAT 30 SEPT – SUN 1 OCT – Bournemouth Arts By The Sea Festival (Bournemouth, Dorset)
SAT 4 NOV - The British Museum (Great Court, London)
FRI 24 JUN - SUN 26 JUN, VARIOUS TIMES - Birmingham International Dance Festival
SAT 2ND JUL - SUN 3RD JUL, VARIOUS TIMES - Handsworth Park (North Birmingham)
SAT 30 - SUN 31 JUL - Merchant City Festival (Glasgow)
SAT 13 - SUN 14 AUG - Kensington and Chelsea Festival (London)
FRI 26 AUG - The Big Feast (Stoke-On-Trent)
SAT 27 AUG, 2.15PM & 6.15PM - Greenwich & Docklands International Festival 2022 (London)
SUN 18 SEPT, 2PM & 4PM - Lancashire Encounter (Preston)
SAT 24 SEPT 12.45PM & 3.30PM - Derby Festé 2022 (Derby)
SUN 16 OCT, 1PM & 3PM - Wilderness Street (Ilford)
29 MAY - Brighton Festival
30 & 31 MAY – Salisbury (Wiltshire Creative)
27 JUN - 101 Outdoor Arts
3 & 4 JUL - Hat Fair (Winchester)
24 & 25 JUL – Milton Keynes International Festival
31 AUG – 2 SEPT - City Of London
10 & 11 SEPT – Greenwich+Docklands International Festival
25 & 26 SEPT - Birmingham Dance International Festival
Artistic Director and Choreographer: Jeanefer Jean-Charles
Producer: Alison Holder
Designer: Marsha Roddy
Composer: Danilo DJ Walde
Poet: Anthony Anaxagorou
Rehearsal Director: Annie-Lunnette Deakin-Foster, Cherilyn Albert
Writer: Hassan Mahamdallie
Creative Consultant: Martha Stylianou
Stage Manager: Cynthia Chika Franklin
Creative Dance Artists: Melissa Bravo, Dani Harris-Walter, Oluwaseun Olayiwola, Nosiphiwo Samente, Duja Sinada
Reserve Dance Artists: Rudzani Moleya, Stefano Addea
Black Victorians is produced and co-commissioned by FESTIVAL.ORG, Brighton Festival, Hatfair and Without Walls and is currently touring across the UK.
Black Victorians is inspired by Black Chronicles – The Missing Chapter, an ongoing archive research programme led by Autograph focused on unearthing nineteenth-century photographs of black presences in Britain.
Black Victorians is accompanied by a display of the Black Chronicles’ Exhibition In A Box presented in association with Autograph, London.
Jeanefer Jean-Charles was appointed Mass Movement Director for a new musical theatre production, The Silk Road in Beijing, China, October 2017. It was produced by UKCI, and was a training & performance project attached to the Beijing University, featuring 100 schoolchildren.
CEO - UKCI,
Ian Kellgren
Jeanefer Jean-Charles choreographed the original and iconic handshake featured in the 1998 Walt Disney film, The Parent Trap. Jeanefer worked with a young Lindsay Lohan and actor Simon Kunz who played Martin, the family butler.
Jeanefer Jean-Charles was Movement Director and Co-director for Dancing Voices, a public art commission produced by East London Dance in partnership with Westfield Stratford City.
Dancing Voices captures the multitude of dance ‘languages’ set against a backdrop of iconic East London locations, celebrating the changing landscape of the area and featuring over 100 local dancers.
Film Maker: Jevan Chowdhury
Music: danbeats
Assistant Artists: Martha Wilkinson and Franqui Radford-Mathurin
Creative Projects Manager: Emma Kerr
As the choreographer for Indepen-dance, Jeanefer Jean-Charles created an immersive piece with the full cast of the Indepen-dance Performance Company. This piece opened 'Gathered Together 2016', Scotland's inclusive dance festival at the Tramway, Glasgow in 2016.
This high-energy piece was set in a nightclub in Harlem, New York, during the 1930-40’s and was accompanied by live vocals from the Swingcats and Karen MacIver on piano. Working with Dramaturge Julie Brown was a key highlight for Jeanefer.
Review:
Lorna Irvine
Jeanefer Jean-Charles worked alongside Director Jevan Chowdhury of Moving Cities, to produce 'Engineering Happiness', a film for the Institution of Civil Engineers.
