Jamal Jackson Dance Company at TRISKELION ARTS
Company:
TRISKELION ARTS
Brooklyn, NY – Triskelion Arts is pleased to present Jamal Jackson Dance Company’s grEeneR grASsEs, a work
that explores flight, hope, and the value placed on our land.
Jamal Jackson Dance Company (JJDC) was founded in 2004 with the purpose of fusing various traditional African
dance styles with Modern and Hip Hop techniques and diverse contemporary music styles in order to create a new,
unique technique that is relevant to a multifarious community of Americans. The movement and story-lines of JJDC
choreography focus on redefining ideas of community and blurring divisive lines, while still celebrating the beauty of
individual cultures. Jackson has a strong desire to not only entertain and educate an audience but to pass on dance
tradition to people of all ages.
Jamal Jackson 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. Jamalchoreographed for the New York Arts Festival and
Inaya Day in 2002, marking the beginning of his African based, modern technique. Jamal performed with Ballet
International Africans for two seasons as a principal dancer and in 2004 he founded the Jamal Jackson Dance
Company. Jamal Jackson Dance Company has established a strong presence in and out of New York City, performing
year-round in festivals, self-produced shows, community outreach programs and private events. The company’s work
has been presented at venues including Mark Morris Dance Center, Jacob’s Pillow, NYC Summerstage Concert
Series, DanceNow Festival, Dance Theater Workshop, Battery Downtown Dance Festival, Brooklyn Arts Exchange,
Brown University, The Brooklyn Museum, Equality Now’s 20th Anniversary, Big Range Festival in Austin, TX, The
Yard in Martha’s Vineyard, MA, Performance Spaces for the 21st Century in Chatham, NY, the GSUSA National
Convention in Salt Lake City, Utah, the Abundance Festival in Karlstad, Sweden, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and
Triskelion Arts.
“...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, OffOffOff.com
“Burton faces us confidently at the end, she embodies strength. The ultimate goal of a dance work is to connect to its
audience and it is refreshing to see an accumulation of work that has our interest in mind.” -Dance Enthusiast
“Then in “Mile 21,” a more spatially complex work, Ms. Thomas hurtled on the scene, and the whole air onstage
relaxed with her. The way she took command of the stage space and arrived with the beat was a great pleasure.”
- Alastair Macaulay, New York Times
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