Geisha Kow­lessar

Streams of wa­ter spout­ed from the "danc­ing foun­tains" sur­round­ing the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts in Port-of-Spain last night. The wa­ter leapt in har­mo­ny with the mu­sic be­ing played, cap­ti­vat­ing the hand­ful of on-look­ers gath­ered in the open court­yard to wit­ness the for­mal open­ing of the build­ing, whose shape ma­jes­ti­cal­ly took form af­ter the na­tion­al flower, the Cha­co­nia. At just af­ter 5 pm, re­splen­dent sounds of the East­ern Youth Chorale filled the three-storey au­di­to­ri­um, as guests gin­ger­ly made their way to oc­cu­py lush, red-cush­ioned seats. The au­di­to­ri­um, filled with dim lights, has the ca­pac­i­ty to ac­com­mo­date in ex­cess of 1,240 pa­trons.

Be­decked in re­splen­dent gowns, tuxe­dos, some even dressed in elab­o­rate African-styled head­pieces, guests, both old and young, and clapped in ap­pre­ci­a­tion as mem­bers of bMo­bile Shiv Shak­ti Dance Group and Mal­ick Folk Per­form­ers took to the stage. Their move­ments fused tra­di­tion­al East In­di­an mu­sic with mod­ern genre, their re­splen­dent cos­tumes a spec­ta­cle. A ran­dom sur­vey of the au­di­ence re­flect­ed a sense of na­tion­al pride for a build­ing whose fa­cil­i­tat­ing com­pa­ny, Ude­cott, has come un­der much pub­lic scruti­ny. "We as a peo­ple should feel proud. This build­ing is mag­nif­i­cent, and it will make its place in his­to­ry," one woman said.