Graduates of the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, especially those who at least passed through the dance school will today be proud of Barry Moncrieffe. According to Chairman of the Management Committee of the National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica (NDTC), Jeffrey Cobham he is appointed as the company’s new artistic director, succeeding the late Professor Rex Nettleford.

Moncrieffe has had an unbroken record of service with the Company, starting out as a supporting dancer and continuing as a lead male dancer, artistic coordinator and associate director of the Company. That is with the exception of a three-year sojourn teaching at the prestigious Vassar College, New York.

A brilliant performer with an impeccable career, Moncrieffe has maintained the cohesion of the dance company. He became a full member within a year of the Company’s formation in 1962 and remained a constant hard worker, contributing technical competence and naturally expressive movement to the Company. He became a teacher at the Jamaica School of Dance founded in 1970 by Sheila Barnett, Barbara Requa and Bert Rose under the direction of the National Dance Theatre Company.