NEWARK, NJ: Forces of Nature Dance Company presents a Kwanzaa Celebration at NJPAC
Company:
Forces of Nature Dance Company
“Abdel R. Salaam’s choreography is unusual, transcendent, ecstatic! It’s imaginative fused ideas… Visualized against an amalgam of rhythms… Was the spirit of positive energy… Truly a welcome gift!”
– Attitude: The Dancers’ Magazine
NJPAC is thrilled to welcome back an audience favorite!
Forces of Nature Dance Theatre continues to annual tradition of presenting Kwanzaa dance celebrations! For two consecutive weekends, the Harlem-based dance troupe performs first in Newark, NJ, at NJPAC followed by The Apollo in Harlem. Forces of Nature Dance Theatre presents a festive Kwanzaa celebration that combines traditional West African and neo-African dance, hip hop, ballet, contemporary modern dance and martial arts. It’s a powerful homage to the ancestors—an invitation to connect—and a vibrant way to honor the holiday with the entire family. Joining the company on the NJPAC stage this year will be more than a dozen young hip-hop dancers from the Harlem Children’s Zone.
Utilizing a unique blend of performing arts, including modern dance, traditional West African dance, live and recorded music, and the martial arts, Forces of Nature specializes in choreo-dramatic theater, earning the praise of critics and audiences wherever they perform. Forces of Nature’s cultural matrix is centered in an African and an American intelligence that is global and environmental. Its aesthetic has been critically acclaimed as visceral, thought provoking and creatively brilliant. Executive Artistic Director/Choreographer Abdel R. Salaam and Executive Managing Director Olabamidele Husbands (a Rahway, New Jersey, native who grew up in the Newark school system) co-founded the company in 1981. Salaam’s choreography has been described as “a collage of ballet, modern, and African movements, performed with exacting beauty (Dance Magazine).”
In recent years Forces of Nature received the Kwanzaa 50th Anniversary Award in Excellence from the Apollo Theater, The Kuumba Award from the New York Kwanzaa Holiday Foundation, The 41st Annual Dance Company of the Year Audelco Recognition for Excellence in Black Theater, and the 2017 Outstanding Production Bessie Award for the “Healing Sevens”.
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