Ja­nine Charles-Far­ray

De­spite be­ing one of the best known dance or­gan­i­sa­tions in the Caribbean, with in­ter­na­tion­al col­lab­o­ra­tions, a record num­ber of stu­dents ac­cept­ed in­to top dance schools and dance com­pa­nies across the globe, and 18+ years of suc­cess­ful dance sea­sons, the Meta­mor­pho­sis Dance Co has yet to at­tract a long-term in­vestor."The the­atre side of the lo­cal cre­ative in­dus­try is still very much a barter sys­tem," ex­plained Nan­cy Her­rera, the com­pa­ny's artis­tic di­rec­tor."Some cap­tains of in­dus­try get it and have been very sup­port­ive. Over the years, many have giv­en a lit­tle, but dance is a hard sell."It's hard for them to un­der­stand how to in­vest in it... it's very ephemer­al. Un­less you film it, it's over. Dance on­ly lives in the mo­ment of per­for­mance. You can't 'own' it."It's so easy as a sports­man, for me to wear your lo­go on my chest, but as a dancer, I can't be brand­ed for you."

Her­rera said the com­pa­ny has been work­ing on some cre­ative ways of mak­ing their brand even more at­trac­tive for in­vest­ment. The com­pa­ny has al­so re­cent­ly be­gun the process of es­tab­lish­ing the Meta­mor­pho­sis Dance Foun­da­tion. She thanked found­ing di­rec­tors Bob­by Camp­bell, Ria Mor­gan, Su­san Shur­land and Ger­ard Williams for their gen­eros­i­ty over the years.Meta­mor­pho­sis' 20th an­niver­sary and dance sea­son is themed Per­cep­tion. "This is the first kin­dling of the 20th an­niver­sary fire," Her­rera said. "Our an­niver­sary com­mit­tee is al­ready in place and we are in the process of choos­ing the defin­ing pieces of chore­og­ra­phy over the years and work­ing out how we plan to re­pro­duce them."Pos­si­bil­i­ties for the Per­cep­tion an­niver­sary pro­duc­tion in­clude an in­vi­ta­tion to past com­pa­ny mem­bers from orig­i­nal casts to re­turn, along with a mu­si­cal col­lab­o­ra­tion with world renowned and award-win­ning T&T jazz trum­peter Eti­enne Charles."Eti­enne is no stranger to the com­pa­ny. He first played the trum­pet for Meta­mor­pho­sis at our 2000 Sea­son, Dance Spir­it, in the St James Am­phithe­atre, ac­com­pa­ny­ing his sis­ter Ab­by, a soloist of Meta­mor­pho­sis at the time."

The mu­sic from Charles' al­bum Cre­ole Soul in­spired Brid­gette Wil­son, Meta­mor­pho­sis' res­i­dent chore­o­g­ra­ph­er, to cre­ate the first half cos­tumes. The sec­ond half cos­tumes are be­ing de­signed by vi­su­al artist Si­mone Phillips. "We are al­so re­vis­it­ing orig­i­nal cos­tumes, some of them de­signed by lo­cal greats like Carlisle Chang. We have a lot of beau­ti­ful archives," Her­rera said.Per­cep­tion will al­so in­clude the cel­e­bra­tion of long-time Meta­mor­pho­sis pho­tog­ra­ph­er, the late Jef­frey Chock."It was his pho­tog­ra­phy that re­al­ly set us apart. He cap­tured all of the icon­ic Meta­mor­pho­sis mo­ments in dance and made us look like ex­act­ly who we were. When you look at these pic­tures, you re­alise that it was his eye that made us what we are to­day."Twen­ty dancers now per­form with the com­pa­ny, pro­fi­cient in clas­si­cal, bal­let, mod­ern, Afro-Caribbean folk dance, jazz and tap. The ma­jor­i­ty of the reper­toire is mod­ern and con­tem­po­rary. Over the years, the com­pa­ny has worked with and pro­duced an im­pres­sive line-up of dancers, some of whom are the bright stars of rep­utable dance com­pa­nies all over the world and some of whom are now mak­ing their first leaps in­to the in­ter­na­tion­al dance world.With this im­pres­sive record of suc­cess, per­haps the 2014 sea­son will be an op­por­tu­ni­ty for the Meta­mor­pho­sis Dance Co to change the per­cep­tion of dance among in­vestors in cor­po­rate T&T.

The Show

Per­cep­tion runs from May 1-3 at Queen's Hall, St Ann's. All shows be­gin at 6.30 pm ex­cept for May 2, which be­gins at 7.30 pm. Tick­ets are avail­able at Caribbean School of Danc­ing, 2a Dere Street, Port-of-Spain, Mon­day�Fri­day, from 8.30 am�6 pm, and at Queen's Hall box of­fice the week of the show.