Shel­don Os­borne

Ball­room and Latin Dance is grow­ing in pop­u­lar­i­ty here in Trinidad and To­ba­go, thanks to the many clubs and schools ded­i­cat­ed to pro­mot­ing these forms of dance. One such school is Foot­light Dance Stu­dio, an or­gan­i­sa­tion that has trained dozens of in­di­vid­u­als, in­clud­ing many teens, in the fin­er as­pects of an art form that of­ten seems to come nat­u­ral­ly to many Tri­nis. The school was found­ed by Mar­cia Gill, a pro­fes­sion­al dance teacher cer­ti­fied by the UK-based In­ter­na­tion­al Dance Teach­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (ID­TA), and cur­rent sec­re­tary of the Pro­fes­sion­al and Am­a­teur Dance As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (Pa­datt).

Gill is an award-win­ning dancer her­self, hav­ing won sev­er­al tro­phies and medals at com­pe­ti­tions at home and abroad. She has al­so con­duct­ed sev­er­al dance work­shops, and trained dancers for events lo­cal­ly and re­gion­al­ly, in­clud­ing those at the launch of the Di­vine Echoes Or­ches­tra in Oc­to­ber 2007. Gill told T&T Guardian that she has been in­volved in the art for the past 22 years. She start­ed danc­ing while still a teenag­er at Cor­pus Christi Col­lege, in Diego Mar­tin. She was in­tro­duced to Ball­room and Latin dance by Lennox Ja­cob of the In­ter­na­tion­al Ball­room Dance School. "Af­ter be­ing in the class for just over one year, I was pro­mot­ed to As­sis­tant Tu­tor (which) al­lowed me a broad­er per­spec­tive on the art, and that is where my ex­pe­ri­ence and ca­reer as a Ball­room Dance In­struc­tor be­gan," she said.

Al­though Gill sees the year 2004 as a wa­ter­shed in her danc­ing ca­reer, as that was the year she es­tab­lished Foot­light Dance Stu­dio with a mem­ber­ship of 100 stu­dents, she has been in­volved in the busi­ness side of pro­fes­sion­al dance since 1992, the year Ex­clu­sive Ball­room Dance School was opened, with Gill as in­struc­tor and part own­er. She re­vealed: "While at Ex­clu­sive, I pro­duced three ma­jor Ball­room Dance pro­duc­tions, as well as small­er shows. I al­so pre­pared can­di­dates for ex­ams, com­pe­ti­tions, and ex­hi­bi­tions."

De­spite her suc­cess­es at Ex­clu­sive, Gill said she al­ways had a "dis­tant dream" to open her very own dance school. Since re­al­is­ing that dream in 2004, she has been able to ac­com­plish much more in pur­suit of the art form that she loves, and has ded­i­cat­ed her life to.

Gill, along with stu­dents and in­struc­tors of Foot­light Dance stu­dio, have per­formed through­out the Caribbean, in­clud­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go, Bar­ba­dos, Do­mini­ca, An­tigua, and even Cu­ba. Lo­cal­ly, Foot­light's dancers have graced stages at Hilton Trinidad, Hy­att Re­gency, Queen's Hall, and Cen­tre of Ex­cel­lence, among oth­ers. The hard work of Foot­light Dance Stu­dio's mem­bers shone bright­ly in 2008 at Pa­datt's first Medal­list com­pe­ti­tion when they won the Clyde Gill Chal­lenge Tro­phy. At Pa­datt's sec­ond Medal­list com­pe­ti­tion, held this year, on April 24, Foot­light Dance Stu­dio cap­tured the most places in the com­pe­ti­tion, and re­tained the chal­lenge tro­phy.

Foot­light's dancers won a to­tal of 28 out of the 63 places in the 16 cat­e­gories in which the am­a­teur dancers were judged at the Sec­ond Medal­list Com­pe­ti­tion. Foot­light dance cou­ple Lyn­don May­nard and Michelle Lewis danced in a to­tal of four cat­e­gories, and won the most tro­phies at the com­pe­ti­tion, while May­nard's son, Lyn­don May­nard Jnr,16, danc­ing with part­ner Cabrielle Wal­dropt, 15, placed first in the Bronze Ball­room cat­e­go­ry. Foot­light Dance Stu­dio con­ducts class­es at Kos­mos Club on New Street in Port-of-Spain, and at the Rus­sell Lat­apy High School in Mor­vant. From June, Foot­light has been con­duct­ing class­es in East Trinidad at the Scherzan­do Cul­tur­al Cen­tre on Evans Street, Curepe.

For more in­for­ma­tion,

Gill can be con­tact­ed at 491-2797.