Best Village queens to show talent

Yet, again someone has the opportunity to build a foundation out of the competition. The finals are scheduled to be held from Sunday to August 28, culminating with the Ms Le Renie Rive competition on September 10. Twenty-six women from across Trinidad’s eight counties will vie for the coveted crown. The 26 delegates will compete at the Southern Academy for Performing Arts, Todd Street, San Fernando in the areas of Talent tomorrow at 7pm and Self-Expression on August 28 at 7 pm. In the Talent segment, the delegates will portray their talent in dance, music or literature. The Self- Expression segment encourages the delegates to speak about her community.

Ms La Reine Rive 2016 will be crowned at Le Gran Z’Affaire on September 10 at the Queen’s Park Savannah, Port-of-Spain. In addition the show, starting at 7 pm, will also include the results of the handicraft, village chat/short story/ poetry, poetry, folk presentation music and dance and folk theatre categories. The competition’s birth came from a tour by the country’s first Prime Minister Dr Eric Williams on his ‘historic’ Meet the People Tour. In a PDF document entitled Highlights of the Prime Minister’s Best Village Trophy Competition taken from the Ministry of Culture, Community Development and the Arts website, it was noted, “Inspired by the diverse range of talent that he witnessed amongst the people he decided to organise a competition in 1963 called the Prime Minister’s Best Village Trophy Competition. It was intended to promote the nation’s culture through drama, song, music and dance. The main aim was to develop the folk and traditional arts that characterized the nation and create a continuous parade of our cultural panorama.

Throughout the years participants have set new standards in the different categories of the competition.

Through hard work, innate skills and resourcefulness the competition has developed to its present status and has introduced new talent to the stage.” Today, the competition boasts several young people, according to the Minister of Culture, Community Development and the Arts, Dr Nyan Gadsby Dolly. In a phone interview, she noted that the competition is not dying but rather has a strong youth participation.

She noted that the competition is rather transitioning since there are other events parallel to the competition.

The ministry, she added, has begun to advertise the competition’s schedule to gain greater public awareness and appreciation for the competition. She said the ministry was also at a discussion stage regarding gaining more school participation in the competition.

The long-standing community competition judges aspects such as folk theatre, folk dance, drummology, musicals, poetry, short stories and village chat among others.