Gregory Hines Scholarship for sisters

The award was named after the late American dancer, actor and singer Gregory Hines.

“Tap City 2006” is an annual tap dance festival held in New York City where tappers from all over the world gather for two weeks to perform, compete against and encourage each other in tap dancing. It was founded by professional American tap dancer Tony Wagg. The American Tap Dance Foundation is a non-profit organisation.

According to De Gannes, a number of well known tappers (tap dancers) perform in the Tap City extravaganza in a number of shows that are normally sold out.

Stefanie, 15 and Sabrina-Marie, 12, live at Trincity with their parents, Derek and Anna-Maria De Gannes.

Anna-Maria said Stefanie will be performing on two nights in the Tap City Festival at The Duke on 42nd Street and at the “Youth Showcase of Talent” on July 12. She will also dance in the “Tap Youth/Tap Future” show on July 13. While Sabrina-Marie will perform on July 12 in the solo and the group performances.

Stefanie has been dancing with the Caribbean School of Dance for ten years and Sabrina-Marie for seven years. They started with ballet, which they still do, and they also practise jazz and modern dancing at the school.

Anna-Maria said her daughters were awarded the Gregory Hines Scholarship after they did a videotaped, tap dance audition.

“They applied for the scholarship by doing their tap dancing pieces on video which they sent to the American Tap Dance Foundation in New York City,” she said.

“They were both given separate Tap Dance scholarship programmes, with Stefanie being accepted into the Pre-Professional Programme and Sabrina into the Youth Residency Programme.”

Anna-Maria said the Pre-Professional Programme is a training course for talented Tap City tappers, aged 11 to 19, which enables them to prepare for the professional world of tap dancing.

The girls’ tap dance teacher Gillian Merry is the only qualified Advanced Tap teacher in TT, according to Anna Maria.

Stefanie and Sabrina-Marie train every afternoon at the Caribbean School of Dance on Dere Street, Port-of-Spain in tap, ballet, jazz and modern dancing.

Anna-Maria, a former dancer herself at the Caribbean School of Dance, spoke of her daughters’ love for the performing arts, notably dancing.

“They love to dance and they both started dancing at the age of five,” she said.

“Stefanie has natural rhythm and her brain and foot coordination are very good for dancing, be it for tap or otherwise, while Sabrina fell in love with tap dancing because she liked to see her sister doing it, so she wanted to be like her big sister.”

Anna-Maria added that by enrolling her daughters at the Caribbean School of Dance, she knew that they would be receiving professional dance training in a professional environment.

Although the girls love dancing, it doesn’t seem to be part of their long-term career aspirations.

“They love to dance so much that they will like to do it as long as they can but Stefanie wants to be a surgeon and Sabrina wants to do something in the food industry, like owning her own gourmet restaurant,” Anna Maria said.

Stefanie and Sabrina-Marie are home-schooled and are doing a Distance Learning Programme as registered students with the Kolbe Academy in Nappa Valley, California, USA.

“Some of their work they do by Internet and from textbooks from the school and they’ve been getting distinctions so far, in their school work,” Anna-Maria said.

The duo are scheduled to perform in the Caribbean School of Dance show entitled “Fantasy in Dance 2006” on November 9, at the Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s. The show will also coincide with the school’s 50th anniversary celebrations.

The De Gannes are looking forward to their trip to the Big Apple to represent TT with pride.