SAN­DRA L BLOOD

blood­l­sandy@gmail.com

Founder/CEO and artis­tic di­rec­tor of Can­dice Clarke Acad­e­my of Dance (CCAD), Can­dice Clarke, said she lives by and en­cour­ages the bib­li­cal les­son of Colos­sians 3:23 (NIV): “What­ev­er you do, work at it with all your heart, as work­ing for the Lord, not for hu­man, mat­ters.”

“I’m prepar­ing the acad­e­my to en­ter a new chap­ter in its jour­ney,” she ad­vised.

From its in­cep­tion in Sep­tem­ber 1997, the acad­e­my has been com­mit­ted to ex­cel­lence and has built a foun­da­tion of faith, pas­sion, dis­ci­pline and cre­ativ­i­ty.

“What start­ed as a vi­sion to guide young peo­ple through dance art, soared to an in­sti­tu­tion that has im­pact­ed many lives through train­ing, per­for­mance, cul­tur­al preser­va­tion, and artis­tic ex­pres­sion,” said Clarke to Guardian Me­dia.

“God has af­ford­ed ex­pan­sion from a Trinidad & To­ba­go (T&T) foun­da­tion to in­ter­na­tion­al growth with stu­dios in New York and New Jer­sey, USA. This lo­cal dance school has evolved in­to a plat­form that con­tin­u­ous­ly in­spires, trains, and em­pow­ers dancers across com­mu­ni­ties and na­tions.

“Our orig­i­nal mis­sion and vi­sion shaped our first sea­son of growth. Our com­mit­ment was to guide youths, ex­plore move­ment vo­cab­u­lary, de­vel­op tech­ni­cal skills, pre­serve cul­ture, and cre­ate op­por­tu­ni­ties for dancers to ex­press them­selves through the art form.

“Over the years we have ac­com­plished many of the goals re­flect­ed in our orig­i­nal vi­sion – grow­ing as a re­spect­ed dance in­sti­tu­tion, pre­sent­ing dance ex­pres­sions na­tion­al­ly and in­ter­na­tion­al­ly, de­vel­op­ing tal­ent­ed artistes, and cre­at­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties for dancers to ex­cel,” elab­o­rat­ed Clarke. “But as we en­ter this next sea­son/phase, our mis­sion and vi­sion must now re­flect us, of near­ly three decades of ser­vice and our re­spon­si­bil­i­ty, with­out leav­ing be­hind our foun­da­tion.

“We are build­ing up­on the lega­cy that has al­ready been es­tab­lished, and to­day, our pur­pose tran­scends teach­ing dance tech­nique. Con­tin­u­ing to cul­ti­vate dancers who are dis­ci­plined, pur­pose­ful, and pre­pared to use their gifts to pos­i­tive­ly in­flu­ence the world through their char­ac­ter, artistry, and lead­er­ship is para­mount.

“A mis­sion and vi­sion must ho­n­our the jour­ney be­hind us while pro­vid­ing di­rec­tion for the fu­ture. We em­brace this re­newed de­c­la­ra­tion of pur­pose as we con­tin­ue to de­vel­op gen­er­a­tions of dance artistes and lead­ers.”

From the be­gin­ning of Sep­tem­ber this year, 2026, Clarke in­tro­duces a pro­fes­sion­al dance com­pa­ny named CRE­O­LA Dance Artiste (CDA), which in­au­gu­rates sev­en ex­ec­u­tive dancers.

CDA is an elite men­tor­ship class for dancers who ex­em­pli­fy ex­cel­lence, lead­er­ship, com­mit­ment and a pas­sion for pro­fes­sion­al dance.

They be­gan danc­ing at a ten­der age; con­tin­u­ous­ly met or ex­ceed­ed the acad­e­my’s ex­pec­ta­tions; have per­formed in ma­jor pro­duc­tions; re­ceived lus­trous ova­tions lo­cal­ly and in­ter­na­tion­al­ly; kept the CCAD and T&T flags fly­ing high via mul­ti­ple medals and ti­tles earned, while main­tain­ing dig­ni­ty. Some are cer­ti­fied by Dance Teacher Web; the Uni­ver­si­ty of Neva­da, Las Ve­gas; and the In­ter­na­tion­al Dance Coun­cil (CID UN­ESCO) in CCAD dis­ci­plines.

Bal­let, Mod­ern, Jazz, African, Tap, Folk, CRE­O­LA Artis­tic Folk, Acro, Lyri­cal, In­di­an and Con­tem­po­rary are some of the gen­res in which they spe­cialise.

These sev­en in­au­gur­al ex­ec­u­tive dancers are al­so im­pres­sive­ly com­mit­ted to aca­d­e­m­ic and oth­er skills.

An­tho­nia Ab­bott ad­vances to the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies, Trinidad, to pur­sue a Bach­e­lor’s de­gree in Eco­nom­ics. Chelsea An­dell is a New York Film Acad­e­my grad­u­ate who has set Broad­way, NYC, afire with Hip Hop. Marielle Tan­nis is about to pur­sue a Bach­e­lor’s de­gree in Law at UWI. Nia Sanaa Trim is pur­su­ing a dance de­gree at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go and is set to grad­u­ate with ho­n­ours in Law Stud­ies in No­vem­ber from An­glia Ruskin Uni­ver­si­ty. Pre­cious Hospedales is a UWI grad­u­ate with a fo­cus on Dance Ed­u­ca­tion. Samiya Mc Lean, Class of 2026, re­ceived re­sults on Au­gust 19 of nine CSEC pass­es, in­clud­ing six dis­tinc­tions, and is prepar­ing to start train­ing to be­come a pi­lot. Talise Par­ris an­tic­i­pates grad­u­at­ing in Oc­to­ber from the School of Prac­ti­cal Ac­count­ing with a qual­i­fi­ca­tion in the Mul­ti-Skilled Med­ical Tech­ni­cian pro­gramme.

“I look for­ward to watch­ing them grow even fur­ther as artists, lead­ers, men­tors, and am­bas­sadors of ex­cel­lence for the acad­e­my and T&T,” end­ed Clarke.