Ansanm Ansanm, Together Together
Celebrating Culture: Haitian Heritage & Community
Thursday, May 15, 2025
7 - 8:30 pm
Calderwood Hall
As part of Haitian Heritage Month, Greater Boston-based contemporary dance company Jean Appolon Expressions (JAE) presents Ansanm Ansanm, Together Together, a vibrant medley celebrating Haitian culture and resilience.
Under the visionary leadership of Jean Appolon, JAE's compelling choreography preserves and elevates Haitian culture while inspiring reflection, healing, and celebration.This dynamic performance will feature selections from JAE’s repertoire as well as a celebratory new improvisational component adds an exuberant energy, inviting dancers, musicians, and audiences to share in a joyful expression of unity.
The performance will include:
Traka, meaning “Troubles” in Haitian Creole, is an exploration into how dance, culture, and community are pathways to healing for victims of traumatic events on both individual and community levels.
Pouvwa (Power), utilizes Haitian-folkloric dance, Afro-electronica, live drumming, visual installations, and workshops to invite us all to galvanize our power to create a new world while also naming the realities of structural, political, and cultural misuse of power across the globe.
Photo Credit: Ally Schmaling
About the Performers
Jean Appolon Expressions (JAE) is a Greater Boston-based dance organization that blends Haitian folkloric and contemporary styles. Founded by Jean Appolon, JAE creates a unique artistic vernacular that educates audiences about Haitian culture, traditions, history, and current issues. JAE is opening its new dance studio home in Nubian Square, Roxbury, MA in late spring 2025.
JAE’s dynamic repertoire is designed to preserve Haitian folkloric culture while continuously revitalizing the art form in a way that is vital, accessible, inspiring, healing, and educational. The company is composed of dancers from diverse backgrounds, each committed to using dance to share and celebrate Haitian culture.
Appolon’s dance company has performed at major venues such as Jacob’s Pillow, Boston’s Paramount Center, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, The Yard, and the ICA, as well as in site-specific community spaces with free public performances. JAE has had the honor of sharing the stage with notable figures such as Danny Glover, Henry Louis Gates, and Edwidge Danticat, and collaborates with community partners throughout the greater Boston area.
Tickets
Advanced tickets are required and include Museum admission. Adults $32, seniors $27 students $17, members $22 and children 17 and under.
Seating in Calderwood Hall is first come, first served. Seating begins 45 minutes before the event. Late seating is not guaranteed.
To request accessible or wheelchair seating please call the box office at 617 278 5156.
This program is made possible by the Anne Hawley Fund for Programs.
Waters of the Abyss: An Intersection of Spirit and Freedom is supported in part by Barbara and Amos Hostetter, the Barr Foundation, Wagner Foundation and the Barbara Lee Program Fund.
The Artist-in-Residence program is supported in part by Lizbeth and George Krupp and directed by Pieranna Cavalchini, Tom and Lisa Blumenthal Curator of Contemporary Art. Funding is also provided for site-specific installations of new work on the Anne H. Fitzpatrick Façade on Evans Way.
The Museum receives operating support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which is supported by the state of Massachusetts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
