 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Tamla Matthews
Tamla Matthews has been dancing for over 12 years as an active member of the dance community. She started as a youngster with Scarborough Caribbean Youth Dance Ensemble, and through them developed artistically, eventually making her directorial debut in 1995 with their production entitled “Remember When,” followed by “The Journey” in 1996, and then “From Drum To Pan” in 1998, all of which she co-directed with the well-known Trinidadian director, Louis MacWilliams. With the success of “Remember When,” “The Journey,” and “From Drum to Pan,” Tamla progressed to leading in the co-direction of “Sistahs,” which was produced with the participation of Up From The Roots. Tamla currently remains involved in Scarborough Caribbean Youth Dance Ensemble as the Artistic and Cultural Director.
A member of the Up From The Roots artists collective, Tamla Matthews performs as a solo artist across North America and has worked with numerous groups such as Dance Caribe Performing Company, Hummingbird Dance Company, Danze Arte, Tropicana, African Canadian Diabetes Prevention Program, SAPACCY, Nikki Toussaint, and the list continues. Memorable performances include a tribute piece presented to Quincy Jones at the Leaders of Vision Award, and her principle role in the Theatre WUM production of Memphis, which theatrically examines the last days of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s life. Furthermore, Tamla has spare-headed workshops, classes, and seminars across the GTA in schools, companies, and conferences, including the “If You Can Walk, You Can Dance” workshop series and Reggaerobics/Socasize.
Tamla eventually co-founded Caribbean Dance Theatre (CDT) in 1995, for which she is both the artistic director and choreographer. Being trained in a variety of dance styles, her work tends to fuse together traditional Afro-Caribbean dance with modern, ballet, and jazz technique, creating a fresh contemporary outlook on Caribbean culture, more importantly, from her perspective as a first-generation Canadian woman of Caribbean heritage. Through CDT, Tamla explores various themes and issues surrounding and experienced by blacks, women, Caribbean culture, and most importantly individuals living in such a dynamically diverse society.
Matthews has definitely arrived as an artist in the Toronto cultural production scene as her choreography can be seen in a variety of settings, ranging from large public events like the Waterloo Drum Festival to the Caribana festival, prestige occasions like the Harry Jerome Awards to the Canadian Reggae Music Awards, and even the most intimate experiences of worship and weddings. Tamla has also choreographed the Miss West Indies Pageant. Additionally, she has done video work with major Toronto artists Jay Money and Donna Makeda, with whom she also opened major concerts such as Capelton, and Buju Banton.
Recent publications on Tamla Matthews include DiversityNow.ca’s article “My Story: Giving Through Dance” and television documentaries by The Life Network “Sex, Tools, and Chocolates” and “Around the Issue” with Maher, on which she discusses the state of race relations in Canada.
Matthews, Albright, and Identity
In meeting with Tamla Matthews, she communicated that her main goal was to express herself through dance. It is through dance that she can express all angles of being Caribbean, a woman, or any other issues that may impact her life experiences. “My work is about identity, and about reconciling different identities as a first-generation Canadian, with Caribbean parentage, who have ties to Africa. So there’s all that lineage, trying to express that in dance” says Tamla. Feeling very connected to Trinidad, having been there and spent time there, Tamla holds a constructed, yet vivid memory of tradition even though she has not experienced it. Especially where dance is concerned, it is very interesting how this memory manifests itself considering that everything she knows about dance from that region has been interpreted to her, because Tamla never danced in Trinidad, or had a dance life there. Matthews attributes this memory to when she was young, learning Caribbean dance, as they learned all the back-home folk dances.
Autobiography, like dance, is situated at the intersection of bodily experience and cultural representation. Meaning literally “to write one’s life,” autobiography draws its inspiration from one’s being-in-the-world—that complex and often contradictory interaction of individual perspective and cultural meaning—translating one’s life experience into a written text or, perhaps, a dance. Although it is self-referential, autobiography nonetheless assumes an audience, engaging in a reciprocal dialogue in which a story about my life helps you to think about your life. How these personal stories are mediated by the representation, that is, how one’s (auto) life (bio) is written (graphy), and how the inevitable gap between my experience and yours is bridged, makes for a very interesting geography of discourses.1
Tamla does aim to bridge the gap between the varied experiences and discourses, as part of her mission is to challenge what people think Caribbean dance is, can do, and in the process, who Caribbean people are. Moreover, Matthews touched the importance for her to connect her kids at Scarborough Caribbean Youth Dance Ensemble with something in the past, to strengthen their sense of identity. Even the idea behind having a reggaerobics/socasize class is to keep the music Caribbean and target Caribbean people…trying to complete that connection with their heritage. At the same time, as Tamla develops and grows within life, different influences affect her, including contemporary culture to which she said, “I’m sure that will creep into my work.” But it is easy to already observe contemporary influence in Tamla’s style since a good number of her pieces are choreographed to contemporary music and spoken word.
