Sonja Dumas

I'm a performer, choreographer, writer, filmmaker, teacher and arts development consultant who lives and works in Trinidad and Tobago.

FILM
My films include the documentary, "Julia and Joyce: Two Stories of Two Dance Pioneers" (winner of the Best Local Film at the 2010 Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival) and the short narrative comedy, "Tickle Me Rich", shortlisted for Best Diaspora Short Film at the 2014 Africa Movie Academy Awards. Many of my films, such as "Agua Water L’eau" are experimental dance films. I'm currently working on "Excellent Women: 100 Years of Bishop Anstey High School", a documentary about my alma mater – one of the leading girls’ high schools in the region, as well as two buddy "dramadies" set in Trinidad, "Angels in Tunapuna" (in the vein of "Grumpy Old Men") and "Right and Left" (in the vein of "Kinky Boots").

DANCE
Dance is my heartbeat. In fact I often say that I choreograph films. I'm the recipient of several international grants and fellowships for my choreography, including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Fellowship in Modern Choreography, the Inter-American Development Bank and the Prince Claus Fund. The first female laureate of Caraïbes en Creation, a project of the French Government, I've performed with and/or choreographed for Trinidad- and New York-based dance companies, including The Astor Johnson Repertory Dance Theatre, The Trinidad Theatre Workshop and Reggie Wilson’s Fist and Heel Performance Group. I co-developed the curriculum for the first Dance Programme at the Academy for the Performing Arts at the University of Trinidad and Tobago, the first tertiary-level conservatory programme of the arts in the country, and currently create work for my own pickup company – Continuum Dance Project. I'm also a co-founder and co-director of the Contemporary Choreographers’ Collective, a group which produces COCO Dance Festival, one of the largest annual contemporary dance festivals in the Caribbean.

OTHER STUFF
I'm a graduate of Princeton University, Columbia Business School (MBA, Marketing), and the University of Trinidad and Tobago (MA, Carnival Studies), and continue to investigate the multi-faceted cultural landscape of the Caribbean through my various projects.