ABOUT JEANGUY SAINTUS
Dance is a way of life for Jeanguy SAINTUS. As the founder of Ayikodans,he has continuously pushed the limits of modern dance over the past decades. In 25 years of passionate research he has mastered a cross cultural body language that speaks with the power of remote times and places.
To expand the local pool for dance, Saintus founded Artcho Danse a dance center and training program for children and adults in Port-au-Prince. He also provides a scholarship program called Dansepyenu (Dance Barefoot) for talented young dancers unable to afford tuition.Saintus organizes cultural exchanges by inviting guest artists from around the world to teach at Artcho Danse, and takes his unique technique globally by teaching master classes.
In 2008, Saintus was a recipient of the prestigious Prince Klaus Award in The Netherlands for expanding the possibilities of the dance medium, fostering young talent, and inspiring pride in the strength, beauty and richness of Haitian identity.
ABOUT AYIKODANS
Founded by internationally renowned Haitian born choreographer, dancer, and educator Jeanguy Saintus Riché, Ayikodans is considered to be the premiere professional dance company of Haiti. Saintus has enabled the emergence of a new, contemporary Haitian aesthetic that, while rooted in tradition, reflects a modern Caribbean culture and creativity that would surprise many who associate the country with disaster, poverty and helplessness.
Ayikodans company members have danced on stages in Latin America, Europe, the United States and Asia at such venues Adrienne Arsht Center in Florida, Carnegie Hall in New York, The Netherlands’ Muziegebow and Tropentheater, Teatro Anayanzi in Panama, Centre des Arts and L’Artchipel in Guadeloupe,Teatro Nacional and Palacio de Bellas Artes in the Dominican Republic , L’Atrium in Martinique.The Foundation Tokyo Ballet in Japan…
For more information, visit www.ayikodans.com
Jeanguy Saintus / The Works
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/05/24/2230845_ayikodans-performances-a-triumph.html#storylink=addthis
http://www.elnuevoherald.com/2013/02/19/1411582_lo-mejor-de-ayikodans-en-su-25to.html#storylink=addthis
http://www.islandvibesmag.com/haitis-ayikodans/
http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/cultist/2013/02/haitis_ayikodans_we_cant_get_e.php
https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/media/set/?set=a.2147378289764.2132357.1405503413
https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/media/set/?set=a.2147066201962.2132331.1405503413
http://defend.ht/entertainment/articles/performing/1146-ayikodans-sells-out-at-the-box-office-in-miami-video
http://www.artburstmiami.com/2011/05/24/ayikodans-at-the-arsht/?t=Ayikodans+at+the+Arsht
…’’Every time the dancers of Ayikodans step on stage, the spiritual richness of this people, their great historical struggles and their hopes for the future come alive and are expressed with the body’’.
Panorama Magazine
“Most of their movements are characterized by a spiraling line of beauty that constantly invigorates the dance, giving it pulse and texture. Possessed by faith they are also propelled by it. Saintus makes a vital connection between humans and the spiritual world”
Deirdre Kelly
The Globe and Mail / Canada'
“Jeanguy Saintus uses his body as an instrument to express the rich mix of Caribbean culture and contemporary life. ''
Prince Klaus Award Committee 2008
‘’ Jeanguy Saintus enters the tradition of experimentation and exploration of Caribbean dance with his Ayikodans Company which his significantly augmented Caribbean dance theatre with its display of a distinctive vocabulary ,technique and style routed in the region’s historical experience and existential reality… ‘’
Professor the Hon Rex M. Nettleford,OM,FU
Ayikodans - a front rank dance company from Haiti - founded and shephered by Jeanguy Saintus draws on million barrel reserves of energy, invoking histories and spiritual practices from African Diaspora and winning fans and plaudits worldwide during nearly 20 years ''
Steve Schneider
An Artcho Danse performance is the expression of a new vision of dance, a gesture bordering on a cry.’’
Kettly Mars
“Audience participation is an important element in Jeanguy Saintus’s dance and art, ‘’Cri des Nago’s ‘’ choreographer. Saintus , Artcho’s co-founder and artistic director expects his guest to find their own interpretation whatever that may be so that they leave with something that is personal and special “
Trenton Daniel
“I was particularly impressed with his Afro—Contemporary technique which fused classical, modern and African dance styles to create a unique vocabulary. Through the synthesis of these three strongly articulated forms, Saintus has developed a contemporary style ,which is both articulate and powerful and should provide new insights into the language of Contemporary Dance for the 21st Century’’
Barbara Requa (Mrs) Dean Dance Department
Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, Jamaica
‘’ Saintus’ choreographic language is as needed.Whether a slow and gracious walk, or pounding of rhythmic feet, every physical action seems to belong perfectly to the mood”
Paula Citron
The Globe and Mail
“Jeanguy Saintus symbolizes the reed, apparent fragility, sprinkled with a great softness and a certain refinement. But his dance—in the gesture and the musicality as well as in the stage approach— illustrates strongly the power whereby everything is anchored in his native Haiti. The choreographer and dancer Jeanguy Saintus transcends his mere role of artist because he creates a willing art of citizenship.”
Léna Blou
Choreographer Cie Trilogie Lenablou
''Bordering on sensational, Arsenio Andrade’s Asi Somos (2006) and Jeanguy Saintus’ splendid creation Incantation (2002) are pieces dripping with passion, pleasure and pain, and demanding impulsive energy and interplay between joy and sorrow at regular intervals from lithe dancers, garbed in provocative costumes.''
tyronereviews.blogspot.com
“Jeanguy: a way of moving, of dancing; a mixture of contemporary techniques and a resolutely Haitian soul”
Gladys Martial, Sept Magazine
« Como coreógrafó , la creación del Sr Saintus nos impacta por la fuerza de sus imagines en la composición del movimiento,donde, a traves de los ritos sagrados, las formas innovan y representan la poetica del tambor.Desde alli, la propuesta del joven coregrafó caribeño ,explora y combina otros códigos y tecnicas , que se originan en una solida formación conceptual y practica de la danza como expresión artistica »
Marily Gallardo/ Kalalu Danza
'' Learning about a culture was never so interesting than 'Ayikodans Van Jeanguy Saintus' at Tropentheater. The rich and varied Caribbean culture is displayed through beautiful and mesmerizing dance movements. Choreographed by Jeanguy Saintus, the winner of 2008 Prince Claus Award, this dance paints a perfect picture of the colored culture ''.
Steve Schneider
Tropentheater, Amsterdam
