artloft is brought to you by where there is freedom there is expression the Florida Keys and Key West and the friends of South Florida PBS artloft is the pulse of what's happening in our own backyard as well as the taste of the Arts across the United States in this episode we go in-depth on Peter London dancer choreographer teacher and artistic director of the Peter London Global Dance Company the movement has to be inevitable as M says the movement have to have several things in order of fa to speak clearly to the H so it has to have a sense of inevitability which mean you can't get to the next movement until you completely fulfill the movement prior the movement it has to have Clarity and it has to have precision and it also have to be imbued with passion from the heart stay tuned for this very personal episode Peter London danced with Jose Lon and Mar or Graham now he's teaching another generation what he learned from them as well as the history of traditional dances he learned growing up in Trinidad many of his former students are now at the very peak of the profession the Peter London Global Dance Company features a fusion of African Caribbean ballet and modern dance he talked to artloft about the joy and responsibility of having his own company having my own Dance Company I get to number one work with the dancers to develop their own voice and their Spiritual Development it's not a religion because there's no religion attached to it but for them to have a safe space to explore their own spiritual awareness and Consciousness and give them that space and that's what the plg DC is giving them that space to do that and to find that so there's no interference at all with them they come in they have their space they work and they do and I guide them through that and so on so and I don't have to do a lot of guiding because the people that I bring in or join it they already have a sense of what that is right left right left turn your left and one get you I started with him in 2019 at the African Heritage culture art center he was looking for a group of young men to dance in his black men stories and I'm now a company member as of last year December he is very spiritual and he loves on every one of his company members which is a big reason why I was so ecstatic to join the company and and also cuz I'm in school too so he was really lenient with me in between school and here cuz I go to school in Michigan I'm a sophomore BFA musical theater major and he's been really leening enough and really nice enough to have me here a company member and also in school so he's just such a kind heart he was actually my teacher at newor School of the Arts um so I've been um I worked with him for four years and then after I graduated he called me to be a part of the company so I'm just very grateful for that and um I feel like working with him in school definitely helped move back move back move back move Peter London is like you never know what to expect it just keeps you on your toes and it's very challenging and it keeps you keep you moving forward position position four that sweet sweet5 when he gives notes he always gives you a backstory to why you're doing what you're doing it's not just steps like there's a story behind every movement that you do two three four the first time I saw dance I was 6 years old in the Yuba temple in the evening the rituals will start where they honored the ancestors and the orisha so as a child I would go to the rituals and and part of the reason too is I get to see all the dancing in the Yuba religion they dance vigin so that was my first dance training and when the rituals were over they allowed the children to come in and pretend they're dancing and they play the drums and we sort of imitate the you know the adults at 12 years old they bought in Esau Fraser who was a drummer and a um an army man and uh he started the dance group and there was a Sensei that started the The Karate group I was in both but Falling on that concrete was too much for my bones so I quit that and stayed with the dancing so that was the first formal training of SE po dances the dances from that we retain from the Congo from the Igbo from s Leon the Tes and Dem uh people with the K manes the mandingos all those dances from West Africa and we learned everything because you had you the costume the music the Rhythm where these dances came from and so on and so forth so you get you got a full education when you're doing the dances we know where they came from my first International tour was when I was 17 we did Kye fester in Kuba in 1979 and also to Canada and at that point I joined a contemporary dance company that's Johns repit dance theater and so that's when I started balet Classical Ballet training at Caribbean School of dancing so I was doing as joh Repertory Dance Theater directing the folk dance group and going to ballet school and joined the ballet school company and then by 20 age 23 around that time I decided I wanted to fuse the ballet the African dance and the contemporary dance the Horton technique and all of that and then to choreograph using these techniques and I was like where am I going to get I want the best I want it from the Masters and said where is that well we had several students from the ballet school and other places had already graduated from juliad and other people going to juliard I said well that's the place to go because I saw them they were phenomenal when they came back this dance is um Children of the underground the idea the concept is a lot of the secular dance originated with the with the uh sacred dances so you can see movements that might be done in a uh orisha feast in in the carnival dance in the Calypso and so on and so forth and then we take that like out in New York and you know the carnival dances in Trinidad but like in New York I go out and you go to like s Factory bar and in there the Reva they came from the Bronx Brooklyn Harlem New Jersey some of far as Philadelphia Adelphia and Saturday night it would be a party scene and people would danceing like a Congo square and folks would dance you saw some of the most incredible dancing and it's all improv but you see it you see the origin is African you know some of them don't even actually know that it's just in their DNA and the Rhythm and the music and it just comes out you know but I could identify you know this is from the Congo