Dance Kaiso
Dance Kaiso, co-founded in 1987 by Wilfred Mark, Robbin Frey, and Val Serrant, gave its first performance for an audience of 13,000 on the River Stage of the 1988 World’s Fair in Brisbane, Australia.
We have set both Afro-Caribbean and Caribbean jazz fusion choreography on students and professionals for concerts, recitals, Carnival celebrations, Best Village Competitions, and within the context of plays. The company is available for choreographic commissions, performances, Caribbean drum and dance workshops and residencies.
Over the past 20 years, we have appeared on the rosters of Marin Youth-In-Arts, Young Audiences, and Cultural Council for Monterey County. Our K-12 school residencies have been supported by the California Arts Council each year since 1995, and we have taught in court and community schools under the auspices of San Francisco Juvenile Probation Department and Silicon Valley’s ArtsConnect program. All artists performing or teaching in California schools under the auspices of Dance Kaiso have been fingerprinted in accordance with California State law.
TEACHING ARTISTS~~~
WILFRED MARK, a native of Trinidad, joined Les Enfants Dance Company at age fourteen, studying Afro-Caribbean folklore and dance with company director Joyce Kirton and drumming with Rollo Foster. He performed as principal dancer with Trinidad & Tobago Repertory Dance Theatre for eleven years and as dancer/actor with the Derek Walcott Theatre Company. He also taught, directed, and choreographed for the annual Prime Minister’s Best Village Competitions.
Since 1987, Wilfred has worked as Artistic Director, Choreographer, Dancer, and Drummer with Dance Kaiso and has taught on the faculties of San Francisco State, Sonoma State, and Stanford Universities. He also returns to Trinidad each year to perform with Fyzabad Rhythm Section and Fourth Dimension Steel Orchestra.
ROBBIN FREY has served as Dancer, Choreographer, Production Manager, Costumer, and Director of Dance Kaiso since 1987. She has a Master’s degree in Dance Ethnology, specializing in African-derived dances of the Caribbean, and has also trained in Martha Graham technique.
Prior to 1987, Robbin participated in the paratheatrical experiments of Jerzy Grotowski and company, performed as an actor in Paris with New English Workshop Theatre (NEWT), and collaborated as dancer/choreographer with several composers in New York and in the SF Bay Area, including Karlton Hester (Contemporary Jazz Art Movement) and Eddie Moore (Spaceshuttle Omnibus). She is interested in the intersection of dance, theatre, and the healing arts and has been teaching since 1983.
