KRIYOL COLLECTIVE LLC
A Public Health Vision for Cultural Activism and Community Health.
KRIYOL DANCE! COLLECTIVE
Kriyol Dance! Collective uses dance, music, and spoken word to create original work focused on the preservation of Black diasporic culture and Haitian culture.
Founded in 2016, Kriyol Dance! Collective (@kriyoldance), is a collective of artist-leaders seeking to incite the unapologetic voices of Black arts, and Haitian culture in particular, through collaborative community organizing work and performance-based intervention. The group has presented at various universities including Williams College, Dartmouth College, and the University of Vermont, local Brooklyn institutions, and private events. They have supported and sustained major grant-funded projects featuring community-based research, workshops, drum intensives, public performances, visual arts exhibitions, and spoken word cyphers. Their partnerships include organizations like Haiti Cultural Exchange, The Wyckoff House, Weeksville Heritage Center, StoryCorps, and Parkside Plaza. Dance performance credits include artists like Wanito, Strings n Skins, Nkumu Katalay & LLP Band, Anie Alerte, and Klass.
All Videos
Istwa Dwòl
Kanaval Class Choreo Beginner Haitian Dance w/ Véronëque Ignace | Mark Morris Dance Center
JetBlue African Diaspora Experience x Kriyol Dance! Collective for Haitian Flag Day 2021
KRIYOL DANCE! COLLECTIVE PROJECTS
We develop projects that are creative, critical, and that incite social cultural action and change.
THE NOU SERIES: AN EMBODIED HISTORY AND BODY INSTALLATION PROJECT
Featured in The Wyckoff Farmhouse Museum's Protest Garden, The Nou Series is an experiment in embodied knowledge, resistance, and history that prioritizes “nou” (“us” in Haitian Creole). By exploring the history of The Wyckoff House, documented memories of native Lenape peoples and enslaved Africans in Canarsie, and the migration of Black Caribbeans to Brooklyn, through a lens of muscle memory and spirituality, we hope to build a connected narrative and express it through movement. Our goal is that by positioning our bodies as museum installations we can expand and interrogate stories and processes of cultural preservation and community identity.
KRIYOL VODOU BAND: MAKING MUSIC, KEEPING TRADITION
Kriyol Vodou Band is the official musical ensemble of Kriyol Dance! Collective. The group is working to develop a fusion sound which focuses on creating a unique, creative, artistic bridge between Haitian traditional rhythms and the polyrhythmic variations of contemporary Haitian roots sound.
LAVI MIYÒ | ON RESISTANCE & REVOLUTION
Created by Veroneque Ignace, Kriyol Dance! artistic director, Lavi Miyò is a collaborative dance, music, and visual arts project that employs storytelling and Haitian traditional music, dance, and oral history. The argument at its foundation is the claim that consuming the overarching and highly romanticized notions of resistance with regards to black peoples, and especially people of Haitian descent, disregards the day-to-day traumas that individuals experience. The project centers the creation of work on the terms resilience, resistance, power, and empowerment and their implications on physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health.
#TRENDING | A LAKOU NOU PROJECT IN EAST FLATBUSH
#Trending is an artistic intervention, developed in 2016 by then Haiti Cultural Exchange’s (HCX) Lakou NOU artist-in-residence Veroneque Ignace. It showcased the responses of East Flatbush youth to their community’s current state of affairs and encouraged community advocacy through creative production. The data collection component of the project involved youth of the community (aged 11 years and up) filling out a questionnaire – the primary resource for the choreographic work created. Selected youth also had the opportunity to performing in the resulting work. This project continues currently through its evaluation.
ARCHIVING ANBA LAVIL
LAKOU SOCIETE ST. MICHEL ARCHANGE
To facilitate cultural exchange Societe St. Michel Archange has partnered with Kriyol Dance! Collective to help in creating engagement art tied to increasing advocacy around the reality of life in Vodou, Haiti, and community. Kriyol Dance! Collective uses the language and philosophy of Vodou as taught by the history of Societe St. Michel to discuss trauma and steps to recovery from it. In essence, both Societe St. Michel and Kriyol Dance! center spiritual dance, music, and teaching as prime documents of trauma and historically archived survival strategies.
NUIT DES RACINES/ROOTS NIGHT! FEATURING RASIN OKAN
Kriyol Dance! Collective presents "Nuit des Racine/Roots Night!" annually to celebrate the legacy of Haitian culture in Brooklyn, NY. This ticketed event features the sounds of Haitian music group Rasin Okan and Kriyol Dance! Collective. Proceeds collected are used to support our ability to produce creative work and projects.