{"id":1259,"date":"2003-06-26T12:09:48","date_gmt":"2003-06-26T12:09:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/?p=1259"},"modified":"2015-05-17T12:10:15","modified_gmt":"2015-05-17T12:10:15","slug":"clara-reyes-presents-masters-degree-study-about-ponum-on-emancipation-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/2003\/06\/26\/clara-reyes-presents-masters-degree-study-about-ponum-on-emancipation-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Clara Reyes presents master\u2019s degree study about Ponum on Emancipation Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

GREAT BAY, St. Martin\u00a0<\/strong>(June\u00a026, 2003) \u2014 St. Martin\u2019s leading choreographer Clara Reyes will present her master\u2019s thesis on the Ponum dance to the public here at the Cultural Center, Backstreet, on July 1, 2003.<\/p>\n

The Emancipation Day presentation, from 6 PM to 7:30 PM, will consist mainly of video showing the dance steps, footage of performances in St. Martin and New York and interviews with the elders who made up the main source of Reyes\u2019s research.<\/p>\n

The Ponum is the St. Martin national dance that has survived for over 100 years. \u201cTaking the Ponum confidently into the university, writing and defending the thesis in front of professors and scholars, returning home and now presenting the document and video, is my \u2018thank you\u2019 and gift to the people of St. Martin. The July 1st<\/sup> presentation is especially for the older heads that helped with the information and the dance steps that they danced when they were young or that they saw their parents and neighbors dancing.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the old people I spoke with have passed on. But the information they left with us is serving to pass on an important creation of our culture to another generation. This transfer of ideas, cultural creativity and this aspect of the St. Martin identity will keep their names, faces and voices alive in our history as well,\u201d said Reyes.<\/p>\n

The 130-page document, entitled \u201cFrom the People of St. Martin, Ponum an Emancipation Story,\u201d will be on exhibit during the presentation and the reception that will follow.<\/p>\n

The study was completed in July 2002 as a requirement for the fulfillment of Reyes\u2019s Master of Fine Arts from the University of New York College at Brockport. Reyes said that the inspiration and the organization of the information grew out of her commission from House of Nehesi Publishers Foundation. Also an accomplished dancer, Reyes\u2019s task was to research and choreograph a definitive version of the national dance for the foundation\u2019s Ponum documentary film.<\/p>\n

The documentary footage has been completed since 2000, but funds to edit and produce copies of the film have been tough to raise, according to House of Nehesi Publishers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GREAT BAY, St. Martin\u00a0(June\u00a026, 2003) \u2014 St. Martin\u2019s leading choreographer Clara Reyes will present her master\u2019s thesis on the Ponum dance to the public here at the Cultural Center, Backstreet, on July 1, 2003. The Emancipation Day presentation, from 6 PM to 7:30 PM, will consist mainly of video showing the dance steps, footage of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-2003"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1259"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1260,"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259\/revisions\/1260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}