Breige Wil­son

"I am ex­treme­ly sor­ry for the par­ents who missed their child's per­for­mance here to­day," de­clared com­pe­ti­tion host De­bra Bou­caud-Ma­son at the fi­nals of the Sec­ondary Schools Dance Fes­ti­val last Fri­day, at the Rudranath Capildeo Learn­ing Re­source Cen­tre, Mc Bean, Cou­va. The tal­ent, pas­sion and chore­og­ra­phy at the fi­nals were out­stand­ing.

The In­di­an Film dancers brought fire and en­er­gy; the mod­ern dancers brought soul, while the hip hop dancers brought swag­ger. In the ball­room cat­e­go­ry dancers showed sen­su­al­i­ty, while the folk dancers epit­o­mised style and el­e­gance. Teach­ers and chore­o­g­ra­phers should al­so be com­mend­ed for the in­no­v­a­tive and pow­er­ful pieces

per­formed. Though some of the chore­og­ra­phy de­mand­ed a lot from the stu­dents, most of them stepped up to the chal­lenge and took the stage by storm.

It was al­so en­cour­ag­ing to see more male dancers once again in the dance are­na. They ex­ud­ed a strength and en­er­gy that was en­ter­tain­ing to watch. Though there were a few mi­nor mishaps in terms of mu­sic and some skids by sev­er­al ball­room dancers dur­ing their per­for­mances, the com­pe­ti­tion was in­deed a suc­cess. One teacher sug­gest­ed that the next Dance Fes­ti­val should be held at the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts, where more stu­dents could be ex­posed to this art form in a more pro­fes­sion­al set­ting. He even ques­tioned why it was not held there this year.

Re­sults

Sec­ond an­nu­al Sec­ondary Schools Dance Fes­ti­val

Stu­dent Chore­og­ra­phy

1st place: Pleas­antville Sec­ondary School

2nd place: St Joseph's Con­vent (Port-of-Spain)

3rd place: Barataria South Sec­ondary School

So­lo 11-15 Fe­male

1st place: Afiya Lewis – Pleas­antville Sec­ondary School

2nd place: Melin­da Eti­enne – Ari­ma Cen­tral Sec­ondary School

3rd place: Kela Bobb – Matu­ra High School

So­lo 11-15 Male

1st place: Adesh Sookdeo – Swa­ha Hin­du Col­lege

2nd place: Kavir Ram­baran – Ari­ma Cen­tral Sec­ondary School

So­lo 16-19 Fe­male

1st place: Ken­isha Wel­come – Pleas­antville Sec­ondary School

2nd place: Abio­dun Desu – North­gate Col­lege

3rd place: Chemise John – Barataria South Sec­ondary School

So­lo 16-19 Male

1st place: Joseph Lewis – Ari­ma Cen­tral Sec­ondary School

2nd place: Ter­rance Moon­sai – Siparia East Sec­ondary School

Duet 11-15 years

1st place: Shali­ni Jut­ter­an and Mo­hi­ni Ma­hase–Swa­ha Hin­du Col­lege

2nd place: Mark-Che De­von­ish and Ariel Brit­ton – St Mary's Col­lege

3rd place: Leah Men­doza and Ce­leste Lib­ert – Bish­op Anstey High School East

Duet 16-19 Years

1st place: Joshua and Giselle Pas­call – Fyz­abad An­gli­can Sec­ondary School

2nd place: Kezi­ah Cal­bio and Joseph Lewis–Ari­ma Cen­tral Sec­ondary School

3rd place: Shenece St Rose and Cory Skeete – Table­land Sec­ondary School

Group 11-15 Years

1st place: Barataria North Sec­ondary School

2nd place: Table­land Sec­ondary School

3rd place: Pleas­antville Sec­ondary School (Trio)