Legend of Modern Dance: Peter London

[Announcer] "Art Loft" is brought to you by [Announcer 2] Where there is freedom, there is expression.

The Florida Keys and Key West.

[Announcer] And the Friends of South Florida PBS.

[Host] "Art Loft," it's 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 Martha says, "the movement have to have several things in order for it to speak clearly to the Earth."

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.

[Host] Peter London danced with three of the most prestigious companies in modern dance, Graham, Ailey and Limón Martha Graham and Alvin Ailey personally asked London to join their companies.

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 "Art Loft" 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 PLGDC 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 and so, and I don't have to do a lot of guiding because the people that I bring in or join in, they already have a sense of what that is.

Right, left, right, left to the left, and one foot you.

I started with him in 2019 at the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center.

He was looking for a group of young men to dance in his Black men's 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 it, and also 'cause I'm in school too, so he was really lenient with me in between school and here, 'cause I go to school in Michigan.

I'm a sophomore at BFA, musical theater major.

And he's been really lenient enough and really nice enough to have me here, company member and also in school.

So he's just such a kind heart.

He was actually my teacher at Newark School of the Arts.

So I've been, 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 I feel like working with him in school definitely helped.

Move back, move back, move back, move.

[Peter] Five, six, seven.

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, keeps you moving forward.

Two, three, position four then and sweep.

Ready, five, six, seven, and do it.

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.

One, two, three, four.

The first time I saw dance, I was six years old in the Yoruba Temple.

In the evening, the rituals will start where they honored the ancestors and the Orishan.

So as a child, I would go to the rituals.

And part of the reason too is I get to see all the dancing.

In the Yoruba religion they dance vigorously.

So that was my first dance training.

And when the rituals were over there, 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 brought in Issa Fraser, who was a drummer and an Army man.

And he started the dance group and there was a sensei that started 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 secular dances.

The dancers from, that we retained from the Congo, from the Igbo, from Sierra Leon , people with the Mendes, the Mandingos, all those dances from West Africa.

And we learned everything because you had the costume, the music, the rhythm, where these dances came from and so on and so forth.

So 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 Carifesta in Cuba in 1979 and also to Canada.

And at that point I joined a contemporary dance company, the Astor Johnson Repertory Dance Theatre.

And so that's when I started ballet, classical ballet training at Caribbean School of Dancing.

So I was doing Astro Johnson 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, Horton technique and all of that.

And then to choreograph using these techniques.

And I was like, where am I gonna 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 Julliard and other people going to Julliard.

I said, "well, that's the place to go."

Because I saw them, they were phenomenal when they came back.

This dance is children of the underground.

The idea, the concept is a lot of the secular dance originated with the sacred dances.

So you can see movements that might be done in a Orisha feast, in the carnival dance in the Calypso and so on and so forth.

And then we take that like out in New York, I know the, you know, the carnival dances of Trinidad, but like in New York, I would go out and you go to like San Fachi bar and in there the regulars, they came from the Bronx, Brooklyn, Harlem, New Jersey, some as far as Philadelphia.

And Saturday night it would be a party scene and people would dance in 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, 'cause 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 sacred to the secular and from the secular back to the sacred.

And that's what this dance is about.

The space is created for them to explore and do that and bring that up to a high level.

Because what we are 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 this is entertainment, 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 doing.

What we are doing is spiritual healing, divine energies from the multiverse that's flooding through us, move through us and hit you like a vibrational storm and shake you up just as the same thing experience that I had when the dancers were possessed in the Yoruba temple in Trinidad.

What happened?

And you see people getting possessed and tumbling and falling and that drumming broom, broom and 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's 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 are having a communication, we are communicating with each other on spiritual level, whether they're aware of it or not.

That's happening.

And then remember the energy is 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, seven, 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 the elevate, you go up on elevate go back, Mark.

Can I see that please?

And up, up and get your hands out there.

This is a lightning, like a lightning strike and the sun 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're not directly in front of her.

Take him up, take him up.

There you go, okay, okay.

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 at her when you come around, okay.

Alvin came in and he came backstage, backstage at the theater at Julliard.

And he's like, "I want you to dance with my company."

Alvin is a 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 says, "well, you know, 300 people sometimes show up to my audition.

I don't ask people to dance my company to come to the audition and I'm inviting you and you tell me no."

I says, "well I'm a freshman."

He said, "you are 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."

And he says, "oh, I see Geoffrey Holder."

and he and Geoffrey were very close.

They knew each other when they danced in the "House of Flowers" on Broadway back in the fifties.

And I says, "no, it's not like that.

I was just a freshman and I wanna do my BFA, I wanna 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 Limon.

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 with Julliard and put on my stuff and jump in the train and run down and take my class with Denise Jefferson and Kelvin Rotardier, who was also from Trinidad and a company member there and Ralph Farrington.

