fig. 11 L’Antech Reverance Arm Position 1 which represents woman
fig. 10 Satta walks
fig. 13 Back and Front View of a L’Antech Exercise at the Barre. fig. 12 Hounfour Walk
L’Antech is a combination of two or more movement types, whether similar or opposing, bridging cultures. Synerbridging, facilitates cross-cultural sharing, blending, mixing, even mutating with the specific purpose of combining cultures in a movement that simultaneously represents the many cultures.
Another example: if the pulsating hip thrust of the traditional Jamaican folk form is continued while a developpe of the European Classical School is being executed, those two movements are synerbridged. There is no hiatus or break between them and a successful synerbridge enables an ethnological understanding of the cultures included in the synerbridge.
Synerbridge does not refer to a consecutive arrangement of modern and traditional steps but to a synergism where modern and traditional forms are collapsed into a symbiotic and simultaneous relationship, where cross-cultural bridges blend with Jamaican or wider Caribbean continuities.
Some will argue that to synerbridge or fuse movement styles is extreme and, therefore, taxing for the performer. It may be true that synerbridging results in complex movement combinations and, hence, may make greater demands on the dancers’ bodies, particularly in terms of balance and control, but it can be executed, and, when mastered demonstrates the kinetic energy and daring of the new world of the Caribbean. Many individuals over the past 18 years have performed synerbridged movements with ease. What made it possible for them was the vigorous, structured training procedure to which they were exposed prior to their debut as performers of the synerbridged technique of L’Antech.
If, for example, in executing a grand plie of the classical school, one simultaneously disrupts the rigid line, and uses instead circular rotations of the hips as done in a dancehall bubble, those two contrasting styles and movements have been synerbridged, i.e. melted or blended to create a crossing of cultures. Note that one movement does not follow the other but are combined, thus synerbridged.
48
In a true synerbridge, the movements of Europe, Africa and the East can be interwoven. Simultaneity is the