Culture

NIFCA Dance Finals maintains excellence and unfolds ‘discoveries’

The curtain came down on the 2023 NIFCA Performing Arts Finals with a night filled with wonderful choreographies executed by dancers who used their bodies to weave stories of love, pain, sorrow, friendship, courage, healing, music, mental health, and heritage all enhanced by costumes, lights, music or spoken word.

The NIFCA Dance Finals, themed: Sankofa: A Night of Discoveries, was a celebration of movement, an homage to those dancers who came before and a tangible demonstration of what the future holds in genres ranging from ballet, to street dance, lyrical jazz, to modern contemporary and African and Caribbean folk and praise dance. The Finals saw a total of 26 acts with eight making their debut.

Hundreds of dance aficionados, NIFCA stalwarts, family and friends gathered in the Frank Collymore Hall to watch the finalists go for gold and one of the many prizes offered in this creative art including the prestigious $35,000 Prime Minister’s Scholarship, The Richild Springer Award of Excellence and The Madame Ifill Award of Excellence.

This year, as part of NIFCA’s 50^th anniversary celebrations, entrants also have a chance to cop The Gene Carson Award of Excellence and The 50^th Anniversary of NIFCA Award for the Most Outstanding Presentation in NIFCA Dance.

During the four-hour show held on Thursday, November 16, soloists, duets, community groups, one secondary school, and dance schools stepped on stage to face the judges in 26 performances starting with The Ellerslie School doing a Sophia Lee choreography titled BLS Wise Vanguard and ending with Gem.in.I Project’s Unbroken, a Diane Brathwaite choreography which showed the many ways the COVID-19 pandemic and the fluctuating experiences impacted us a people.

Lee alsochoreographed Haynesville Youth Club’s two entries – Celebrating Our Heritage, a salute to the 160-year-old Barbados Landship and Nigbe Gbekekbi, a lively dance in the African category hailing African ancestry.

Also, among the groups performing were Pearls Dance Academy whose Culture gave snapshots of Barbadian culture intertwined with the engaging, fun tale of courtship between boy and girl all done to an original musical arrangement of Cultural Ambassador Dr. The Most Honourable Anthony ‘Gabby’ Carter’s classics Bridgetown Market and Emmerton.

Dancers from the 58-year-old Barbados Dance Centre seemed to thoroughly enjoy performing Rhythmic Rhapsody and Dance Again as much as the audience enjoyed watching them execute the ballet and jazz entries respectively.

In their third piece, Mother Nature’s Energy, they brought awareness to not only the importance of taking care of the earth, but how reliant humans are on it.

Although not chronicling the history of songs popular and dances, Multifarious Dance Crew’s B.F.A.B (Born from a Boom Box), told a story of music’s impact on an individual’s life, specifically and a nation generally encasing it as a “science experiment gone wrong” starting and ending with short clips from the popular 90s cartoon Pinky and The Brain.

Dance as a powerful method of communication and community was displayed by S. Neverson Dance Company’s And So We Danse; Gentle Steps Arts Academy’s had questions in Who Do You Judge and brought plenty attitude in Ballroom Babeez; Bajans in Movement represented different elements of time in a choreography of the same name and K-Eve’s (School of Performing Arts) celebrated sensuality, grace and strength, those aspects of womanhood and sisterhood in Feminine Synergy.

The soloists also depicted various themes in powerful and gripping performances.

In Showstoppa inspired by the movie The Next Step, Anika Small showed her prowess in the in the self-choreographed entry and in Unrequited Love which she choreographed, Shaunell Neverson conveyed pain and other emotions from the unreturned love she was grappling with, effectively.

Faith Williams’ self-choreographed entries – Speak The Name, performed under Praise Academy of Dance banner, and It’s Back which portrayed the journey of a woman fighting against her worst fear were profound.

She also performed Bittersweet Chapter One, as part of a duo with Akil Ifill, an educator making his dance debut because he wants to see more males competing in the artform. They depicted a love tangle between a man and a woman.

Kemal Marshall in State of Recovery, which he choreographed, explored the idea of recoveryas a never-ending process. He also explored the themes ofstruggle of mental health and grief among young people in a dynamic contemporary dance work showcased by Dreaming Black Boy Productionz in One More Day, the underlying message of which was that support from loved ones can help through difficult times and emotions.

That theme was also evident in Friendship Community Centre’s The Box and Issachar Arts’ Rescue, both duos, which dealt with suicide and strong support while Élevé Performing Arts Centre’s Healing examined the sorrow and anger that someone may feel as they navigate their healing process with the hope of a better tomorrow.

The Journey by Dancin’ Africa’s Jada Best showed that no matter the obstacles you face, you can overcome them by not quitting and in Kendra Leacock’s Rescue, she showed that leaning on God and His promise to guide and protect could carry bring you through any trials and tribulations.

NIFCA Dance Finals clearly demonstrated that the excellence synonymous with the festival, is continuing. (PR)

Culture

BPS Crop Over Do-Flicky Costume Competition Winners Announced

Five winning teams have emerged from the recently held prize-giving ceremony of the inaugural ‘Barbados Postal Service (BPS) 2024 Crop Over Do-Flicky Costume Competition’.