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 Julliard for my rehearsal.

I did that for like four years, back and forth between Julliard and the Ailey school.

Yeah, it was fantastic.

I mean Alvin was wonderful.

Then they sent me to dance with the Jose Limón dance company in my last year at Julliard.

So Alvin was waiting for me.

Peggy Limón had already talked, spoken to the Graham people about me and asked me when I'm coming over.

And so I had to make a decision, do I go and work with Martha Graham, Alvin Ailey or stay with Jose Limón?

And I decided I was gonna go with Martha Graham because of the theatrical and the theater that reminded me of the Yoruba ceremonies.

I had to come down to the studio to tell Alvin.

And then I said, "Alvin, I'm not gonna take the job."

And he just froze.

Silence.

Omen, silence.

I said, "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 gonna take the job."

He turned to me and says, "Pete," these are his exact words.

'cause it's seared in my mind.

He turned to me and says "Peter," in that big southern voice, "Peter, Martha Graham is a very important person in the dance world.

You are 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 on her head, a Halston 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 face.

And I had an outer body experience.

I literally had a phenomenal, I just, 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 Graham, when Martha 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 knew, that's how she looked at, Martha 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 to rest my knees and she said, "Peter, get up and show me how to be a shaman."

And I was like, "what kinda shaman?"

I was like, "what Sha?"

I said, "show me how to be a shaman.

Show me a shaman."

And I was like, "well what sort of shaman do you want?"

"I said a shaman."

And I said, "well is it Native American Indian shaman, European shaman?"

She says, "I said, 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, this level in the company as a company member.

And she said, "I said, show me a shaman."

And I was like, "what do I do?"

I was like, "what kind of shaman?"

This is the first, like I said, again, the first time I get with the Martha Graham, I do not know what to do.

And I was like, Sha, bring in Shago, bringing one of the Orishas.

And so I brought in Shango and Ogún, the god of war; Shango, the God of thunder and Shango is the god of the dance.

And I just started doing all that movement, incorporating some of the Graham 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 "Night Chant."

Thank you for my six, from six years old, all that experience from the Orisha dances and from the temple.

That is how I started my principal work with Ma, and working with Martha Graham.

It was my education in Trinidad, in the Yoruba Temple at six years old.

We have enjoyed his dance for quite a long time.

It is 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 is first and foremost a teacher.

He is a professor of dance at the New World School of the Arts.

And I've seen him work with really young ones in dance all the way up through high school and college.

He is full of enthusiasm 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.

Five, six.

I don't teach chorus dancers, I teach principal dancers.

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 'cause 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 could walk right in into the Alvin Ailey American Dance Company or the Limón or to Martha Graham.

And that's what I've been doing for the past number of years.

We are not in here doing class.

We are 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 force 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 have to watch them, each person watch them, every movement they make.

Up, up, up, up, stand up 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're called a student because they're in an institution but not, they're not students, they're divine beings.

And if you are 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 the end of the day, it's spiritual work.

I'm taking you on a journey.

The more I get, the more I pass it onto them.

You know, yes, I got the commission from Arsht Center and I could choreograph, but if I didn't pass it on to Jamar or somebody else, what happens?

We have to push, keep pushing them forward.

Keep passing the baton, 'cause that's what I felt from all my teachers.

When I brought Jamar in for the first rehearsal and he connected with them and produced the most magnificent ballet, you know, together with another brilliant, spiritually connected divine being Etienne Charles as a composer.

He also knows all about the Yoruba and the retention of African music and dance.

So in his composition for Jamar Roberts, he actually uses, he goes in and draws in the Umele from the Orisha dances.

The Umele rhythm is, they're three drums.

There's the mother drum, the big one, then's the second, and then the small tiny one that's played with two sticks is the Umele.

And you hear that in that, and man it is phenomenal.

It takes you on a journey.

And Lloyd Knight, Lloyd is phenomenal.

I remember when Lloyd came here and he first got, went to the classes, you know, he says, "Peter, I want, you know, he wants to go faster no more."

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 south, but it's for babies.

I teach eight and nine-year olds."

But he kept insisting, "can I come?"

Lloyd 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 Rappaport, who actually came to New School of the Arts, then to Julliard and then with Dance Empire and won the Copenhagen Prize of the 14th International Modern Dance Competition recently.

Those of you who watch us and try to help get the word out to celebrate what all these 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 tights, all those people.

And so basically, I'm just a thread in the carpet, you know, just a tiny little thread, and that's it.

[Announcer] "Art Loft" is on Instagram at Artloftsfl.

Tag us on your art adventures.

Find full episodes, segments and more at artloftsfl.org and on YouTube at South Florida PBS.

"Art Loft" is brought to you by, [Announcer 2] Where there is freedom, there is expression, the Florida Keys and Key West.

[Announcer] And the Friends of South Florida PBS.