Rex Nettleford

Ralston 'Rex' Nettleford OM Milton, OCC ( born February 3, 1933, Falmouth, † February 2nd 2010 in Washington, DC, United States) was a Jamaican culture scientist, university teacher and choreographer. He was co-founder in 1962 of the National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica ( NDTC ) and 1998-2004 Vice - Chancellor of the University of the West Indies ( UWI ).

Life and work

Nettleford was born on February 3, 1933 as the son of an unmarried mother in the coastal town of Falmouth. He grew up with his grandmother, who lived in rural Cockpit Country in the interior of the island. There he was in his youth in contact with the culture and traditions of the Maroons, descendants of runaway slaves who had retreated into the mountains. Despite its origin from a modest background, he attended by a grant enables the prestigious Cornwall College in Montego Bay. Already there showed up at school dances his talent for dance and choreography. He then studied at the University College of the West Indies in Kingston, where he made ​​the 1953 bachelor's degree in History. He was awarded a Rhodes scholarship and studied political science at Oriel College, University of Oxford, where he graduated with a Master of Philosophy.

After studying in England, he returned in 1959 to Jamaica back, got a job at the University of the West Indies ( UWI ) in Kingston and made in 1961 as a co- author of The Rastafari Movement in Kingston, Jamaica, a study of the Rastafari movement, attention. Unlike most of his contemporaries, who regarded this movement as dangerous and extremist, Nettleford recognized in particular on the resistance to the social conditions, the belief in self-determination and the will to escape one's own dark past in which he identified the crucial psychological step which would allow the Jamaican society to free itself from the burden of the past. Of his work, among other things also acted Mirror, Mirror: Identity, Race and Protest in Jamaica ( 1970), in which he, the ambivalent relationship of black Jamaicans to their African roots, the desire to deny this and to identify with the cultural symbols of the white upper class analyzed. In numerous other writings, he established himself as a historian and social critic.

1962 Nettleford belonged to the founders of the National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica ( NDTC ). Until his death in 2010, he served as its artistic director and chief choreographer, as well as a longtime leading dancer. He united in the repertoire of NDTC African traditions and European influences, traditional Jamaican music and European ballet, which he had a major share in the creation of a new national identity of the newly independent Jamaica in 1962. One of the first successes were choreographed to the music and the messages of Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff and Toots Hibbert, who belonged to the repertoire of the NDTC even decades later. Although the ensemble of the Tanztheater was composed of part-time, volunteer dancers, was celebrated on tours in Europe and North America great success and was soon regarded as one of the outstanding cultural institutions in the Caribbean.

Nettleford was his life working for the UWI, first in 1959 as Director of Extra - Mural Department (Department for part-time) and the School of Continuing Studies (School of continuing studies). In 1964 he founded the Trade Union Education Institute ( Trade Union Education Institute) at University College, whose director he was. The professor of cultural studies Nettleford was in 1986, Deputy Vice - Chancellor until he was appointed Vice - Chancellor of the UWI, 1998. He held this position until his retirement in 2004. He also worked as editor of Jamaica Journal and the Caribbean Quarterly, the magazine of the most talented academics in the region provided a platform.

In addition, he was in the 1970 cultural advisor for Prime Minister Michael Manley, and more recently for Prime Minister Bruce Golding. In addition to consultancy work for various governments from the Caribbean region Nettleford also worked for international organizations, as for the CARICOM, the Organization of American States for the Executive Board of Unesco and the World Bank.

On 27 January 2010 he suffered during a stay in Washington, DC, where he stayed for a fundraiser for the UWI, a heart attack and was rushed to George Washington University Hospital. After a few days in the ICU of the hospital Rex Nettleford died 2 February 2010, a few hours before his 77th birthday.

Awards

• Student of the Year, University College of the West Indies (1954 /55)
• Order of Merit ( Jamaica) ( 1975)
• Gold Musgrave Medal of the Institute of Jamaica ( 1981)
• Order of the Caribbean Community (2008)
• Chancellor's Medal from the University of the West Indies (2009)
• Numerous honorary doctorates and honorary titles of various universities (including University of Toronto, University of Oxford)