{"id":12260,"date":"2021-07-02T17:17:22","date_gmt":"2021-07-02T17:17:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/?p=12260"},"modified":"2025-04-21T07:16:23","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T07:16:23","slug":"carld-jonassaint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2021\/07\/02\/carld-jonassaint\/","title":{"rendered":"Carld Jonassaint"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Carld Jonassaint<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Dance Theatre of Harlem (1980-1987)<\/strong>
\nAmerican Ballet Theatre (1987-1993)<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Photo: Marbeth, via American Ballet Theatre<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Carld Jorel Jonassaint was born ca. 1962 in Port-de-Paix, Haiti before moving to Canada, where he started his dance training. After seeing Dance Theatre of Harlem perform on television, Jonassaint moved to New York City in 1980. He was awarded a scholarship to DTH\u2019s school, became an apprentice with the company, and joined as an official company member in 1983, reportedly becoming the first Haitian-born to do so.<\/p>\n

With DTH, Jonassaint performed in the company\u2019s original casts of Michael Smuin\u2019s Songs of Mahler<\/em> (1984), John McFall\u2019s Toccata e Due Canzoni<\/em> (1986), and Robert Garland<\/a>\u2019s Crossing Over <\/em>(1997). His lead roles included those in Arthur Mitchell<\/a>\u2019s Manifestations<\/em>, George Balanchine<\/a>\u2019s Square Dance<\/em> and Four Temperaments<\/em>, Billy Wilson<\/a>\u2019s Concerto in F<\/em>, and John Taras\u2019 The Firebird<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In 1987, the dancer joined American Ballet Theatre, where he performed lead roles in La Bayadere<\/em>, The Nutcracker<\/em>, George Balanchine\u2019s Theme and Variations<\/em>, Jiri Kylian’s Sinfonietta<\/em>, Ulysses Dove\u2019s Serious Pleasures<\/em>, and Merce Cunningham\u2019s Duets<\/em> as well as being featured in the world premiere of Mark Morris\u2019 Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes<\/em> (1988) and the ABT premiere of Twyla Tharp\u2019s Nine Sinatra Songs<\/em> (1990). He appeared in the 1988 filmed production for PBS Great Performances: Live From Lincoln Center: American Ballet Theatre: Romeo and Juliet<\/em>.<\/p>\n

As a guest artist, Jonassaint performed the roles of Arabian in Maryland Ballet\u2019s The Nutcracker<\/em> and Brown Sugar in Ballethnic\u2019s Urban Nutcracker<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Jonassaint also choreographed, creating pieces like Serenade for Dead Men<\/em>, Inner Voice<\/em>, and Full Moon Over Central Park<\/em>. His work was performed by Charles David Anderson\u2019s Ballet Inc. In 1995, he created a performance piece entitled Poetry in the Life of AIDS<\/em>, described as “the spiritual and positive effects of the HIV\/AIDS crisis, especially as it effects [sic] the gay and lesbian community, as well as other minority groups.”<\/p>\n

Jonassaint was frequently praised in the press: New York Magazine<\/em> called him \u201cbeautifully built, sensuous in modern roles, neat and airy in classical work\u201d in 1984, The Daily News<\/em> described a 1986 performance by Jonassaint and Virginia Johnson<\/a> \u201cfaultless,\u201d Anna Kisselgoff of The<\/em> New York Times <\/em>called him \u201ctoo talented to remain just in the corps [of American Ballet Theatre],\u201d and critic John Gruen said that he “moves easily and often breathtakingly from style to style, lending his mercurial presence to a wide variety of roles.”<\/p>\n

Jonassaint died from AIDS on February 28, 1997 at St. Luke\u2019s-Roosevelt Hospital (Manhattan) at age 35.<\/p>\n

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Carld Jonassaint and Virginia Johnson, photo via Daily News<\/em>, 1986<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Left to right: Carld Jonassaint, Dana Stackpole, and Amy Rose. Photo via Daily News<\/em>, 1989<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Virginia Johnson and Carld Jonassaint via The Boston Globe<\/em>, 1986<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Repertory List: Dance Theatre of Harlem, Columbia University Libraries<\/a>
\nCarld Jonaissant, 35, a Dancer of Many Styles, The New York Times<\/a>
\nThe Dance Theater of Harlem goes homes, Daily News<\/a>
\nCarld Jorel Jonassaint bio<\/a>
\nHaitian Born Dancer Sanford Placide To Make Debut With Dance Theatre of Harlem, South Florida Caribbean News<\/a>
\nDrink to Me Only With Thine Eyes, American Ballet Theatre<\/a>
\nNine Sinatra Songs, American Ballet Theatre<\/a>
\nRepertory List: Dance Theatre of Harlem, Columbia University Libraries<\/a>
\nGreat Performances: Live From Lincoln Center: American Ballet Theatre: Romeo and Juliet (TV), The Paley Center for Media<\/a>
\n\u2018The Nutcracker\u2019 captures the magic of the season, The Baltimore Sun<\/a>
\nDance; For Ballet Theatre: A Bright Season, a New Spirit, The New York Times<\/a>
\nDance Theatre of Harlem, Emmanuel Current<\/a>
\nHarlem on my Mind, New York Magazine<\/a>
\nTripping on Tippet toes, Daily News<\/a>
\n\u2018Urban Nutcracker\u2019 a variation on a theme, The Atlanta Constitution<\/a>
\nSpice and spectacle from DTH, The Boston Globe<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carld Jonassaint Dance Theatre of Harlem (1980-1987) American Ballet Theatre (1987-1993) Carld Jorel Jonassaint was born ca. 1962 in Port-de-Paix, Haiti before […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dancers"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12260"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12264,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12260\/revisions\/12264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}