Robenson Mathurin is a dance artist performing, choreographing, and teaching Haitian Folklore, Contemporary, Modern, Jazz, and Afro-based dance styles. He has toured in the USA, Trinidad, and Taiwan with Compagnie de Danse Jean René Delsoin, based in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and has worked with US-based companies including but not limited to Jean Appolon Expressions and Kriyol Dance! Collective. Mathurin has also choreographed for top Haitian artists including Rutshelle Guillaume, Darline Desca, and Roody Roodboy. Now based in Brooklyn, NY, he continues to expand his portfolio and training through programs and residencies including the Mark Morris Teaching Artist Training Program and professional dance studies at The Taylor School.

Crown Heights community members: Robenson Mathurin’s Lakou NOU project, “Koulè M Idantite M” (My Skin, My Identity in English), is a reflection on the complexity of black identity in different societies and, specifically, as part of the immigrant experience. “Koulè M Idantite M” invites black immigrant Crown Heights community members to participate in short video-recorded interviews and dance workshops, comparing their experience of blackness in their home countries, and their experience of blackness in their Brooklyn neighborhood, answering the question: what does being Black mean to me? If you would like to participate in the interviews or dance workshops please email: mathurinrobenson3034@gmail.com

Thus far, Robenson has held four open dance workshops in partnership with Crown Heights-based dance studio, Fit4Dance.

Through dance movement, choreography, and group discussion, participants reflected on what it means to live, survive, and thrive in one’s own black skin in their home countries and in Brooklyn.