Culture & Community | Dance | Arts & Culture | Shubert Theatre | Jamaican American Connection
Shaunda Holloway Photos.
If you were not at the Shubert Theatre at the end of last week, you missed the velvet voice of Remone D. Watson as he sang Mickey Spice’s adaptation of “I Am … I Said.”
As Watson released melody into the air, the packed room sang along with sweet familiarity. Many knew the song. Now, none will ever forget it. Watson’s vocals became the bridge between performers and spectators, creating a true amalgamation in real time.
That sound came to the Shubert Theatre last Friday, as Plié for the Arts brought the dance troupe Amalgamation to the venue’s College Street stage for a glorious evening of music and movement. Performing across media, the company lived up to its name, providing a true blending of artmaking, audience engagement, and Caribbean culture miles away from home. Some of the loudest applause came from members of the Jamaican American Connection (JAC), who helped get the word out about the event.
The evening began with Jamaica’s national anthem “Jamaica, Land We Love,” and a word from Marisa Benain, artistic director for Plié for the Arts. Benain thanked each team member— and herself—for persisting, even when the work and the world are challenging. Benain is a professional dancer who performs with National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica and is also an attorney.
“Always have a dream. The universe has no budget on greatness, and we all should take our share,” she said.
As the curtains rose on“The Calling,” danced by Ashley Gordon and choreographed by Jessica Lang, light poured down on a dancer wearing a stark white dress, which puddled into a circle nearly encompassing the stage. The dance itself, a combination of light, form, and movement, welcomed viewers into an oasis.
What is Amalgamation? In some ways, it feels like a dream. It is a composite of over 20 dancers from a variety of companies under the umbrella of Plié for the Arts, acting as a unit. When these dancers move, they effortlessly become a single body . Each individual movement speaks to the other in symbiotic expression. Most members of the troupe are from Jamaica, and others come from other islands within the Caribbean.
As they graced Shubert’s stage, it seemed that each group of dancers was as powerful as the next. Movements were quick and sharp, long and reaching. In some instances, they were performed forehead to forehead. Fingertips held bodies in midair. Wrists locked in unity while bodies made their way along the floor, pulled in a metaphor for unyielding strength and unification. With every leap, turn, spin, and sway, it was no challenge to wonder just how long each member had been dancing. Since the womb, perhaps?
Amaya Gomes, a native of Antigua, moved to Jamaica to attend Edna Manley College for Performing Arts in 2023. The invitation to join Amalgamation came that same year. Gomes has been a part of the collective since 2024. The opportunity has granted her more than the chance to share her talents with the world, she said Friday: it has given her a connection away from home.
“I want to see how far it takes me,” said Gomes. “Amalgamation is [a] sense of community and belonging not being from Jamaica. A family bond."
It is no secret that Jamaica is steeped in talent: its culture is as rich as its soil, and New Haven is lucky enough to see that through its vibrant Caribbean community. And yet in its performance at the Shubert, Amalgamation revealed intricate layers of what the world hadn’t fully seen, a dance beyond dancehall. The troupe delivered a multidimensional experience, from ballet to jazz to traditional folkloric movement to dancehall to Dunham technique. Friday night’s show had drawn attendees from New York, Connecticut, and as far away as Jamaica to experience.
Janice Tyson, mother of dancer Joshua Craigle, beamed in the theater. “I came from Jamaica to see my son perform,” she said. Tyson expressed a deep belief and gratitude in Benain. “Marisa has a dream of taking something like this internationally.”
Blending tension and flow, tradition and cutting-edge choreography, stunning musical selections and uniformity in costumes, the company created a style that was both dance and visual art in motion, a perfect balance between collective dance and solo performances that made dreams come true.
“There is no way to see one point or specific color or person. You have to see the whole image,” said Dr. Hanan Hameen Diagne, herself a dancer and arts educator who has helped grow New Haven’s dance scene and also deepened her practice in Senegal. “When you look at them you don’t see one person. And if you do see one person it brings you right back to the whole.”
“It was a kaleidoscope,” she added.
And it was, nowhere clearer than in the silhouetted glow of two children grooving in their seats, eyes locked on the stage. Imagine if all the dance companies in New Haven with school-age children had been there.
Karaine (or as she is fondly known, Kay) Smith-Holness, who leads the Jamaican American Connection, called the performance just one of the ways the Shubert Theater continues to innovate in its 110th anniversary year. She was thrilled for the performance, of which she said there would almost certainly be an encore.
“Our boots were on the ground when we found out about Amalgamation coming to the Shubert. I knew I would have to go hard to bring attention that they were coming. I see them coming back next year. I am very proud,” she said.
The dancers arrived in New Haven on Friday morning and performed as if they had been here on stage at the Shubert many times before giving New Haven its best and leaving lasting impressions.
Or as Benain said, “I want to showcase excellence.”
Mission accomplished.