Dancing like a Trini in Los Gatos

You don’t have to travel all the way to Trinidad to experience that liveliness. Shereen Manalani, a professional dancer and dance instructor, teaches Caribbean dance in Los Gatos through a series of classes led to the beat of an on-site drum group and offered by Los Gatos-Saratoga Recreation.

Caribbean dance has evolved over time from an amalgamation of cultures.

There are elements of samba, calypso and African tribal dances in Caribbean dance, intertwined with local themes, characters and plot lines that are conveyed through movement.

“Dance in Trinidad is very ritual-based,” Manalani says. “Each dance tells a story, which has been passed down through generations. There’s almost a history of the country in dance.”

The dances tell of political upheaval, history and folklore.

There are dances that parody the Western colonialism and Christianity that were brought to Trinidad by Spain, as well as dances that evoke and mimic the natural elements.

There are several styles, including “fusion,” a celebratory form that includes more African influence; Jabmalassie, a political dance that parodies the Western concept of the devil; and Yaossa, which invokes the elements.

During one of Manalani’s classes, students may find themselves imitating anything from water to impish devils with tails and pitchforks.

In a recent class, Manalani taught her students a traditional dance that uses movements meant to evoke the wind.

“It’s very interpretive, so you can do it any way you like,”

Manalani told the class. “Just be the wind.”

By dancing in a way that mimics or suggests a natural element, Manalani says, Caribbean dancers are attempting to invoke the god that governs that element for personal healing or wisdom.

“Older women in the community will come together to dance the elemental dances,” Manalani says. “These women would not necessarily conform to Western ideals, but when they perform these dances, they are held up in their community as the epitome of grace and beauty.”

Manalani was not always a student of Caribbean dance. Growing up in Santa Clara County, Manalani studied various dance forms and watched her mother teach dance out of their home.

As a student at West Valley College, Manalani was enrolled in samba when Wilfred Mark, a guest instructor from Trinidad, came in to give a Caribbean dance demonstration.

“I was hooked immediately,” Manalani says. “I loved everything about it.” Manalani says she took Mark’s class that semester and the next. When Mark showed up late one day, she took it upon herself to warm up the rest of the class.

“Wilfred knew I was there, warming people up or going over stuff he taught the previous week, so he’d show up later and later,” Manalani says. “I just slowly took over the class.”

Now with her own set of classes, Manalani says her Caribbean dance lessons offer something quite different from the usual aerobic workout.

“People coming to my class are going to sweat,” Manalani says, “but it’s a very mentally stimulating experience as well. The live music really pushes you to step up and go farther.”

Manalani says cultural and traditional forms of dance from all over the world are gaining traction in the US as more people look for a more interesting way to work out.

“I think that with any kind of cultural dance, people are going to be more engaged,” Manalani says. “You learn a lot about a culture from its dance, so not only are you getting in shape when you practise cultural dances, you’re learning to appreciate an entire culture and really broadening your horizons.”

Annette Gordon, a Los Gatos resident, has been taking dance classes from Manalani for nearly ten years and says Caribbean dance is her favourite.

“I feel revitalised when I’m done,” Gordon says. “The live drumming makes it different from anything else I’ve tried.”

Unlike many dance teachers, Manalani never uses “canned” or recorded music. Manalani’s partner Steve Eldridge provides live drumming for each session, accompanied by several of his students, whom he teaches to drum prior to the beginning of the dance class.

“What I love about this type of dance is the relationship between the dancer and the musician,” Manalani says. “It’s a give and take relationship. One feeds off of the other’s energy.”

Eldridge has been practising Caribbean drumming for more than 15 years and has been teaching alongside Manalani for almost 14 of those years.

“I feel like [Caribbean dance and drumming] sort of have to be done together,” says Eldridge, who agrees there’s a lot of give and take between musician and dancer. “That relationship is a big part of what makes this special,” he adds.