maybe this is from here this is from there cuz these are the dances we do in Trinidad but the kids would tear it up in the clubs and so the idea is that from the the sacred to the secular and from the secular back to the sacred and that's what the stance is about the space is created for them to explore and do that and bring that up to a high level because what we're doing is sharing light with our community and that light could be inspiring and it could be healing as it's inspiring for us and healing for us and so it's Community work you know spiritual Community work and attached to A's enter there's a level of entertainment we go into the theater and we put on costumes and makeup and there's music and we entertain you but that's not the core of what it is we're doing what we're doing is spiritual healing Divine energies from the Multiverse that's flooding through us move through us and hit you like a a vibrational storm and Shake you up just is the same experience that I had when the dancers were put possessed in the Yuba temple in Trinidad right what happened and you see people getting possessed and tumbling and falling and the druming broom broom and the chanting and that song that vibration come from that voice straight into your heart and you start to quiver and vibrate from that it's all vibration and energy coming at you and so that is what my company is about that divine vibration that's coming from the Multiverse coming through this orb and then back into the people there and then they give it back even if they're not aware then they give it back to us not just with the applaud but it bounces back to us so we having a communication we're communicating with each other on spiritual level whether they're aware of it or not that's happening and then remember the energy vibrations are not static everything is moving at rates of speed that we cannot even contemplate the rate of speed everything starts to move everything and nothing is solid nothing at all is solid and everything is music music five six 7 and okay hold on so this elbow actually have to go down to the floor on a diagonal that's where it's going that's the direction yes down to that floor on a diagonal ready down diagonally down keep your torso down what is this this is a elev you go up on Elevate ground batm can I see that please and up up and get your hands out there this is a lightning like a lightning strike and the sound of and then the foot is the thunder when you come down it's that Thunder boom boom from the top okay can you back up a little bit so you do not like directly in front of her okay take him up take him up there you go okay okay this this needs to this needs to sweep the floor to come across now sweep it that's right okay go get him go get him go get him I said what I said okay Walk On By don't just be looking at in the front and doing the steps relate to her throughout the duet look at her look at her look look at her when you come around okay Alvin came in and he came backstage backstage at the theater at juliad and he's like I want you to dance with my company Alvin is big guy and I'm sweating I just finished and I said no and he says what do you mean no I said I can't he said what do you mean can't I said no I can't he said well you know 300 people sometimes show up to my audition I don't ask people to to dance my company they come to the audition and I'm inviting you and you tell me no I says well I'm a freshman he said you're a freshman I said yes I just got here he says where are you from anyway where's that accent from I said I'm from Trinidad he says oh I see Jeffrey holder and he and Jeffrey all are very close they knew each other when they danc in the House of Flowers on Broadway back in the in the 50s and I says no it's not like that I I was just a freshman and I want to do my BFA I want to get he says okay well come on down and see me because you I saw Jose dance and you know you remind me of Jose lion so come on down and see me and I went down to see him the next week and he gave me a full scholarship I would take class at juliad and put on my my stuff and jump in the train and run down and take my class with Denise Jefferson and a Kelvin otard who was also from Trinidad and a company member there and Ralph farington and and then I will put on keep my tights on and put on my winter clothes and jump on the train and run back up to Juliet for my rehearsals I did that for like four years back and forth between Juliet and the ear school yeah it was fantastic and Alvin was wonderful then they sent me to dance with the Jos lion dance company in my last year Jewel yard so Alvin was waiting for me Peggy Lyman had already talk spoken to the G people about me and ask me when I'm coming over and so I had to make a decision do I go and work with maag Gham Alvin Aly or still with Jose Leon and I decided I was going to go with Matha Graham because of the theatrical and the theater that reminded me of the Yuba ceremonies I had to come down to the studio to tell Alvin and then I said Alvin I'm not going to take the job and he just froze silence oh man silence I like oh my God what do I do what do I do what do I do and it seemed like an eternity of time but it wasn't I changed my mind so as just as I was going to say okay Alvin I'm going to take the job he turned to me and says pet these are his exact words because it's seed in my mind he turned to me and says Peter in that big sudden Peter Martha Grim is a very important person in the dance world you're a young man go ahead and do it and if it doesn't work out come on back the door is always open to you that's what Alvin said to me and then I had to go over to Martha she's sitting there in a purple outfit with a black scarf around her head a hon outfit and then she said to me I heard you were here I want you to dance with me and my company just like that looking at me phys and I had an out of body experience I literally had a phenomenal I just my my my soul whatever it is left me and I'm looking down going my life has just changed and I'm there just staring at Martha and she's look if you knew Martha Grim when Mara looked at you she's not looking at you she's looking through your soul she's looking straight into your soul into pineal gland if you really know that's how she looked at Matha would look at you she's not talking to the body she's talking to the soul so once I got in I was