The Noble dancer

In an interview at her Woodbrook home recently, Douglas reminisced about her life and her involvement in dance.

Douglas grew up on Carlos Street, Woodbrook with her parents and five siblings. She attended Ms Phillips Private school then went to Bishops Junior School and then to Bishops Senior School.

Douglas said as a child she and her siblings were all sent to music lessons at Rockley’s School of Music.

She admitted although she liked music she never liked the idea of playing music that much.

Her passion for dance started after seeing a show at the opening of the Queen’s Hall where she believes something special happened.

“I suspect something happened while I was there after I saw Marcia Turner dancing. She was the principal of the Caribbean School of Dance and I went and registered myself in her school with the whole idea of stopping music lessons but my mother said to me if I wanted to dance I could dance but I had to continue the music lessons,” she said

When her love for dancing grew she moved to the London College of Dance and Drama and the School of Contemporary Dance in England.

She furthered her dance training in the USA at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Centre.

In the seventies she was also a member of the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company. When she returned home in 1974 she performed with Astor Johnson’s Repertory Dance Theatre and Derek Walcott’s Trinidad Theatre Workshop.

In 1975, Lilliput Theatre was born out of actor, Tony Hall’s and Douglas’s shared vision to use the performing arts as a medium to stimulate young people’s creative energy, and to build their character, self-confidence and self-esteem.

In 1977, she co-founded the La Chapelle/Douglas Dance Company and in 1985, she finally established her own company, Noble Douglas Dance Company.

Douglas found out later she had scoliosis, a back condition that causes the spine to curve to the left or right side.

“In those days, it did not have braces, although I think the dance strengthened my back but it eventually caused a weakening of the right hip so I had to have hip replacement in 2005,” she said.

Due to her surgery she does very little movement now but she said it has taught her to really understand the different techniques.

“I could teach still, I teach a lot still and I usually teach a lot with a demonstrator but with the surgery I have learned the language of dance and how to explain the steps. Before I would demonstrate the move but with this way you really have to understand the process of the movement and talk about it,” she said.

Douglas admitted her favourite aspect about dance is the movement.

“I am a physical person, I like the idea of sweating. Something about dance that really captures my imagination also is the movement. You could do so much with movement, movement is so exhilarating. It is such a positive thing.

One of the things that has made me so interested in movement is that I am a child at heart. I never grew up and I think children move so well — if you watch them move from point to the next. That whole motivation of movement that goes on fascinates me. I have taken a lot of choreography from children, watching what they do and develop it further,” she said.

She said that it was easy for her to stop dancing because she always felt she wanted to go into choreography.

In 2005, Douglas’s commitment to the development of the arts and culture received national recognition when she was bestowed with Trinidad and Tobago’s second highest award, the prestigious Hummingbird Medal — Gold.

She was also the recipient of two Cacique Awards for her choreography in the Trinidad Theatre Workshop’s 2005 production of Derek Walcott’s musical, STEEL.