Bio
John Hunte PhD is an accomplished performer and arts activist of over 40 years. Passionate about arts management and production, performance, choreography, teaching, and consulting, he is armed with a Diploma in Dance Theatre and Production from the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, Jamaica 1990 and a BS Dance from the State University of New York, College at Brockport in 1991. Hunte graduated with an MFA in Performing Arts Management from Brooklyn College, New York City in 2003. A research scholar and writer, Hunte received his PhD degree in cultural studies from the Faculty of Humanities and Education at the Cave Hill, Barbados Campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) in 2014. His research interests include dance and the arts in the Caribbean, as well as cultural studies, gender studies and performance studies in Barbados and the Caribbean region. His PhD thesis, Beyond the Silence: Men, Dance and Masculinity in the Caribbean, interrogates where dance and masculinity intersect as perceived through the lens and perception of men who dance onstage. Appreciating the broader narratives that exist for dance and culture in the Caribbean, Dr. Hunte explores the complexities and nuances that exist in Barbados to demystify the notion that Barbados has no distinct culture outside of Englishness.
From 2011 to 2015, Hunte was the Cultural Officer Dance at the National Cultural Foundation (NCF), a statutory body attached to the Division of Culture in the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth in Barbados. In the NCFs Cultural Development Department, Hunte was the interface between the needs of the various sectors of the dance community and the NCFs mission "to fuel the developing the arts". This was done specifically by:
-organizing and executing training programmes in dance for schools, community groups, dance troupes, and individuals.
-conceptualising developmental projects and performances in the areas of dance and dance theatre.
-overseeing the activities of the desk, including assisting the Youth Affairs Division and the Community Development Division with their National Dance Training projects, and creating the infrastructure for regional and international dance exchange programmes.
At the NCF, Hunte was asked to coordinate several projects. He was part of a team to create the Cultural Industries Development Act, that led the way for the establishment of the Cultural Industries Development Authority. Hunte was artistic director of the NIFCA Arts Camp from 2012-2015. He was artistic director for the YAR programme 2013-2015. He coordinated programmes at the Dance Desk including the NCF Dance Desk Summer Internship Programme and in 2015 the NCF Dance Ensemble. Other duties included the NCF coordinator for the World Environment Day Commemorative event held in Barbados in May 2014, Artistic Director for the Barbados Contingent to CARIFESTA XII in Haiti in August 2015. After leaving the NCF, Hunte was Artistic Coordinator/Director for CARIFESTA XIII in Barbados, coordinating all artistic elements for the local organizing Secretariat from February to September 2017.
Hunte has been involved in various research projects. Recent assignments included: research assistant for UWIs EU-LAC Migration Project as well as doing research and writing for the UWI-led National Biographies Project November 2017- April 2018. He is part-time tutor at the Barbados Community College’s dance and theatre programmes and adjunct lecturer at the UWI Cave Hill Campus in its creative studies and cultural studies programmes. Since its inception in 2014, he is Executive Director/General Manager/Producer with Barbados Dance Project Inc., and Artistic Director of its Ensemble, an ongoing choreographic process for budding dancers to collaborate with various performance projects.
Hunte is Barbados Dance Theatre Company’s Artistic Director & Principal. He served as a member of the Barbados Landship Association s Advisory Committee from 2012 to 2024 along the way wrote its online teacher’s training manual, designed and coordinated its first Barbados Landship teacher certification course offered in association with the NCF and UWI, and coordinated the first National Landship in Schools Training programme with the NCF from April 2023 to July 2024.
As King Shepherd of Israel, Hunte has been an ordained minister in the Spiritual Baptist faith since 2004. Hunte headed the Council of Spiritual Baptist Churches of Barbados as its Chairman. He now serves as its General Secretary.
Qualifications
PhD Cultural Studies, UWI Cave Hill
MFA Performing Arts Management (CUNY Brooklyn College)
BS Dance (SUNY College at Brockport)
Dipl. Dance Theatre & Production (EMCVPA, Jamaica)
Research Areas
Passionate about Arts Management and Production, Performance, Choreography, Teaching, and Consulting.
Teaching Areas
Dance, Choreography and Cultural Studies
Select Publications
Co-editor with Rainy Demerson Coming in with the Rain: Celebrating Circum-Caribbean Dance for DANCE CHRONICLE Special Edition New York: Routledge Expected April 2025 ONLINE
“How the Fringe Became the Festival: CARIFESTA XIII, Barbados 2017” for CARICOM/UWI Publication Ian Randle Publishing: Upcoming
“Monuments of Freedom: Paradise Beach, Rock Sculptures, Water and Light” for The Ocean and Our Culture edited by Clish Gittens for CADRES UWI Cave Hill Upcoming
“Beyond Secrets, Silence and the Mask: Men, Dance and Masculinity” in Editors: Opal Palmer and Keino Senior CARIBBEAN MEN IN THE ARTS: DEMYSTIFYING MASCULINITIES WITH ESSAYS, INTERVIEWS, POETRY AND STORIES. CARIBBEAN for Institute of Gender and Development Studies, UWI Mona/Cambridge Scholars Publishing. November 2024 PRINT
Facing the Rising Sun: Toward Spiritual Reparation Colourism, Classism and Racism in the Caribbean Context (Editor: Nicqi Ashwood and Mikie Roberts) World Conference of Churches GENEVA 2024 WEB
TRAJECTORIES OF FREEDOM: Caribbean Dance Up and Centre, The Case of Barbados for 2022 Leicester UK 2023 PRINT
Chapter: “Concert Dance in Barbados as Archive: Dancing the National Narratives”
Archiving Caribbean Identity: Records, Community, and Memory (Editors) John Aarons, Jeannette A. Bastian, Stanley Hazley Griffin Routledge: London 2022 PRINT
Chapter: “Dance in Barbados: Reclaiming, Preserving and Creating National Identities” with Susan Harewood, for Making Caribbean Dance: Continuity and Creativity in Island Cultures, University Press of Florida, Gainsville, 2010 PRINT John Hunte PhD Venture, St. John, Barbados tel. 1 246 572 6110, 1 246 243 6334 (c), email: johnhunte@gmail.com
Expanding the Age Demographic in Queens Theatre Audiences in Performance-Management Spring 2003 Vol. XXVIII Issue 1, a publication of the Brooklyn College Department of Theater - MFA Performing Arts Management and the Brooklyn College of Alumni Affairs http://depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/theater/mfa/Home/home.htm
Additional Info
Independent Study; Recording Dance from the Caribbean; Dance Notation vs. Video.
Recording, in partial fulfilment of requirements for BS Dance, SUNY Brockport. December 1991.
The Status of Dance as a Profession in Jamaica - in partial fulfilment of requirements for the Diploma in Dance Theatre and Production at the Edna Manley College of the Arts. Kingston, Jamaica. December 1990.
Keywords
Arts Administration, Creative Arts, Cultural Studies, Dance, Gender, Spirituality in the Caribbean