The civil engineers behind some of London's most iconic infrastructure projects put on their dancing shoes to showcase the diverse and exciting careers within engineering available to young people through choosing maths and science. The film features some of London’s world-class infrastructure projects and the teams behind them including Crossrail, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the Thames Barrier, London Underground, Walton Bridge, Kings Cross Station, and the Hammersmith Flyover.
Movement Director – Jeanefer Jean-Charles
Director – Jevan Chowdhury, Wind & Foster
Producer – Miranda Housden, Director, ICE London
Director of Photography - Michael Osaer
Jeanefer-Jean Charles was the choreographer for the film Mass Bolero (2014), a tribute to Jayne Torvill & Christopher Dean, which marked 30 years since their Olympic triumph in Sarajevo
Jeanefer worked with hundreds of local people from Nottingham and Nottinghamshire to create a mass choreographed version of the Bolero.
Featuring cameo appearances from Chris and Jayne themselves, the Mass Bolero film was conceived and directed by Fiona Buffini, Associate Director of Nottingham Playhouse, in partnership with Dance4, Confetti Media Group, and Spool.
The film was premiered at Nottingham Playhouse and broadcast on the new Nottingham TV Channel.
Following the success of the film Mass Bolero, Jeanefer returned to Nottingham to create a Live Bolero performance in 2014.
Jeanefer worked with professional dancers and hundreds of people from all walks of life, including bus drivers, gym enthusiasts, and office workers, harnessing their communal passion for dance.
The live performance took place during the Big Dance weekend, transforming Nottingham's iconic Market Square into an unexpected stage for this spectacular tribute to Bolero.
To reach a wider demographic, the team also created an online tutorial film to engage a global audience, enabling viewers from across the world to learn the routine and take part.
Director of Playing On Theatre Company,
Jim Pope
Jeanefer has delivered a number of youth dance commissions for Dance East in Ipswich. Her choreography Sacred Gestures in 2011, was performed as part of the students end of year production.
Jeanefer Jean-Charles created a brand new piece of dance theatre for State of Emergency, which put male relationships under the microscope, studying classic role models, exploring the male perspective. From the emotional bond between father and son, to the solidarity and relaxed approach to friendship, five spectacular male dancers presented snapshots of young men in the 21st Century.
It's A Boy was created in response to the many reports of gun and knife crimes. While the piece did not involve guns or knives, it looked at how a simple moment or accident can escalate into a violent reaction.
Working creatively with contemporary dance and flavours of House Dance, Jeanefer choreographed a punchy, non-narrative, symbolic piece, inspired by the uncertainty surrounding a moment when two men accidentally bump into each other.
Choreography: Jeanefer Jean-Charles
Street Dance Material: Vicky Igbokwe
Dancers: The Company - State of Emergency
Music edited and mixed: DJ Walde
Thanks to: June Gamble, Pearl Jordan, Ann Mitchell, Katie Pearson and Martha Stylianou
Produced by State of Emergency, Rosa Moments was a fluid, energetic piece of dance theatre created on six contemporary dancers. Working creatively across dance genres particularly street dance and the musicality of jazz dance, Jeanefer Jean-Charles delivered a punchy, non-narrative, symbolic piece, taking as inspiration, the seminal moment on December 1st, 1955 when a lone woman refused to give up her seat on the bus - the moment that started the American Civil Rights Movement.
By investigating five key moments in Rosa Parks' life on the lead-up to that historic day, Jeanefer generated a powerful and emotional depiction of standing up for one’s rights, albeit in this case, around the innocuous scenario of forfeiting a seat on a bus.
Music arranged by: Danilo (DJ) Walde
Music: An interview with Rosa Parks, Neville Brothers, Aja Addy, Sam Bell & Dan Brown, Ayub Ogada.
Street Dance Material by: Vicki Igbokwe
Company Dancers: Graham Adey, Darrell Aldridge, Marcia Edwards, Amanda Lewis, Kate Mason, Kate Mummery
The Guardian
Jeanefer Jean-Charles was the choreographer for this work at the Young Vic Theatre Company.
A Raisin in the Sun, tells the story of Walter Lee Younger, who dreams of making his own way in life and owning a liquor store. All seems possible when his mother receives a $10,000 insurance payment. But she has other plans. Is this the end of his dream - or the start of a new one?
The Young Vic's production of Lorraine Hansberry's 1959 groundbreaking, classic play was an unmissable take on the twists and turns of the black American dream.
TimeOut