Eddy Thomas (c. 1932 – 10 April 2014) was a

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

dancer Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoi ...

choreographer Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...

and

dance instructor Dance education is a practice whereby students are taught a broad understanding of dance as an art form or trained professionally in specific dance genres. Dance education also encompasses a research area in which scholars conduct original resear ...

. With

Rex Nettleford Ralston Milton "Rex" Nettleford, OM, FIJ, OCC (3 February 1933 – 2 February 2010), was a Jamaican scholar, social critic, choreographer, and Vice-Chancellor Emeritus of the University of the West Indies (UWI), the leading research university ...

he co-founded the

National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica The National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica (NDTC) is Jamaica's leading dance theatre company. History The company was founded in 1962 by Rex Nettleford and Eddy Thomas with fifteen dancers, with Nettleford acting as its artistic director and pr ...

(NDTC). Before establishing the NDTC, Thomas was a member of the Martha Graham Dance Company in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Background

In 1958, he established the Eddy Thomas Workshop, with branches in Kingston and Mandeville, which was a foremost training ground for the development of Jamaican artists, and in 1959, Thomas won the Jamaican government Arts Council Award and went to study in New York, and at the Connecticut College Dance Festival in New London with Martha Graham and such others such as Merce Cunningham and José Limón. In 1962, Thomas and

co-founded the

(NDTC). Works that Thomas choreographed works included: ''Legend of Lovers' Leap'', ''A Time to Rejoice'', ''Foot Notes in Jazz'', ''Afro West Indian Suite'', ''Games of Arms'', ''Liza'', ''And It Came To Pass'', ''Concert Suite'', ''Country Wedding'', ''Parade Kingston 13'', ''Jamaican Promenade'' and ''Omegan Procession''. Also a costume designer, he was responsible for most of the costume designs for the NDTC's repertoire. Thomas died at his home in

Montego Bay Montego Bay is the capital of the Parishes of Jamaica, parish of Saint James Parish, Jamaica, St. James in Jamaica. The city is the fourth-largest urban area in the country by population, after Kingston, Jamaica, Kingston, Spanish Town, and Por ...

, Jamaica, on 10 April 2014, at the age of 82.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Eddy 2014 deaths 1930s births Dance teachers Founders Jamaican choreographers Jamaican male dancers Jamaican dancers People from Montego Bay