The winners hail from the Post Offices of St. Joseph; St. George; Welches Road; St. Philip and the General Post Office in Cheapside.

The overall winner of the competition is the eight-member team of the General Post Office’s Accounts Section, who each received an Island Safari Tour. Second place went to the Welches Road Post Office, third was the St. Philip Post Office, fourth was the St. George Post Office and fifth place went to the St. Joseph Post Office.

Winning Teams (flanked by BPS management), of the inaugural ‘BPS Crop Over Do-Flicky Costume Competition’, from the GPO; Welches Road PO; St. Philip PO; St. George PO and the St. Joseph PO.

Postmaster General, Joann Busby, in her address to the winners, stated, “We look forward to many more events like this in the future, celebrating both our history and commitment to excellence.”

Concept Creator of the competition, BPS Marketing Officer Neiai Hall said, “This competition aims to showcase the creativity and cultural expression of our staff, through costume design and performance. The theme of the competition is rooted in our rich heritage and the vibrant spirit of Crop Over.

On left – ‘BPS Crop Over Do-Flicky Costume Competition’ 2nd Place Winning Costume, On right – ‘BPS Crop Over Do-FFlicky Costume Competition’ 3rd Place Winning Costume.

“We have encouraged participants to design costumes that not only display their creativity but also incorporate elements that represent the services offered by the BPS”.

The judging criteria consisted of Sustainability; Creativity; Depiction of a BPS Service; Originality; Portrayal; Video Creativity and Originality; Practicality and Inclusivity and Descriptive Write-Up.

Plaques were presented to each of the winning teams and the St. Joseph Post Office also received the Postmaster General’s special award for Outstanding Advertising Video in the competition. (PR/GIS)

Culture

LAST LAP WEEKEND – Ended with Pic-o-de-Crop Finals, Foreday Jump and Kadooment

AN INCIDENT FREE FESTIVAL By David Harris

After two months of activities that included early morning breakfast fetes and late-night parties, the golden anniversary of the Crop Over Festival ended with the Grand Kadooment on Monday.

Over 10.000 revellers in 18 bands danced on the new route which began at the Helipad in Bridgetown and ended in front of Kensington Oval. The street parade was changed its 9 a.m. start to 10 a.m. by the National Cultural Foundation after the Barbados Meteorological Service placed the island under a severe thunderstorm watch.

Eventually, the Blue Box Cart band got the parade moving at 10.07 and the masqueraders began wining and chipping on the streets of Bridgetown.

Only 13 of the 18 bands on parade judged, among the revellers were Barbadian superstar and National Hero, the Right Excellent Robin Rihanna Fenty and former West Indies captain Brian Lara.

Some bands were still heading towards the Mighty Grynner Highway just before at minutes to 9 o’clock. Aura was the last band to reach the highway before the police ended the parade.

The Grand Kadooment ended an action-packed weekend that included the Pic O De Crop Finals at the National Botanical Gardens in Waterford on Friday night, the Foreday Morning Jam which began in Bridgetown in the wee hours of morning and the Grand Kadooment on Monday.

Fans were primed for thrilling contest between the defending monarch IWeb (Ian Webster) and Adrian “AC” Clarke who placed second in last year’s Pic O De Crop competition; but it was AC who captured the crown for the third time after IWeb who appeared to have forgotten the lyrics of the De Village Ram in the second half of the competition.

Clarke performed at number 16 (immediately behind IWeb) and stamped his authority on the competition with an impressive performance of the self-penned Going Fuh Crown, the judges awarded him 133 points, 28 more than Sir Ruel who came second.

Adrian Clarke the 2024 Calypso Monarch

His impressive performance won the first prize of $100,000 or a Nissan E Powe X- Trail valued at $136,000; Clarke told journalists after the competition he had opted to take the vehicle instead of the prize money. Clarke, 52, first won the crown in 2001 and in 2008.

Sir Ruel was the most outstanding performer in the first half with A Single Bullet, he wrote the calypso in memory of his brother Dario Jon-Luc Holder-Branch who was shot to death in February this year. The former Junior Monarch amassed 105 points and won a cash prize of $40,000.

*Sir Ruel, Pic of de Crop, 2nd place winner*

Perennial finalist Chrystal Cummins-Beckles placed third with De Proposal, the multi-talented musician, arranger and composer was awarded 97 points and the $20,000 prize.

Billboard placed fourth for the second consecutive his calypso earned him a cash prize of $15,000; and first timer Tae, the youngest competitor in the final took the fifth position and $10,000 with A Big Cirus.

Calypsonians placing from the sixth to tenth position received $8,000 each, those coming 11 th to 18 th got $6000.

The competition started 51 minutes after the scheduled 8 p.m. due to technical hitches with video presentations, and one contestant (Kid Site) had to start over his song because of problems with the audio. The second half started just after midnight and ended at 2.10 a.m.

In commemoration of the 50 th anniversary of the Crop Festival there were performances by former monarchs the Mighty Destroyer. Red Plastic, the Mighty Gabby and Edwin Yearwood.