Jonathan van Arneman

Jonathan van Arneman (AJ) is a dancer, choreographer, and musician from Soualiga (the indigenous name for St Martin, meaning land of salt). He is the 2019 recipient of the Momentum New Dance Works grant for emerging choreographers in Minneapolis and is the current Artist in Residence at the National Institute of Arts (NIA) in Soualiga. AJ is a previous company member of Ananya Dance Theatre and Afoutayi where he trained in Yorchha under the leadership of Dr Ananya Chatterjee and traditional Haitian dance under Djenane Saint-Juste, respectively. His training also includes West African dance forms, Modern, Caribbean Social and Traditional Dances, and Capoeira. His current project, entitled Atlantis Rebirth, is both a nod to the defiant history of black peoples in the Caribbean as well as an imagination of a post-colonial Caribbean utopia. It is the sequel to Atlantis13, a work choreographed in collaboration with Peace Madimutsa and a cast of brilliant dancers in Minneapolis that explores diasporic connections and black liberation. In the realm of music, AJ trained and performed with Souliga's Ebony Steel Orchestra for 10 years under the leadership of steelpan legend Isidore York aka The Mighty Dow.