FOUNDER - JAMAL CALLENDER

Founder of Barbados Dance Project and recipient of the Princess Grace Award, Jamal Callender was born in the U.S. and raised in Barbados at a young age. Jamal began dancing at Ballet Tech and Brooklyn College Preparatory Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. He attended the Professional Performing Arts School/The Ailey School. A graduate of The Juilliard School in 2009 under Lawrence Rhodes, he has worked with Buglisi Dance Theater (2008), The Atlanta Ballet (2009-2010), Peridance Ensemble (2010), Loni Landon Project (2011), Formal Structure Inc. (2011), Hubbard Street II (2010-2011), Creative Outlet Dance Theatre of Brooklyn (2011), Ballet Hispanico (2011-2015), Opus Dance Theatre (2014), Kevin O'Day Ballett at National Theater Mannheim as a soloist (2015-2016), and NTM TANZ under Stephan Thoss (2016-2020)

He has choreographed, and taught classes/workshops all over the U.S. and internationally for Ballet Hispanico, Ailey II, New Orleans Ballet Association (N.O.B.A), the National Cultural Foundation (Barbados), Western Arkansas Ballet, Institute of the Arts Barcelona (Spain), and MOVE(NYC). An advocate of the arts, he has served as a member of Dance/NYC junior committee. In 2014, Jamal created Barbados Dance Project (BDP) to help bring awareness to the importance of dance by educating, collaborating, and engaging with the Barbadian community through movement tuition-free. In 2017, Jamal was named “51 most aspiring young Bajans” in celebration of the countries 51st year of independence. Jamal currently is based in Barcelona, Spain working as a freelance artist.

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR - COURTENAY “LIAN” THORNE

Courtenay Thorne is in a master’s program at Florida State University due to receive her MFA degree in Dance (Performance and Choreography) in 2021. While attending FSU the School of Dance has given her the opportunity to also teach ballet and contemporary dance forms at the institution. She previously received her bachelor’s degree from Skidmore College in 2012 where she majored in Dance (Performance and Choreography). While she was a student at Skidmore College, she had the opportunity to be tutored by members of The Martha Graham Dance Company, The Limon Dance Company, Battleworks Dance Company, Bill T. Jones/ Arnie Zane Dance Company, New York City Ballet and many more. After graduating she taught, choreographed and had involvement with The University of the West Indies (Cavehill, Barbados), Barbados Community College, The Dance Place (Barbados), The National Cultural Foundation (Barbados) and many other schools and artists in Barbados.

In 2015 she was presented with the opportunity to attend Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London, England, and in 2016 she received her Diploma in Dance Studies. After completing her studies in London she travelled to Japan where she was invited to teach and present her solo work alongside members of the Mikiyo Imai Dance Company and other artists.

Prior to starting her MFA at Florida State University she lived in Trinidad where she performed, taught, choreographed and collaborated. She has worked with The Caribbean School of Dancing, The Metamorphosis Dance Company, The University of Trinidad and Tobago, Elle InfiniTT and other artists and schools. It was at this time that she presented two more of her solo works, once at Jamaica Dance Umbrella and once at the COCO Dance Festival.

Her love of travel and eagerness to keep learning has led her to attend many dance intensives and festivals in North America, Canada, Trinidad, Hungary and Jamaica.

Courtenay searches to further develop and refine herself as an artist as she keeps advancing throughout her career. Her goal is to not only push for growth in herself but to also see growth within those around her and her community. She believes that collaboration and connecting artists and movers from all over the world plays a crucial part in developing oneself and one's community. She’s excited to start her new journey as the Artistic Director Designate of Barbados Dance Project and she is extremely thankful for the guidance, support and training that Jamal has offered her up to this point in her career. She hopes to continue to keep building the legacy that Jamal has started and to see the dance community in Barbados grow and flourish.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR - JOHN HUNTE

John Hunte is an accomplished performer and arts activist arts manager, performer, choreographer, teacher and consultant. Hunte graduated with an MFA in Performing Arts Management from Brooklyn College, New York City in 2003. Recently, Hunte received a PhD degree in cultural studies from the Faculty of Humanities and Education at the Cave Hill, Barbados Campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI). His PhD thesis, Beyond the Silence: Men, Dance and Masculinity in the Caribbean, interrogates where dance and masculinity intersect as perceived through the lens and perception of men who dance onstage. A former Cultural Officer – Dance at the National Cultural Foundation (NCF), Hunte is currently a research fellow, a part-time tutor at the Barbados Community College and temporary lecturer at the UWI Cave Hill Campus in the creative studies and cultural studies programmes. He recently completed the task of Artistic coordinator for CARIFESTA XIII held August 17 – 27, 2017 in Barbados. As General Manager and Producer with Barbados Dance Project, and Artistic Director of the BDP Ensemble, Hunte overseas ongoing choreographic process for budding dancers to collaborate with various performance projects.

ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR/REHEARSAL DIRECTOR - STEFANIE TAKEI-TAYLOR

Stefanie Takei-Taylor is a dance professional and creative entrepreneur. Born in Pasadena, California where she trained at Pasadena Dance Theatre, American Ballet Theatre, and Austin Ballet. She was a semi-finalist in the Los Angeles Music Center “Spotlight Awards” and went on to received a BFA in dance from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts as a Trustee Scholar under the direction of Linda Tarnay. She later received a Masters in Tourism Marketing from the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus. Stefanie has worked with choreographers Laurence Blake, Cherylyn Lavagnino, Doug Nielsen, Stephen Petronio, T. Lang, Brook Notary, Kyle Abraham, and Johannes Wieland before moving to Barbados. She is a founding member of Diesel Fusion Dance Theatre with Ihaia Miller and currently teaches at all the major dance academies, at Barbados Community College and UWI Cave Hill Campus and performs with many of them as requested. She had the honor to represent BDP at the Coco Dance Festival in Trinidad and at Jamaica Dance Umbrella the past few years dancing works created by Jamal Callender, Nigel Campbell, Renee I. McDonald, and Tara-Jane Herbert. She most recently represented herself at JDU in March 2020 performing the solo Strange Fruit (1943) choreographed by Pearl Primus and restaged by Mary Waithe. An experienced social media marketing consultant and director at Barbados Dance Project since April 2017, Takei-Taylor has taken a hands-on approach to the development of professional dance in Barbados sharing her knowledge and passion with the Barbadian dance community.

Co-Coordinator (Junior Programme)- Jeremy Guyton

Jeremy Guyton is a performer, choreographer, educator, alchemist, dreamer, and new world conjurer. Born and raised in Los Angeles, I was first introduced to movement styles birthed in my hometown: krump and jerking. The vibrations of the city in which I was raised tickled flesh and sinew and set the foundation for my movement vocabulary. Upon graduation from high school, my curiosity led me to the Mid-Atlantic, where I studied theatre at Georgetown University, joined a local dance crew, and absorbed the movement languages of Baltimore club and go-go music. I layered this vocabulary on top of that of my birth language, tracing the similarities in each and listening intently to the ways in which they spoke to each other. In 2008, I landed in New Orleans and immersed myself in the vocabulary of second-line footwork and bounce. I traced lines from jerking to buckjumping to wu-tanging and emerged as a tri-linguist of sorts. I spent seven years here, a life’s cycle, before transitioning into this current phase: obtaining my MFA in choreography and performance from Florida State University.⠀
Prior pursuits include: dreaming alongside artists aged 6-19 as Youth Programs Director at Dancing Ground and conjuring creative worlds with artists and companies: Solange Knowles, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Kesha McKey, Leyla McCallah and Kiyoko McCrae, Maya Taylor, KM Dance Project, Junebug Productions, B.U.K.U. Dance Krewe, and Goat in the Road Productions.

Co-Coordinator (Junior Programme)- Shea Best

Shea Best is a young Barbadian dancer, choreographer, actor and singer. His diverse background in dance primarily stems from Ballet, Jazz, Modern, Contemporary, Afro-Caribbean, Dancehall, and more recently, commercial forms of dance. In Barbados, Shea has trained extensively under many tutors including Dany Diallo Hinds, Adonia Evelyn, John Hunte, and Gene Carson, among others. His journey has taken him to be one of the first members of the NCF Summer Dance Desk Internship Programme in 2012, spearheaded by Dr. John Hunte and from here he has toured throughout the Caribbean (Cuba, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, Anguilla, Antigua) for training and performance opportunities on some of the biggest stages in the region.

Shea has worked with and continues to dance, choreograph and tour with several award-winning groups owing to his eclectic background and style. These include Dancin’ Africa, Of Another Nature, Riddim Tribe, and of course, Barbados Dance Project, from whose inception Shea was there.

Shea’s choreographic prowess gained the attention of many at NIFCA 2019 (National Independence Festival for Creative Arts) for his choreographic work “Before the Bough Breaks”, leading him to become the island’s most recent recipient of the ever-coveted Prime Minister’s Award.  He received this award among others for Best Choreographer and Best Performance. He also received The Madame Ifill Award of Excellence (awarded to the highest scoring dance entry), the UNICEF award, and a nomination for The Founder’s Trophy (awarded to the highest scoring entry across the disciplines) for having created one of the most outstanding pieces of the year 2019.