THE name Professor Rex Nettleford and the National Dance Theatre Company (NDTC) have become synonymous, and therefore there was always concern about the quality of choreography to be staged by the company in the wake of his passing.

That question has been answered in fine form with some of the new works mounted by young choreographers during the NDTC’s current season.

On opening night the standout among the new works was clearly …minutes and seconds choreographed by Kerry Ann Henry and Momo Sanno. The engaging duet executed by ballet mistress Henry and dance captain Marlon Simms was a tutorial in the erotic and athletic properties of the body as both dancers treated the audience to a technically sound presentation. It is clear that this twosome makes an awesome pairing, their chemistry is palpable, one remembers them most recently in the Easter Sunday excerpt from Edna M.

Henry who has a penchant for dancing with every fibre in her body, is ably supported by the always-technical Simms. They take their bodies from supple, limbre moments to strong, solid movements, creating much-appreciated texture within the piece. Their moments together earned them spontaneous applause throughout this work.

The audience was no less appreciative for the night’s other new work, The Thin Line.

Dancer Natalie Chung makes her debut as choroeographer with this piece, which one patron commented, “an excellent piece of dance theatre”.

The piece which speaks to the ups and downs of love, is dramatically brought to life by an expressive Tamara Noel in the role of the seductress.

Although it is one of the company’s remounts this season, Barre Talk, choreographed by Oneil Pryce and brought to life by the full company of dancers was also a stand out. One never knew the ballet bar, that fixture along the mirrored walls of a dance studio could prove to be such a source for exploration and excitement.

Pryce’s movement saw the dancers taking on gymnastic qualities as they mounted, straddled, swung from and made the bars their own like children in a dance class whose teacher has stepped out for a moment, or better yet, has not shown up for class. The piece comes full circle by the close of the piece as the dancers after utilising the bars in all sorts of unorthodox fashions return to the basics of ballet by completing grand and demi-pliés.

The work of Nettleford is never far as the performance is buttressed by his work. For openers there was his 1979 work Drumscore, with its driving live accompaniment and exciting climax, while the curtains come down following the colourful signature Gerrehbentah from 1983, which never fails to have patrons leaving the performance singing… rain an breeze oh, take off yuh clothes and just inna rain aha… when yuh see rain a set, take off yuh clothes and just inna rain aha…