SAN­DRA L BLOOD

blood­l­sandy@gmail.com

From the ear­li­est mo­ments of her life, Can­dice Nasha Clarke has been in per­fect rhythm—a nat­ur­al-born dancer. She re­calls that from her pre-teen years, dance lift­ed her morale and self-es­teem. For Clarke, dance has al­ways been more than move­ment—it is con­fi­dence, heal­ing, and hope. Her acad­e­my, the Can­dice Clarke Acad­e­my of Dance (CCAD), ex­ists to give as many girls and women as pos­si­ble that same trans­for­ma­tive op­por­tu­ni­ty.

A 2019 and 2023 Chore­o­g­ra­ph­er of the Year Awardee, Clarke is al­so the trade­mark own­er of Cre­o­la Con­tem­po­rary Dance Folk, World Cham­pi­onships of Per­form­ing Arts Na­tion­al Di­rec­tor for T&T and Saint Kitts and Nevis, a mem­ber of the In­ter­na­tion­al Dance Coun­cil, and list­ed in the T&T Na­tion­al Reg­istry of Artists and Cul­tur­al Work­ers. She is the founder and cre­ative di­rec­tor of both the Trinidad and US-based CCAD.

Leap of Faith across Amer­i­ca

In Au­gust, Clarke and her CCAD girls re­turned from a two-week in­ter­na­tion­al tour in the US. Their tour, Leap of Faith, car­ried their vi­sion across Amer­i­ca, blend­ing faith, courage, and dance. Au­di­ences wit­nessed cul­tur­al love in mo­tion, and the ex­pe­ri­ence left both the dancers and their com­mu­ni­ties in­spired and ful­filled.

“My acad­e­my is in­ten­tion­al­ly for fe­males from as young as three to be­com­ing tu­tors and be­yond,” Clarke said. “The girls al­so be­come aca­d­e­m­ic and so­cial but­ter­flies, and are af­ford­ed great op­por­tu­ni­ties to take their tal­ent to the world. My girls be­come mo­ti­vat­ed and bring joy to their par­ents, schools, and com­mu­ni­ties.”

Clarke’s ex­ec­u­tive team in­cludes co-or­gan­is­ers Jameela Al-Razi, Jean Clarke-Mills, Harold Gar­ner, and Gail Hinds, while chore­o­g­ra­phers Nia Trim (en­rolled at sev­en), Pre­cious Hospedales (13), and Talise Par­ris (four) now serve along­side New York-based co-di­rec­tor and chore­o­g­ra­ph­er Chelsea An­dell, an in­ter­na­tion­al dancer and rap artist.

Un­der Clarke’s coach­ing, young chore­o­g­ra­phers have won awards, schol­ar­ships, and medals in var­i­ous dis­ci­plines in­clud­ing in­stru­ment, vo­cals, and act­ing at glob­al com­pe­ti­tions. Cre­o­la, she ex­plained, is a fu­sion of cul­tures through dance—a con­cept rather than a cod­i­fied form.

Tours with pur­pose

Clarke strate­gi­cal­ly plans tours as wel­come breaks from com­pe­ti­tion. Un­der the Cre­o­la In­ter­na­tion­al Dance Tours ban­ner, af­ter trips to Ja­maica (2011) and the US (2012, 2019), Clarke’s team em­barked on their fourth tour from Au­gust 1–15. High­lights in­clud­ed a gala con­cert at the Bil­lie Hol­i­day The­atre in Brook­lyn, work­shops, sight­see­ing, re­con­nect­ing with fam­i­ly and friends, and per­for­mances in Brook­lyn and New Jer­sey.

Leap of Faith was in­spired by He­brew 11:1 (NIV): “Now faith is con­fi­dence in what we hope for and as­sur­ance about what we do not see.”

“Things were mov­ing slow­ly,” Clarke shared. “Some par­ents were un­sure if their daugh­ters could tour de­spite their dili­gent prac­tice, but we prayed and, with God, lit­er­al­ly took a leap of faith. Every­one was able to trav­el and show Amer­i­ca what cul­tur­al love is all about. As I in­vest in the girls, they, in turn, in­spire oth­ers.”

The con­cert opened with Glo­ry Be To God and fea­tured Cre­o­la 360, with a guest per­for­mance by Chris­tine Morales. Oth­er pieces in­clud­ed By Faith, Win, Spir­it Flow, Like An An­gel, Flow­ers, God’s Good­ness, Pray­ing For You, Give Thanks (Cre­o­la style), 1 John 2:24, For Love, Rain­bow Smile, Trin­ba­go, It’s My Time, Let Your Light Shine, Gen­e­sis The Bal­let, Bap­tize Me, Sur­ren­der, Star Pow­er, Let’s Dance, Call Me Queen of Jazz, Pret­ty Day, Praise, and Free­dom, ex­e­cut­ed by 30 dancers in­clud­ing ju­niors, adults, and guests.

Re­silience through faith

Clarke has en­dured nu­mer­ous tragedies, some that near­ly cost her life and oth­ers that tem­porar­i­ly dis­abled her from us­ing her feet—caus­ing phys­i­cal, psy­cho­log­i­cal, emo­tion­al, and fi­nan­cial trau­ma. Yet, through God, prayer, and gen­uine faith, she has risen above fear to speak pos­i­tiv­i­ty in­to the lives of her stu­dents and their moth­ers.

She ex­pressed spe­cial grat­i­tude to the Agape House of Wor­ship in New Jer­sey, sup­port­ive par­ents, and her CCAD stu­dios (can­diceclarkea­cad­e­my.org) for their ded­i­ca­tion.

“Leap of Faith was more than a bold move,” Clarke re­flect­ed. “It was step­ping for­ward with trust, courage, and the qui­et cer­tain­ty that Je­ho­vah is guid­ing the way. Every leap, every turn, every note of mu­sic is a re­minder that when we ac­ti­vate our faith, we move in har­mo­ny with some­thing greater than our­selves.”