Nishi Amin | The Phillipian
This Monday, during Andover’s MLK day-on, students gathered in the Pan Athletic Center for the “Jean Appolon Expressions Dance Workshop.” The workshop was led by Jean Appolon, the Artistic Director and Co-Founder of Jean Appolon Expressions. Accompanied by live drummers, the workshop explored different movements in several rhythms from Haitian Folklore. Open to everyone, the class included a wide range of participants regarding age, dance experience, and connections to Haiti.
Mayen Etuk ’26 attended the workshop on Monday. She discussed how interesting it was to see an array of dance experiences within the class, as faculty members, their kids, and students alike participated. She also appreciates the fusion of different heritages from the diverse group of the workshop’s participants, who all came together to learn a traditional Haitian dance.
“It was really interesting to see all these people from different dance backgrounds. I mean there were a lot of faculty kids there, faculty members, then students who also signed up because they were intrigued. So it was interesting to see those different histories or heritages melt together and perform a Haitian traditional dance,” said Etuk.
Etuk is very involved in dance throughout the year. When she saw one of the workshop options was for Haitian dance, she saw a unique opportunity to expand her dance skill set and experiment with a new technique. Etuk commented on how essential it is to make the most of the choreographers who are invited to Andover, as they provide rare and exciting opportunities.
“I saw a Haitian dance workshop specifically, and I was like ‘Okay, I’ve never been to one of these before.’ And I feel like when a choreographer, someone who runs dance workshops, comes to the school, I tend to want to go to them because I do dance outside of class and as a sport and an extracurricular, so I was just intrigued. That’s why I signed up for it,” said Etuk.
Giuliana Cardinale ’25 also attended the workshop. She loved seeing people simply have fun and explore new forms of expression as they pushed out of their comfort zone. Cardinale had the chance to converse with Appolon, and she was captivated by hearing his history of dancing in Haiti and how he used it as a coping mechanism to respond to traumas in his life.
“I love seeing people open up and start having a lot of fun, doing dances that they might not normally be comfortable with expressing themselves with. Also, at the end, we had a talk with the main dancer, Jean, and he was talking about the history of dancing for him in Haiti and how it brought him a lot of peace and healing from trauma that was happening amidst family passing and stuff like that,” said Cardinale.
Similarly, Etuk really delved into the structure of the workshop, providing insight into the different moments where people could showcase their own creativity and interpretations of what they had just learned. The blend of a cardio warm-up and traditional dance facilitated the transition into a small group choreography exercise.
“There was a cardio workout to start, which got the wind out of me. Then we moved into more traditional stuff. So he had us line up in groups of five, and then we went across the floor. I liked that at the end, he gave us a comb,o and then we had to invent two eight-count sequences in groups. That was pretty cool, [and] some people whipped out formation changes. It was pretty nice to see,” said Etuk.
Cardinale shared her main takeaway from the experience and why she felt the workshop was powerful, especially on MLK day. She saw how dance, and generally art, can become a means of intercultural communication and connection while also being an important coping mechanism for those who have lived through difficult experiences.
“I think it’s a different form of expression and activism because they’re saying how the dance group goes to Haiti or the Dominican Republic and sits with kids that are also dealing with trauma, and it’s a way for them to connect across different languages and backgrounds, ethnically and things like that. And I think it’s just a way to come together as a community and find peace,” said Cardinale.