In her book The Body and Identity in Contemporary Dance: Choreographing Difference, Ann Cooper Albright also discusses the lack of forum or space for non-Western culture to express itself in the past.
For a long time in Western culture, however, only certain lives, those circumscribed by the guilt frames of public prestige and power, were deemed worthy of recitation. These life stories recorded the triumphs and exploits of heroes and statesmen, reinforcing enlightenment conceptualizations of the universal self (complete with classical body).2
The effects of this silencing are still present not only in the Caribbean community, but the overall black community as well. “As a community there’s lots of stuff we don’t talk about…we’re very conservative people, we tend to be, so there’s lots of societal and political things we don’t talk about. And I would like dance to be a vehicle for that kind of expression,” say Tamla. She and the additional co-founders of Caribbean Dance Theatre’s partial purpose of starting the group was to raise the bar by putting Caribbean dance in a theatre setting. Matthews feels that people don’t normally take Caribbean dance seriously or think it can be more than eye candy.
Traditional epics tend, generally, to celebrate conquest and the lives of warrior statesmen. By contrast, these contemporary African-American epics celebrate and honor the legacy of a people who have survived conquest; heroism is located not in the defeater, but rather in the spirit of those who have refused to be defeated.3
Tamla explains how while people thought other forms of dance were beautiful—in example ballet, jazz, etc.—and described it with a real elegance or the dancers as being delicate, people of African Diasporas were expected to be the barefoot hoofers stomping away. For this reason Matthews believes it is important for dancers, black dancers on a whole in specific, to feel and display beauty on stage. By this it will let people see that yes this group of people are beautiful on the outside, but at the same time there may be stuff going on within that is not so beautiful.
To find out more about her work, services, and CDT directly, you can contact Tamla Matthews at dance@upfromtheroots.ca, or visit www.upfromtheroots.ca.
An interview was done with Tamla Matthews on Thursday, March 11, 2004, which explores the mission, culture, identity, and responsibility behind her work. To view the complete interview or specific questions/responses, -goto My work is about identity!
To find out more about Caribbean Dance Theatre.
Footnotes
1 Albright, Ann Cooper. The Body and Identity in Contemporary Dance: Choreographing Difference. Hanover: Weslayen University Press, 1997. pp. 119
2 Albright, Ann Cooper. The Body and Identity in Contemporary Dance: Choreographing Difference. Hanover: Weslayen University Press, 1997. pp. 122
3 Ibid. pp. 151
Tamla Matthews has been dancing for over 12 years as an active member of the dance community. She started as a youngster with Scarborough Caribbean Youth Dance Ensemble, and through them developed artistically, eventually making her directorial debut in 1995 with their production entitled “Remember When,” followed by “The Journey” in 1996, and then “From Drum To Pan” in 1998, all of which she co-directed with the well-known Trinidadian director, Louis MacWilliams. With the success of “Remember When,” “The Journey,” and “From Drum to Pan,” Tamla progressed to leading in the co-direction of “Sistahs,” which was produced with the participation of Up From The Roots. Tamla currently remains involved in Scarborough Caribbean Youth Dance Ensemble as the Artistic and Cultural Director.
A member of the Up From The Roots artists collective, Tamla Matthews performs as a solo artist across North America and has worked with numerous groups such as Dance Caribe Performing Company, Hummingbird Dance Company, Danze Arte, Tropicana, African Canadian Diabetes Prevention Program, SAPACCY, Nikki Toussaint, and the list continues. Memorable performances include a tribute piece presented to Quincy Jones at the Leaders of Vision Award, and her principle role in the Theatre WUM production of Memphis, which theatrically examines the last days of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s life. Furthermore, Tamla has spare-headed workshops, classes, and seminars across the GTA in schools, companies, and conferences, including the “If You Can Walk, You Can Dance” workshop series and Reggaerobics/Socasize.
Tamla eventually co-founded Caribbean Dance Theatre (CDT) in 1995, for which she is both the artistic director and choreographer. Being trained in a variety of dance styles, her work tends to fuse together traditional Afro-Caribbean dance with modern, ballet, and jazz technique, creating a fresh contemporary outlook on Caribbean culture, more importantly, from her perspective as a first-generation Canadian woman of Caribbean heritage. Through CDT, Tamla explores various themes and issues surrounding and experienced by blacks, women, Caribbean culture, and most importantly individuals living in such a dynamically diverse society.
Matthews has definitely arrived as an artist in the Toronto cultural production scene as her choreography can be seen in a variety of settings, ranging from large public events like the Waterloo Drum Festival to the Caribana festival, prestige occasions like the Harry Jerome Awards to the Canadian Reggae Music Awards, and even the most intimate experiences of worship and weddings. Tamla has also choreographed the Miss West Indies Pageant. Additionally, she has done video work with major Toronto artists Jay Money and Donna Makeda, with whom she also opened major concerts such as Capelton, and Buju Banton.
