Across dance stu­dios and the­atre halls in T&T, the name Al­lan Bal­four is syn­ony­mous with artistry, in­no­va­tion, and Caribbean pride. Per­former, chore­o­g­ra­ph­er, and artis­tic di­rec­tor, Bal­four has thread­ed the spir­it of the Caribbean in­to con­cert stages and com­mer­cial are­nas world­wide, leav­ing au­di­ences stirred and in­spired.

Bal­four’s jour­ney be­gan with some of the re­gion’s most cel­e­brat­ed com­pa­nies, in­clud­ing As­tor John­son Reper­to­ry Dance The­atre, No­ble Dou­glas Dance Com­pa­ny Inc, La Chapelle Dance Com­pa­ny, The Caribbean School of Dance, and Cas­cade Fes­ti­val Bal­let. It was in these spaces that his raw tal­ent was re­fined, his artis­tic vi­sion sharp­ened, and his com­mit­ment to chore­og­ra­phy ig­nit­ed.

“For me, chore­og­ra­phy is more than craft; it is pas­sion and pur­pose,” Bal­four said. “Each work is de­signed to cap­ti­vate, chal­lenge, and in­spire.”

That de­vo­tion car­ried Bal­four far be­yond lo­cal shores. From the Unit­ed King­dom to the Nether­lands, Ger­many, Cana­da, and across Venezuela, Cos­ta Ri­ca, Ecuador, Puer­to Ri­co, and the Caribbean, his per­for­mances and works have res­onat­ed with di­verse au­di­ences.

A land­mark mo­ment came when he be­came the first male Caribbean dancer con­tract­ed for Dis­ney’s The Li­on King on Lon­don’s West End, a mile­stone that cel­e­brat­ed both his tal­ent and the rich­ness of Caribbean cul­tur­al ex­pres­sion.

In­ter­na­tion­al col­lab­o­ra­tions soon fol­lowed, in­clud­ing with Fun­dación Coreoarte and Bal­let Na­cional de Puer­to Ri­co, ce­ment­ing his rep­u­ta­tion as a dancer and chore­o­g­ra­ph­er of glob­al in­flu­ence.

De­spite in­ter­na­tion­al ac­claim, Bal­four’s heart has re­mained deeply con­nect­ed to T&T. For more than 12 years, he has served as artis­tic di­rec­tor of Trin­i­ty Dance The­atre (TDT), cu­rat­ing a reper­toire that fus­es Caribbean rhythms with con­tem­po­rary forms. His works are en­ter­tain­ing, yet so­cial­ly and spir­i­tu­al­ly prob­ing, re­flect­ing his be­lief that dance is both a gift and a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty.

Through what he calls So­cial Artis­tic Ini­tia­tives, Bal­four us­es per­for­mance to raise aware­ness and dri­ve change. In the 2024/2025 cy­cle, TDT pre­sent­ed AL­PHA, a Queen’s Hall pro­duc­tion on hu­man traf­fick­ing, which both en­ter­tained au­di­ences and raised funds for vic­tims. The short film Si­lenced was adapt­ed in­to a PSA that brought the con­ver­sa­tion in­to class­rooms, reach­ing over 800 stu­dents and teach­ers in part­ner­ship with the Counter Traf­fick­ing Unit.

“Dance can do more than in­spire—it can em­pow­er, ed­u­cate, and trans­form,” Bal­four said.

Be­yond ad­vo­ca­cy, Bal­four has in­vest­ed in the de­vel­op­ment of young dancers.

More than 40 emerg­ing artistes par­tic­i­pat­ed in work­shops com­bin­ing ad­vanced Caribbean-con­tem­po­rary train­ing with life skills, en­sur­ing that TDT’s in­flu­ence ex­tends far be­yond the stage.

Bal­four now turns his at­ten­tion to SEEDS, TDT’s flag­ship pro­duc­tion for 2025, set for Oc­to­ber 4–5 at Queen’s Hall. Co-di­rect­ed with Ter­ry Springer, the show promis­es a vi­brant reper­toire fea­tur­ing more than 16 dancers and mu­si­cians, blend­ing in­no­va­tion, Caribbean rhythms, and sto­ry­telling.