Little Dragon against seven Goliaths

Leroy Prieto portraying Temuchin the Mighty Ruler and Warrior, will tonight fly the flag for mas purists — those who believe a Carnival king is an outfit and not a float and who refuse to use wheels to support it or pyrotechnics to enhance it.

Prieto is the only finalist who will actually be carrying his costume, a challenge usually taken on by designer Brian McFarlane.  Having already made a splash at Miami Carnival, Prieto operates out of Fireworks Promotions’ Warriors of Yore in South at whose mas he placed third. Prieto faces many rival goliaths whose impact are greatly (and perhaps unfairly) enhanced by their large size, but which in turn restricts their ability to “dance” their outfits. Temuchin is a dragon kite. The masquerader attired in a dragon body has an extended tail painted onto a fabric spread. It recalls Minshall’s “Manta Ray”, a simple form but danced to great effect. At the king semi-finals, Prieto stalked on-stage to creeping music, initially through half-closed eyes looking like a bat with horizontal wings. He made some impact in raising it up vertically, although the choreography of his transformation could have been sharper, a more sudden rise creating a greater impact.

Roland St George’s “Schizo — The Agony of Xtacy” is a nice idea whose design showed the duality of the theme. It looked promising off-stage in the dark, with wholesome bright white and blue at front, and devilish red behind. But somehow, under the harsh white stage lighting as with many other kings, the colours were not displayed to best effect. The piece may not have had a strong enough overall form to hold together all the different elements comprising the costume — the central iconic man, a vertical halo, two “wings”, and swirls. Further, the sculptured form did not at all facilitate movement. Yes, the bobbing of the individual dragon heads at the rear was nice, but it was a very limited motion.  Instead of the masquerader being able to dance the costume, like many other kings he merely seemed an irrelevant appendage to the outfit. It’s large size increased its visual impact.

David Lakhan offered “Blue Moon Visitor”.  Three dragon heads bobbing on the ends of elongated necks gave very powerful imagery of form and allowed a certain amount of movement in the mas, bringing it alive. Large blue cloth crescents reminiscent of moons, formed the dragon wings, curving backwards to balance the forward protruding dragon heads. It was a worthy mas although its elements were hardly original. In Ansel Price’s “Zulu Warrior Dream”  a white horse leaps through a wide spread of flames, orange and black. The masquerader pauses to work the outfit. By slightly bobbing the horse up and down, he made the creature appear to ride on the flames. Again, its largeness created extra large impact. “Trouble in the Bamboo” worn by Geraldo Vierra Junior comprised a large scary central iconic figure like an evil genie in eerie grey, backed by stalks of bamboo, both gold/brown and green/silver. In addition to bouncing up amid the swaying vertical bamboos, the figure made even more impact by moving arms and by bending his whole body down. This is yet another large king. 

Juan Maximo’s king, “Hannibal — Ruler of Carthage”, portrayed the might and the majesty of the nemesis of ancient Rome. An elephant head was backed by a disc of large feathers/plumes done in an Africanist theme, topped by three regal fans. Curtis Eustace’s “D Sky is D Limit” was so big that it nearly damaged the overhead powerlines in coming on-stage at the semi-finals. It is an explosion of dazzling colour radiating outwards. It comprised vertically-erect double wings of purple, green and turquoise, all held together by a white/silver hem. Eustace played to the crowd with vigorous arm and leg movements, really moving like a winner. Eustace  in all-while body suit was backed by large silver spikes and spines, radiating out from behind him, this middle-ground linking masquerader to his huge costume. But like many others, he was somewhat separated from the larger costume, in that its rigidity and size did not truly lend to its being danced by him. South King Aaron Kallicharan’s “Native Warrior” was a well-received presentation and confident piece which really knew what it was all about. The elongated totemic head allowed the masquerader to more so become an active part of the costume. The fierce facial expression was a central focus from which radiated fiery streaks of yellow, orange and black, a blazing overall. The outfit conveyed the emotion of anger, recalling the angst shown by the classic expressionism of Edvard Munch’s painting “The Scream” of 1893.