The Peter London Global Dance Company will present Women and Men’s Voices, an evening of contemporary dance celebrating artistic identity, this Saturday at the Sanctuary of the Arts in Coral Gables.
The performance celebrates creative expression, storytelling, and the transformative power of the human body, according to a press release. Three women of the company — Stephanie Franco, Mar’Kayla Michel, and Kayin Knighton — will take the stage in pieces exploring lived experience and gender within societal constructs.
Kayin Knighton’s world premiere piece, Enduring Ecdysis, uses the metaphor of a snake shedding its skin to explore resilience and personal transformation.
“I’m telling a story of shedding an older version of myself: my previous perspectives, insecurities, and limiting beliefs,” Knighton said. “But this isn’t just about loss; it’s about renewal. After the shed, I return transformed, reclaiming what it means to be Black, harnessing joy, and feeling truly alive.”
Knighton also emphasized the intentionality behind her choreography, noting the influence of Graham technique combined with Afro-movement vocabularies.
“This combination allows me to approach my culture directly and unapologetically, no holding back, no dilution,” she said. “It’s given me the freedom to create from an authentic place”
Stephanie Franco, performing her new work Woman of Many Dreams, described her piece as exploring “the raw woman’s artistic body with its many layers and visions.” She said the choreography reflects her connection to her ancestors and the divine feminine.
Franco also shared her approach to performing: “I have to go to the deepest parts of my body, allowing myself to be seen, to have the audience also experience a feeling. I train my body to be honest and sensational. I open up my senses, I pay attention to sensations building, I transfer energy, and I storytell through energy and spirit moving together in possibility and wonder. Allowing myself to stay full of wonder is my secret.”
She added that she combines different techniques, cultural dance forms, and improvisation to embody emotion fully on stage.
In contrast, Peter London’s newest work for six men explores raw emotional extremes, portraying the male form with intensity and power, described in the press release as embodying what Martha Graham called “divine ugliness.”
The program also includes Jamar Roberts’ A FOLK’S TALE, a piece reflecting the depth, resilience, and poetry of the African American experience. The evening will culminate in Peter London’s Carnival Street Fête: Caribbean Suite, set to music by internationally celebrated jazz trumpeter and composer Etienne Charles. The finale evokes the spirit of Carnival with rhythm, color and joyous energy.
Tickets are $30 and available through the Sanctuary of the Arts website or by phone at (786) 362-5132.