NDTC Singers (from left) Dawn Fuller-Phillips, Helen Christian and Dulcie Bogues in performance. - Contributed

The National Dance Theatre Company's (NDTC) 46th Season of Dance opened with a richly varied repertoire of dance-works, including premieres and highly acclaimed masterworks, yesterday. It continues today at 5 p.m. at the Little Theatre, and will go until August 24, running from Thursday to Sunday.

Character Sketches - two is the name of the 'integrated song-and-dance' piece featuring such traditional tunes as Sly Mongoose, I'm a Better Woman Than You, and De Buggy Bruk, among others, by the NDTC Singers, which features tenor soloist Wesley Scott and the company of dancers. The orchestra, under musical director Marjorie Whylie, accompanies the work. Also being premiered is Arsenio Andrade's Asi Somos, designed for the corps' male dancers Marlon Simms, Kevin Moore, Patrick Earle, Shakee Dobson, Allatunje Connell, Paul Newman, Orlando Barnett and Andrade.

masterworks

Also on the weekend bill are Clive Thompson's soulful solo from his exquisite Folktales, danced by new-generation dancer Stefanie Thomas, as well as Marlon Simms Millennial Beings -- a duo executed by Mark Phinn and Simms himself.

The two masterworks on the programme are by artistic director Rex Nettleford. Katrina, which depicts the 2005 tragedy of New Orleans and is commissioned by Capital and Credit, won critical acclaim in Trinidad (CARIFESTA IX) and South Florida in 2006/7. The blues solo is being danced by Candice Morris, replacing Alicia Glasgow, who will resume the next week. The ancestral Kumina with new lead dancers (Marlon Simms and Keita-Marie Chamberlain as kumina king and queen, respectively) is remounted with continuing sponsorship by Carreras Ltd, which commissioned it back in 1971. Kumina has become the most-performed work in the NDTC's repertoire, locally and internationally.

soulful sounds

The stand-alone suite of songs arranged by Marjorie Whylie is rendered by the NDTC Singers, comprising Carole Reid and Faith Livingstone (sopranos), Dulcie Bogues, Helen Christian, Jhana Williams and Dawn Fuller-Phillips (contraltos), Carl Bliss, Howard Cooper and Wesley Scott (tenors) and Heston Boothe, Leighton Jones and Earl Brown (basses).

New works scheduled for mounting over the rest of the season are Clive Thompson's Raw Souls, Arsenio Andrade's Intervalos, Marlon Simms' Joyful, Joyful and Walker's Sen' Off, along with Eduardo Rivero's Sulkari and Rex Nettleford's The Crossing.