working on something and you know I had had to rest my knees and she said Peter get up show me how to be a shaman I was like what kind of Shaman I was like what sh I said show me how to be a shaman show me a shaman and I like well what sort of Shaman do you want I said a shaman and I said well this is Native American Indian Shaman you being Shaman she says I I want a shaman show me move and the whole company is there and I don't know what to do this is my first time working with Martha at this level in the company as a company member and she I said show show me a shaman and I was like what do I do I like what kind of Shaman this is the F like I said again the first time I get with the maag G I do not know what to do and I was like sh bring in Shango bringing one of the orishas and so I I brought in Shango and oun the God of War Shango the god of thunder and shangu is the god of the dance and I just started doing all that movement incorporating some of the gam technique and she's like now move over here live and man lift him and so on and so forth and that's how I got the principal role in N thank you for my six from six years old all that experience from the orisha uh dances and from the temple that is how I I started my uh principal work with and working with Mara Graham it was my education in Trinidad in the Uber Temple at 6 years old we have enjoyed his dance for quite a long time it's just so energetic particularly with his Caribbean dance and so creative and he's Incorporated a lot of you know the African Caribbean roots and I am from St Lucia so I am akin to that and it brings me back as well as he shares the wealth of knowledge of the Caribbean culture with everybody else who attends the performance he's um first and foremost a teacher he um is a professor of dance at the New World School of the Arts and I've seen him work with uh really young ones in dance all the way up through high school and college he is full of enthusiasm about about everything he does he loves his dancers and you can tell because they're very loyal to him and they come back often for repeat performances Peter is top of the top I don't teach chorus dances I teach principal dances I teach you to perform at the Paris opera house that's where I teach you to perform there that's the work and it's brutal cuz you have to work very quickly at a very high level with many different dimensions coming at you at the same time to prepare them so when they go out they don't have to be retrained again and start from scratch you can walk right in to the Alvin American dance company or the hose zon or to Matha gram and that's what I've been doing for the past number of years we not here doing class you're operating on Quantum thinking and so the actual technical thing move your hip here and move your foot here those are building muscles and giving you information of how to move the craft of the body but the driving forces is constantly opening them up for those Divine energies to plunge through them but you have to create a space you have to and you have to talk to them in a certain way and you you have to watch them each person watch them every movement they make up up up going up to the guards and up and go up higher each one is different and you have to work with each one absolutely separately on their own time pushing them pulling them yeah they called a student because they're in an institution but not they're not students they're Divine beings and if you're working with them at that level it's a very deep commitment I work with them the way my teachers work with me in Trinidad and the way Martha Graham worked with me and Alvin worked with me I'm not teaching them a class I'm training them to manifest their spiritual being it's spiritual work at at the end of it's spiritual work we taking you on a Journey the more I get the more I pass it on on to them you know yes I got the commission from D Center and I could chra and but if I didn't pass on to Jamal or somebody else what happens we have to push keep pushing them forward keep passing the batt on because that's what I felt from all my teachers I brought Jamal in for the first rehearsal and he connected with them and produced a most magnificent balet you know together with another brilliant spiritually connected Divine being aan Charles as a composer he also knows all about the Aruba and the the retention of African music and dance so in his composition for Jamar Roberts he actually uses he he goes in and draws in the omay from the orisha dances the OM rhythm is there are three drums there's the mother drum the big one then the second and then the small tiny one that's played with two sticks is the omay and you hear that in that and man it is phenomenal it takes you on a journey and Lloyd night Lloyd is phenomenal I remember when Lloyd came here and he first got into the classes you know he says H Peter I want you know he wants to go fast and no more I he says do you teach classes anywhere else I says well I teach class at the dance Empire in South Miami that's way down sou but it's for babies I teach eight and nine year olds but he kept insisting can I come Lloyd uh came in to take the classes and then from here you know straight into the Graham company now he's there for 18 years one of the little babies was Justin rapperport who actually came to New School of the Arts then to Juliet and then with dance Empire and won the Copenhagen prize of the the 14th International modern dance competition recently those of you who uh watch us and try to help get the word out to celebrate what all these uh wonderful young people are doing not just in my company but all the other companies and schools and so on and so forth in this community in Miami and the communities around the country the United States and all the people in the background who never get seen all the teachers you know the parents the godmothers and so on and so forth you know the people who dip their hand in the pocket to buy slippers and tis all those people and so basically I'm just a thread in the carpet you know just a tiny little thread that's it artloft is on Instagram at artl SFL tag us on your art Adventures find full episodes segments and more at artloft SFL dorg and on YouTube at South Florida PBS artloft is brought to you by where there is freedom there is expression the Florida Keys and Key West and the friends of South Florida PBS