Neila Ebanks (MA, Physical Theatre), the first Dance awardee for the Commonwealth Connections Residency (2011) has created work for the HIP Festival of Black Dance (London) and performed in the UK with such companies as Bimba Dance Company and Foursight Theatre Company.

 

Regionally, she has represented Jamaica in the Bienal de Danza del Caribe (2008), the Caribbean Educative Arts Festival (2010) and COCO Dance Festival (2011)  and was Creative Director of the IP initiative, Choreography is Copyrightable™.  In Jamaica, Neila shares her knowledge as full-time lecturer at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts.  She has been twice nominated for an International Theatre Institute Actor Boy Award for Choreography (2005, 2006)  and has also worked in Film and Media.

 

In October 2009, she directed her own physical theatre production PSSST! for the EMCVPA School of Drama and, from 2009 to 2015, has been an invited presenter for the University of the West Indies' Jamaica Dance Umbrella. Neila's diverse Jamaican performance/ choreography connections include work with her company eNKompan.E™,  The Stella Maris Young Adult Dance Ensemble, The University Dance Society , L’ACADCO United Caribbean Dance Force, Dance Theatre Xaymaca, ASHE Caribbean Performing Arts Enterprise, Movements Dance Company, The Company Dance Theatre and The National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica (with whom she premiered a choreographic work in 2011).  

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Ebanks is a member of the syllabus writing team for the newly launched CAPE Performing Arts curriculum and was also the first ever Dance recipient of the Commonwealth Connections Residency which she undertook in Canada in 2012.