Jackie Guy

Jackie Guy
Born	Carlton Guy Jamaica
Occupation	Dancer, choreographer, teacher
Years active	1960s–present
Former groups	National Dance Theatre Company University of the West Indies Dance Society Kukuma Dance Company Movements Dance Company

Carlton "Jackie" Guy MBE is a Jamaican dancer, choreographer and teacher who has been based in the United Kingdom since the mid-1980s.

Guy grew up in the Harbour View area of Kingston and took up dancing as a boy, inspired by the film West Side Story. With his friends he would watch Alma Mock Yen's dance group and was invited to join in 1964. While at Windward Road School he choreographed a dance based on a song by folklorist Louise Bennett-Coverley (Miss Lou), which was performed for her. He gave up dancing while he began a career as an accountant for RJR but soon returned to dance, taking lessons with Eddy Thomas and Rex Nettleford. Guy would later work with Bennett-Coverley in the 1967 pantomime Anancy and Pandora and the 1971 production Music Boy.

In 1968 Guy was invited to join Thomas and Nettleford's National Dance Theatre Company (NDTC), and was encouraged to develop his choreography and to take up teaching. He performed with the NDTC for 15 years, becoming principal dancer, and taught dance at the Social Development Commission, the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission, and the School of Dance. He was also director of the University of the West Indies Dance Society for almost 18 years.

After visiting England in 1985 and touring Britain with the NDTC in 1986, he relocated there in 1987 and has continued to teach in London, using his own "JaGuy Technique". In the UK he choreographed Yvonne Jones Brewster's production of Derek Walcott's O Babylon! and became the artistic director for Birmingham's Kokuma Dance Company, moving the group towards Caribbean styles. With Kokuma he won Black Dance Awards for Best Production and Best Choreography and the Prudential Award for Excellence, Innovation and Accessibility.

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