15723: This Week in Haiti 21:11 5/28/2003 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

"This Week in Haiti" is the English section of HAITI PROGRES
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                           HAITI PROGRES
              "Le journal qui offre une alternative"

                      * THIS WEEK IN HAITI *

                      May 28 - June 3, 2003
                         Vol. 21, No. 11


ONE PART HISTORY, ONE PART FOLKLORE, ONE PART BROADWAY, SHAKE AND... VOILÀ
"HAITI: THE RHYTHMS, THE DANCES, AND THE GODS"
by Kim Ives

On May 23, Jean Jean-Pierre and his colleagues in Mapou Productions brought
"Haiti: The Rhythms, the Dances, and the Gods" to Manhattan's prestigious
Carnegie Hall.

The musical extravaganza, which Jean-Pierre directed, produced and wrote,
along with long-time collaborator Paul Urhy Newman, was the New York
community's event of the season, delighting a mostly Haitian audience of
close to 3000 which packed Carnegie's Isaac Stern Auditorium on a rainy
night.

The production, which starred North American film stars Danny Glover and
Theresa Randle along with large supporting cast of Haitian musicians, was
not so much a play as a loosely-knit series of dazzling dance and musical
numbers which spanned from mournful and solemn to playful and exuberant.

Hinged on the ruminative soliloquies of Toussaint Louverture (Glover), who
led the struggle for the abolition of slavery in the French colony St.
Domingue, and his wife Suzanne (Randle), Rhythms explored the highlights of
Haitian history: the abominations of slavery, the glories and agonies of the
1791-1804 revolution, and the triumphs and promise of Haitian culture today.

Toussaint calls an ethereal summit of the revolution's foremost founding
fathers - Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Henri Christophe, and Alexandre Pétion -
to convince them that their descendants, today's Haitians, can carry through
their dreams to create a nation free from the strife and poverty which have
become its hallmarks.

Charismatic Haitian diva Emeline Michel (La Rèn Kongo) paired off with
singers Jean-Claude Eugène (Nèg Kongo) and James Germain (Msye Solèy) in a
number of singing and dancing duets. Michel's husky voice mixed particularly
well with the opera-trained Germain's honeyed but powerful alto. Erna
Letemps (Nègès Mawon), usually backed by swirling dancers and the six-person
Haiti Chorus, injected a breezy pop sensibility into her numbers. Troubadour
Boulo Valcourt (Msye Kalalou), dressed in a baggy white peasant clothes and
performing only with his guitar, sang simple and elegant Creole ballads
which enthralled the hall.

The musicians interacted gracefully with Glover and Randle. The act
"Toussaint and Suzanne: A Song Without End" was particularly poignant when
Michel and Eugène began a tender, bittersweet dance taken up and finished by
Toussaint and Suzanne. Germain received some of the loudest applause of the
evening for his masterful solo rendition of Latibonit, a Haitian traditional
favorite.

Three master drummers - Frisner Augustin, Mapou Azor, and Daniel Brévil -
arguably Haiti's best, played the roles of Dessalines, Christophe, and
Pétion respectively. In the act they shared, each displayed his drumming
prowess on individual entrance, but their attempt to play together stumbled,
perhaps over show-boating.

The most astounding performance of the evening was delivered by the
Ayikodans Dance Company, formerly known as ARTCHO, whose accomplished and
acrobatic dancers are in a league apart from the traditional folkloric
troupes. The Spartan stage, where the only prop was an imperial chair in
which Toussaint sometimes sat, provided the perfect foil for the imaginative
costumes of these professionals, which ranged from flowing white to black
stripes to outfits in hues of mango and watermelon. Their choreography
combined elements from modern dance, Broadway chorus lines, ballet,
cheerleader cartwheeling, to the old hip wagging standbys of folkloric
routines.

Ayikodans' professional consistency was matched by Jean-Pierre's 23-piece
Kiskeya orchestra, comprising conga drums, violins, guitars, and an 8-piece
horn section, with Jean-Pierre on the drum-set and Gary Topper conducting.

Haitians traveled to New York from as far away as Montreal and Miami to
attend the event. Even the Minister of Haitians Overseas, Leslie Voltaire,
and President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's chief of staff, Jean-Claude
Desgranges, flew in from Haiti.

Despite the artistic mastery on display, the message of the play was
somewhat disappointing. The writers insist and dwell on the notion that
Toussaint was betrayed by the other founding fathers, a version of history
which is, at the very least, in dispute and favored by French historians.
More indisputably, Toussaint, St. Domingue's governor, was betrayed by
France, who captured him in 1802 and locked him up in a freezing prison cell
in the French Pyrenees where he died on Apr. 7, 1803.

It is ironic that Rhythms, produced in the framework of Haiti's bicentennial
celebrations, should lionize Toussaint at the expense of his lieutenants.
Toussaint was merciless and brutal in enforcing the colony's attachment to
France and the former slaves' loyalty and productivity to their former
colonial masters. After Toussaint's capture, Dessalines united the
factionalized generals of former slaves and freedmen to fight for
independence.

But in Rhythms, these leaders of the independence war are treated harshly.
In Suzanne's review of them, Christophe is "so cruel" with his "brutal grip
on power" while the mulatto Pétion "hid his pride in the color of his skin"
and "his love for decoration never overcame the repulsion that he felt for
his own grandmother." Dessalines, upon whom colonial historians always heap
the most vilification, is summed up as "our rage... In his rage, he scorched
our earth until there's nothing but dreams... charcoal and dreams."

Rhythms is the second presentation at Carnegie Hall of Mapou Productions,
which was founded in 1995 by Jean-Pierre with fellow Rockland County
resident and film director Jonathon Demme, human rights lawyer Michael
Ratner, and others. Friday's successful performance will certainly add to
the repute of the company.

Interviewed after the show, Glover explained that Toussaint "is one of my
heroes. He's one of the great men of history. And just for that brief moment
to be him, was just beyond words, beyond description."

Glover is also working to produce a movie, to be filmed in Haiti, based on
Toussaint's life. "We're working on the project right now, and we hope we
can get it done soon," he told Haïti Progrès. "We hope to shoot sometime
next year during the bicentennial, hopefully within the next year to 15
months."

Legendes:
(Gerry, Jamie, TAKE NOTE, CREDIT AT END OF LEGENDE)

1) (Carnegiejpegs3/Haiti014) Actors Danny Glover and Theresa Randle, as
Toussaint and Suzanne L'Ouverture, waltz in a poignant scene. (Credit: Naomi
Camilleri)

2) (Carnegiejpegs3/Haiti011) Singer Erna Letemps with the Ayikodans Dance
Company. (Credit: Naomi Camilleri)


3) (Danny Glover & Jean Jean-Pierre...) After the show, Danny Glover with
Mapou Production's Jean Jean-Pierre. (Credit: Kim Ives/Haïti Progrès)


All articles copyrighted Haïti Progrès, Inc. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED.
Please credit Haïti Progrès.

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