HOW DOES a super-fit, athletic dancer stay quiet for two minutes, far less stay off the dance floor for two years? Somehow, John Hunte is doing it, confirming the exceptional discipline which he brought to the art form in the first place while, amazingly, taking things in stride as a dance tutor who is providing a lesson on facing the vagaries of life.
It was in 2007 after a performance in Santo Domingo that Hunte realized he had hurt his back and, after dancing through the pain – as usual – in subsequent performances, he decided to get a medical diagnosis. The sad news was that he was in the process of osteoarthritis, which had triggered cartilage degeneration in various joints, especially his hip joints.
After trying alternative therapies, Hunte had to finally look at surgery; one operation was done in December 2009 and the other in February this year, especially after he had reached the point where there was not enough cartilage left for glucosamine to work.
So how has Barbados’ top male dancer, who now walks with a cane, been coping in the last two years?
“It would have been a major setback if I had been in my 20s but I’m in my 40s. Most dancers’ careers end or come down in their 30s, so I was really living on borrowed time,” he told WE with a chuckle.
“It was a good point to reflect and to figure out other ways of moving, teaching and creating, so I’m looking forward to that,” he added.
Having put 26 years into his first love, it was not easy to say goodbye to dance, so amid the essential therapy that involves swimming and home-based exercise, he has been using his time offstage wisely. For Hunte, this is a time of transition.
“It was a good time to reflect on what I had done so far and how I want to move forward. I was also doing my doctorate in cultural studies at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, and it gave me a chance to really look at my PhD. Incidentally my thesis is on Men, Dance and Masculinity in the Caribbean, whether there’s a face to male dancers in the Caribbean and how do they contribute – and the whole concept of what it means to be a man in the Caribbean. All these elements have intersected,” he said.
The most difficult aspect, therefore, has been the waiting. “The hardest thing in the injury, I think, would be the issue of patience. I have been all my life the kind of person who, if I see something, I go after it relentlessly.
“This was like a two-year moment of ‘let me stay still, let me see the world happening’. I’ve learnt a lot of things about some of what I did and I’m certain that, as a result, I will do a lot of things differently. I’m looking forward to teaching because I want to teach differently. I also want to choreograph differently.”
Noting that dancers always pushed themselves through injury and pain, Hunte, 46, said he had come to realize the importance of having an understudy in place, of not putting pressure on students to perform while in pain, and of bluntly telling injured dancers to sit it out and face temporary disappointment rather than risk long-term damage.
“These were things I didn’t consider for myself. I never had a thought about the fact that I would be injured,” said John, whose dancing has taken him across the globe as he brought strong aesthetics to the art form, complemented by awesome back flips and splits.
Today, as he negotiates with his physical therapist about getting back into the gym, the coordinator and dance tutor at the Barbados Community College is in charge of the college’s Associate Degree programme, and is trying, with his staff that includes dancer Sharma Harding and percussionist David Headley, to re-format the programme from three years to the internationally accepted two years.
He is also seeking to develop a strong, vibrant and energetic group of competent performers within that allotted time.
“Part of the new energy of the college’s programme will be the establishment of a dance ensemble. The music programme has its ensembles and theatre has its group, so I want to have an ensemble which centres around those in the programme, and also invite general enthusiasts. The students would then have a group of people they can call and work with, while the tutors themselves would get a chance to choreograph,” he explained.
What about his doctoral thesis? “I’m trying to think through the whole process of male dancing, how male dancers contribute to how men are seen in society. You know they are a visible presence on stage and they project certain aesthetics that people and the audience respond to. But do they get the respect in their everyday lives? As they negotiate their lives in the everyday space, what do they contribute?
“The way that they show themselves physically on stage, they may be masking certain feelings in order to be accepted in their society. Those are the kinds of issues that I’m thinking through in the work, and I want to hand in a final draft in a couple of weeks. Hopefully that will be the beginning of another chapter,” Hunte explained.
His dream is still to have a dance company; some expression of dance that speaks to the Barbadian experience. And this is looking distinctly possible in light of the joy he has found in teaching, lecturing and choreographing.
Similar to his current situation, John’s beginnings in dance were unexpected. In his last year at Harrison College, when girls were being admitted for the first time, a dance programme was started by Deborah Ashby and, he recalled, the only way boys could stay in the classroom on afternoons was if they were part of the dance class. John joined, and the rest is history.
“I started and I didn’t want to stop. I tried to figure out how to keep it happening, and while studying at college I was dabbling in it, and then I decided ‘let me not play anymore, let me do this full time’. I was in Jamaica at the time, and I transferred to the Edna Manley College and everything just went,” was how he put it.
His resultant Master’s in Fine Arts (MFA) concentrated on performing arts management, since he also wanted to make dance a business in Barbados and the Caribbean.
“Usually the MFA is a terminal degree for dancers…. Dance can be a career but you really make money from teaching, producing and other related fields,” Hunte stated.
Noting that he was supposed to have been a doctor and follow the traditional fields of his siblings and his dad, retired UWI principal Professor Keith Hunte, Hunte is eternally grateful for the opportunities to study under pioneers like Ivy Baxter and Lavinia Willaims and converse with the late eminent Jamaican scholar, choreographer, and UWI vice-chancellor Rex Nettleford.
“We agreed on some things but he would speak about contributing to the arts and not being concerned about being paid,” Hunte added. “Art for art’s sake is good but people have to eat. If a community wants people to develop as artists, they have to develop systems to support the people who are investing in art, whether it is the Government or a civil servant system … because I believe that once people can look after themselves and their families, they can give 100 per cent to the art form.
“But if you have to be thinking about paying bills, eating, emergencies, peradventure you get hurt, then you have to rely on some support systems and your family and friends can’t always do it, and you can’t always be in a position where you feel you have to be begging,” he added, noting that it was his full-time teaching job that had maintained him since 2009.
“There have been a lot of scholarships and debt forgiveness along the way. I’m grateful for all the help I would’ve got … but at the end of the day we have to create an environment so that the people coming after us would have it better than us, and so that people should not feel they have to travel overseas to become successful artists.”
Moral support has also been solid, coming from friends he knew and didn’t know. “I didn’t realize how much goodwill I had invested until this time. People have been definitely supportive. With all its challenges, this moment has been a time of reflection and connecting with people.
“Their biggest question is ‘will I ever dance again’, so If I have a comeback concert people will come out,” said John, who expects to be back onstage by next year.
