As the Na­tion­al Dance As­so­ci­a­tion (NDA) en­ters its 45th year, the or­gan­i­sa­tion finds it­self at a crit­i­cal junc­ture. While the as­so­ci­a­tion is re­spect­ed for its lega­cy, the mem­bers are aware that lega­cy alone can­not car­ry dance in­to the fu­ture.

The as­so­ci­a­tion is now en­ter­ing a pe­ri­od of de­lib­er­ate re­build­ing.

The NDA, es­tab­lished un­der an Act of Par­lia­ment to serve dancers na­tion­wide, has long been a cen­tral pil­lar of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s dance ecosys­tem. But like many cul­tur­al in­sti­tu­tions, it has op­er­at­ed un­der con­di­tions that de­mand re­struc­tur­ing, mod­erni­sa­tion and re­newed pur­pose if it is to ef­fec­tive­ly ful­fil its na­tion­al man­date.

Since May 2024, the as­so­ci­a­tion has em­barked on a pe­ri­od of sta­bil­i­sa­tion and strate­gic re­build­ing, fo­cused on strength­en­ing in­ter­nal sys­tems, ex­pand­ing ac­cess and re­defin­ing sus­tain­abil­i­ty with­in the dance sec­tor.

Elect­ed pres­i­dent in May 2024, Alette Liz Williams has been tasked with guid­ing the as­so­ci­a­tion through this tran­si­tion.

“I am stand­ing on the shoul­ders of peo­ple who built this as­so­ci­a­tion with vi­sion and sac­ri­fice,” Williams says. “Our re­spon­si­bil­i­ty now is to ho­n­our that work by strength­en­ing the sys­tems that must car­ry dance for­ward, not just for to­day, but for the next gen­er­a­tion.”

Strength­en­ing the in­sti­tu­tion

A key fo­cus of the NDA’s cur­rent di­rec­tion is in­sti­tu­tion­al sta­bil­i­ty. While the as­so­ci­a­tion has his­tor­i­cal­ly re­lied on vol­un­teer lead­er­ship, there is grow­ing recog­ni­tion that na­tion­al cul­tur­al bod­ies can­not be sus­tained in­def­i­nite­ly through un­paid labour alone.

“We can­not con­tin­ue to build na­tion­al in­sti­tu­tions on burnout,” Williams says. “Vol­un­teerism should not mean ex­haus­tion. If we want ac­count­abil­i­ty, con­ti­nu­ity and im­pact, lead­er­ship has to be sup­port­ed in re­al ways.”

The as­so­ci­a­tion is there­fore ex­am­in­ing mech­a­nisms to com­pen­sate its ex­ec­u­tive com­mit­tee.

An­oth­er ma­jor area of work cen­tres on the well-be­ing of dancers them­selves. De­spite their con­tri­bu­tion to cul­ture, ed­u­ca­tion and tourism, many prac­ti­tion­ers op­er­ate with­out ac­cess to in­sur­ance, ben­e­fits or ba­sic safe­guards.

Un­der Williams’ lead­er­ship, the NDA is ac­tive­ly ex­plor­ing group ben­e­fits and in­sur­ance frame­works for its mem­bers—a move aimed at re­duc­ing the per­son­al risk of­ten at­tached to par­tic­i­pa­tion in the arts.

“Par­tic­i­pa­tion in the arts should not re­quire per­son­al risk or long-term in­se­cu­ri­ty,” Williams says. “That is not sus­tain­able, and it is not fair.”

Ex­pand­ing na­tion­al ac­cess

The NDA is al­so turn­ing its at­ten­tion to com­mu­ni­ties that have his­tor­i­cal­ly ex­ist­ed out­side the main cen­tres of train­ing and vis­i­bil­i­ty. Williams notes that rur­al ar­eas across T&T are home to young dancers with sig­nif­i­cant tal­ent, many of whom have nev­er been for­mal­ly sup­port­ed or giv­en a plat­form.

“There is ex­tra­or­di­nary abil­i­ty out­side of our tra­di­tion­al cen­tres,” she says. “Sus­tain­abil­i­ty is not just about fund­ing. It is about dis­cov­ery, ac­cess and mak­ing sure no com­mu­ni­ty is in­vis­i­ble.”

This fo­cus on in­clu­sion forms part of the as­so­ci­a­tion’s broad­er ef­fort to en­sure that na­tion­al dance rep­re­sen­ta­tion re­flects the full ge­o­graph­ic and cul­tur­al land­scape of the coun­try.

Fi­nan­cial in­de­pen­dence is an­oth­er pil­lar of the NDA’s for­ward strat­e­gy. While the as­so­ci­a­tion re­ceives a gov­ern­ment sub­ven­tion, Williams has been clear that it has not been suf­fi­cient to ful­ly ex­e­cute the or­gan­i­sa­tion’s man­date.

“Our goal is self-suf­fi­cien­cy,” she says. “Sub­ven­tion should aid the work, not de­fine its lim­its. But to get there re­spon­si­bly, we must first sta­bilise the in­sti­tu­tion.”

The NDA is there­fore pri­ori­tis­ing or­gan­i­sa­tion­al clar­i­ty and fi­nan­cial re­struc­tur­ing as a foun­da­tion for fu­ture growth.

Re­viv­ing na­tion­al plat­forms

In re­cent months, the as­so­ci­a­tion has al­so be­gun re­claim­ing its role in na­tion­al dance plat­forms. In part­ner­ship with the Min­istry of Cul­ture and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment and the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion, the NDA re­in­stat­ed the Na­tion­al Lim­bo Com­pe­ti­tion dur­ing the Car­ni­val sea­son, af­ter it was last held in 2008.

The re­vival sig­nals the as­so­ci­a­tion’s in­tent to pro­tect and mod­ernise tra­di­tion­al forms while cre­at­ing sus­tain­able, na­tion­al­ly recog­nised spaces for dancers.

As the NDA looks to­ward the end of the cur­rent pres­i­den­tial term in May 2027, the em­pha­sis re­mains on build­ing a stronger, more re­spon­sive in­sti­tu­tion ca­pa­ble of serv­ing dancers across T&T.

“Be­fore my tenure ends, I want the as­so­ci­a­tion stronger, clear­er in pur­pose, and bet­ter equipped to serve dancers wher­ev­er they come from,” Williams says.

With its fo­cus on in­sti­tu­tion­al re­form, dancer wel­fare, ac­cess and sus­tain­abil­i­ty, the Na­tion­al Dance As­so­ci­a­tion is po­si­tion­ing it­self not just to ho­n­our 45 years of his­to­ry, but to re­de­fine what na­tion­al dance lead­er­ship can look like for the fu­ture.