Vive la dance

As we moved about our business, car windows stayed firmly closed to lock in the cool air, while some of us sought temporary refuge beneath umbrellas. Smoke from the fires of our burning hills and the pollution from human activity caused an unnatural blanket of fog. Economic downgrade, downturn, oil spill, more historic buildings destroyed, car crash — another child left without parents.

The dance saved me.

A woman moves across the stage in a costume made primarily out of newspaper. In a sense, her story is engulfed by the newspaper headlines which rustle, shake and fall as she appeals for help, for support for something to eat. The movement is visceral, intense and all-consuming; it draws you in. Eventually, she succumbs, shivering in a corner of the stage.

In other pieces, one male dancer effortlessly lifts another, while a female soloist in white performs a captivating modern contemporary piece with abstract undertones. This is the vision and choreography of one of our own, Peter London.

For the first time, I was able to experience the thought-provoking and rigorous choreography of this talented son of our soil. Peter, who grew up at Laventille Road, was a lead dancer in the Astor Johnson Repertory Dance Company. He is grounded in the folk traditions of Best Village, becoming the artistic director of the Barataria Best Village group in 1979. He studied classical ballet at the Caribbean School of Dance under the strict but loving eye of legendary teacher Patricia Roe. It is said that he has choreographed over 90 ballets.

Peter is currently Distinguished Professor of Dance at Miami-Dade College/New World School of the Arts. He is the founder, artistic director and choreographer of the Peter London Global Dance Company.

He is home to take part in the annual season of the Metamorphosis Dance Company — Two of a Kind: Two Dance Companies, One Show.

Metamorphosis continues to grow in strength as a dance institution under the creative direction of artistic director Nancy Herrera, Assistant Professor of Classical Ballet and the Head of Dance at the Academy for the Performing Arts at UTT.

It was extremely gratifying to see the young people of her company perform Kyo by Astor Johnson, a pioneer of his own style of TT dance heavily influenced by African spirituality and dance techniques.

Over the past months, I was privileged to observe the senior dancers of Repertory — Marlon, Allison, Roxanne, Sonja and Joanne — as they worked with the young people, and sometimes even taking part in the rehearsal of the piece myself.

But the point is, when I saw the dance on stage, in the costumes conceptualised by Astor and executed with the precision of youthful bodies, the significance of the partnership between Metamorphosis and Repertory struck me again. Allowing a new generation of dancers to learn the choreography ensures that his body of work will continue to be showcased, even though his name may not be known by every young aspiring dancer or artist.

In a similar vein, I was glad to see dancer and actress Dr Joanne Kilgour- Dowdy in the audience, here to make her own contribution to the development of dance through a scholarship in honour of her late mother, Kathleen Armstrong Kilgour.

We continue to push through the fog and haze created by the heat, smoke and the effects of our mistakes. Moments spent lost in our creativity matter because they inspire and teach us vital lessons.

They remind us that though unappreciated, geniuses like Astor never gave up, and neither should we.

D a r a Healy is a perform a n c e artist and founder of the NGO, the Indigenous Creative Arts Network – ICAN