The 42nd performance of the National Dance Theatre Company’s Morning of Movement and Music will be a tribute to Barbara Requa, a founding member who died in February of this year.

The sunrise event, which is presented in association with the Little Theatre Movement, will take place on Sunday, April 9, 2023, at the Little Theatre.

Requa, who also co-founded the School of Dance at Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts, was one of the pioneers of dance education in Jamaica and the region. The company will perform an excerpt from one of her signature works, as well as Easter-themed music and dance works.

Under the artistic and musical direction of Marlon D Simms and acting Musical Director Dr Kathy Brown, respectively, the event will include the premier of a new dance, We Celebrate… We believe, choreographed by long-standing members Keita-Marie Chamberlain Clarke and Patrick Earle, while Ballet Mistress Kerry-Ann Henry will dance Clive Thompson’s solo work from Phases of the Moon.

Other works will include excerpts of Rex Nettleford’s Katrina and Tintinabulum, and Simms’ Homeland.

A special addition to the programme will be poem read by Anthony A Miller.

The presentation will close with the inspiring musical arrangement of Noel Dexter’s Psalm 150 with choreography by Nettleford.

The cast of dancers will be led Mark Phinn, Tamara Noel, Marisa Benain, Kevin Moore, Patrick Earle Phillip Earle, and Paul Newman. They will be supported by new generation dancers, Joelle Flimn, Kanille Brudy, Dannielle Mullings, Dwauntea Chambers, Kamloy Thomas, Navesha Vickers, Damario Gútzmer, Matthew Richards, and Amaya Gomes.

The musical presentation will feature three new singers — soprano Paulan Henry, contralto Charis Cayetano, and tenor Andrew Laidley, alongside the familiar talent for which the group is known.

Among the musical highlights will be Dr Brown’s arrangement of Eye of the Sparrow and Jerusalem, with soloist Debrah-Ann Rosewelt-Miller.

The production will be supported by the team of creative musicians and technicians.

Patrons are asked to be seated by 5:45 am on Easter Sunday.