Linda returns to theatre

Artistic director and dance choreographer Linda Pollard Lake returns to the theatre with one of her biggest productions yet. With a cast of 90 which includes four-year-olds to 44-year-olds, the Linda Pollard Lake Dance Ensemble will feature Dance In Love and Life — a Trinidadian love story based on a theme that parallels Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet at Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s on April 7 and 8.

Among her lead acts are Akeisha Byng who plays Victoria Valleton, Megann Thompson (Akeisha’s sister, Josephine), Hamid Rahman (the typical bad boy with a soft edge Ziggy alias Ringo), Adrian Daniel (Ziggy’s brother, Rocky alias Thud), and the graceful Kristel Lake. Linda revealed the plot: “An uppity girl falls in love with a bad boy from Dark Eye Lane in Belmont. The show has running conflicts. Victoria has a sister and pussy cat as her conscience and Ziggy has a brother and pitbull as his. Victoria’s father has a “coming out” party to introduce her to nice eligible young men. However, her love of her life crashes the party. There is confusion, she runs away and finds herself in a bad part of town at Smudy and Blinky.

“Ziggy comes and fights everybody and gets her. She is then delivered by the light of hope that floods goodness on the whole scene and he takes her home to daddy. Daddy realises that he is a good boy and everybody accepts each other in joy and happiness. The pitbull and pussy cat dance together, mummy and daddy dance together. “It’s a young people show just like any West Side Story production, somewhat of a happily ever after ending except it doesn’t end in death but hope.” Linda was effective in pulling together various dancers who specialised in classical, hip-hop, East Indian, Latin and modern dance. “I always try to make my shows all-round and engage our culture. Every single dance in Trinidad is involved. I think Trinidad is too cosmopolitan not to integrate dance.”

“Come and see the show and you’ll have a great time!” she heralded. Linda promises two hours, less the 15-minute intermission, of action-packed and quality entertainment. She said the show’s concept had been lingering in her thoughts for a long time now. Why? “I was holding back because I know how much work is involved.” But apart from the challenge of getting the 90 members to assemble all at once for rehearsals, her greatest difficulty was securing funding for the $70,000 production. “We (parents and students of the dance school) are funding this whole show. The first thing is money and support from corporate citizens, then to try and get publicity. It’s a dancing school show. We have advanced dancers who have taken advanced exams and we have to pay them as well as the person who is doing the set, design, costuming and the cost to use the Queen’s Hall.

“It’s very hard for me and for the students and dancers to put out all this work and energy and nobody comes to see it. Dance is the hardest project to sell. There is a small portion of the population interested in dance and out of that, two percent comes.” She reasoned that “our population does not understand the quality of our dance community. Apart from teaching them dance I also try to educate my students on direction, art, precision, backstage, manners. But I do it (stage shows) because the students love it and it was worked out for me long before I was born.” In the early 1970s, Linda travelled to England to pursue a dance career. Following her three years there, she obtained qualifications in ballet and modern dance.

“Apart from the idea of being a vet, I never wanted to do anything else. My mother had loved the arts and I was involved in piano, the choir; every extra-curricular activity we tried out. When I went to England to qualify for dance, my mother got up at four in the morning to do catering to support me. I stayed in a little room with no hot water, nothing, and to go everywhere I hopped a bus and walked. I learned to cook things people can’t think about.” The end results, she said, were encouraging. “My greatest joys have been my children — Kristel, 23, and Adam, 25, the secure, sobering support for the family — and of course the dance school.”