Recent publications on Tamla Matthews include DiversityNow.ca’s article “My Story: Giving Through Dance” and television documentaries by The Life Network “Sex, Tools, and Chocolates” and “Around the Issue” with Maher, on which she discusses the state of race relations in Canada.
Matthews, Albright, and Identity
In meeting with Tamla Matthews, she communicated that her main goal was to express herself through dance. It is through dance that she can express all angles of being Caribbean, a woman, or any other issues that may impact her life experiences. “My work is about identity, and about reconciling different identities as a first-generation Canadian, with Caribbean parentage, who have ties to Africa. So there’s all that lineage, trying to express that in dance” says Tamla. Feeling very connected to Trinidad, having been there and spent time there, Tamla holds a constructed, yet vivid memory of tradition even though she has not experienced it. Especially where dance is concerned, it is very interesting how this memory manifests itself considering that everything she knows about dance from that region has been interpreted to her, because Tamla never danced in Trinidad, or had a dance life there. Matthews attributes this memory to when she was young, learning Caribbean dance, as they learned all the back-home folk dances.
Autobiography, like dance, is situated at the intersection of bodily experience and cultural representation. Meaning literally “to write one’s life,” autobiography draws its inspiration from one’s being-in-the-world—that complex and often contradictory interaction of individual perspective and cultural meaning—translating one’s life experience into a written text or, perhaps, a dance. Although it is self-referential, autobiography nonetheless assumes an audience, engaging in a reciprocal dialogue in which a story about my life helps you to think about your life. How these personal stories are mediated by the representation, that is, how one’s (auto) life (bio) is written (graphy), and how the inevitable gap between my experience and yours is bridged, makes for a very interesting geography of discourses.1
Tamla does aim to bridge the gap between the varied experiences and discourses, as part of her mission is to challenge what people think Caribbean dance is, can do, and in the process, who Caribbean people are. Moreover, Matthews touched the importance for her to connect her kids at Scarborough Caribbean Youth Dance Ensemble with something in the past, to strengthen their sense of identity. Even the idea behind having a reggaerobics/socasize class is to keep the music Caribbean and target Caribbean people…trying to complete that connection with their heritage. At the same time, as Tamla develops and grows within life, different influences affect her, including contemporary culture to which she said, “I’m sure that will creep into my work.” But it is easy to already observe contemporary influence in Tamla’s style since a good number of her pieces are choreographed to contemporary music and spoken word.
In her book The Body and Identity in Contemporary Dance: Choreographing Difference, Ann Cooper Albright also discusses the lack of forum or space for non-Western culture to express itself in the past.
For a long time in Western culture, however, only certain lives, those circumscribed by the guilt frames of public prestige and power, were deemed worthy of recitation. These life stories recorded the triumphs and exploits of heroes and statesmen, reinforcing enlightenment conceptualizations of the universal self (complete with classical body).2
The effects of this silencing are still present not only in the Caribbean community, but the overall black community as well. “As a community there’s lots of stuff we don’t talk about…we’re very conservative people, we tend to be, so there’s lots of societal and political things we don’t talk about. And I would like dance to be a vehicle for that kind of expression,” say Tamla. She and the additional co-founders of Caribbean Dance Theatre’s partial purpose of starting the group was to raise the bar by putting Caribbean dance in a theatre setting. Matthews feels that people don’t normally take Caribbean dance seriously or think it can be more than eye candy.
Traditional epics tend, generally, to celebrate conquest and the lives of warrior statesmen. By contrast, these contemporary African-American epics celebrate and honor the legacy of a people who have survived conquest; heroism is located not in the defeater, but rather in the spirit of those who have refused to be defeated.3
Tamla explains how while people thought other forms of dance were beautiful—in example ballet, jazz, etc.—and described it with a real elegance or the dancers as being delicate, people of African Diasporas were expected to be the barefoot hoofers stomping away. For this reason Matthews believes it is important for dancers, black dancers on a whole in specific, to feel and display beauty on stage. By this it will let people see that yes this group of people are beautiful on the outside, but at the same time there may be stuff going on within that is not so beautiful.
To find out more about her work, services, and CDT directly, you can contact Tamla Matthews at dance@upfromtheroots.ca, or visit www.upfromtheroots.ca.
An interview was done with Tamla Matthews on Thursday, March 11, 2004, which explores the mission, culture, identity, and responsibility behind her work. To view the complete interview or specific questions/responses, -goto My work is about identity!
To find out more about Caribbean Dance Theatre.
Footnotes
1 Albright, Ann Cooper. The Body and Identity in Contemporary Dance: Choreographing Difference. Hanover: Weslayen University Press, 1997. pp. 119
2 Albright, Ann Cooper. The Body and Identity in Contemporary Dance: Choreographing Difference. Hanover: Weslayen University Press, 1997. pp. 122
3 Ibid. pp. 151