Spirit of dance in Black Rock
by JOHN SEALY THE BLACK ROCK Cultural Centre was filled with a spirit of dance and thanks as the Barbados Dance Theatre Company hosted Barbados Dance Centre’s presentation entitled “Reflections Of The Way Life Used To Be” last Saturday.
It was fitting that the cultural centre with its history of community outreach was chosen as the venue to showcase the talent the Dance Centre unearthed in six months after its programme was crippled by a fire which destroyed the company’s building at Bishop’s Court Hill, St Michael, in 2019 and then impacted by the outbreak of COVID-19 the following year.
Organisers, based on the enthusiasm of the youngsters, were justified in expressing their satisfaction at what took place before a packed hall of parents and supporters.
Artistic director/principal of the Barbados Dance Centre Dr John Hunte said the event was “a testimony to the persistence of the tutors, their students and parents that we could hold the quality of dance after not being able to perform or be in a studio for two and a half years. To see that in six months we were able to get back a semblance of what a concert is like is encouraging.”
Hunte said the community’s involvement and putting a focus on the young people to shine were
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DAY IN PARIS was also part of the entertainment package.
(Pictures by Lennox Devonish.)
CHANGE COMING performing during the Barbados Dance Centre’s presentation.
WALKING ON SUNSHINE, one of the pieces presented by Barbados Dance Centre.
AFROBEATS DONE to music by Skeletun-Tekno’s sped up version.
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important. He also said the programme served a recruitment drive “letting people know that we are back because there are some people who are a little reticent about coming back”. “We are a little about half of the capacity we had before so with this we hope by September we will get back our full complement and then we will work back to other projects. We want to rebuild the studio, revitalise the company,” he said while adding that “we are seeing a strong foundation for the building of a company”.
Hunte, in response to a question about government’s assistance, said: “The government has been very kind to us through the National Cultural Foundation [and] where we have any ideas for projects.
We did a Men In Motion with them last year. It’s a synergy. Barbados Dance Theatre has always had a relationship with the government.”
Government’s special advisor on culture and heritage, Senator John King, speaking on the sidelines of the production noted that Barbados had a “long and deep heritage to the Arts in my mind since 1981 when we had CARIFESTA here. That seemed to be a take-off point for us in terms of appreciating the arts”.
“Seeing the young people involved carries on the tradition of dance.
What we need now is to help the Barbados Dance Company re-establish a home to carry on with their work and through the efforts of the Division of Labour and NCF expose more people to community dance. We have to also have … to put the synergies towards festivals like Crop Over and National Festival of Creative Arts – not just in competitions but in exhibitions so that the Barbadian public become a lot more aware of dance”.
The three-hour programme featured 22 pieces of choreographies running the gamut of classical to contemporary and were performed by children and tutors.
