SAN­DRA L BLOOD

blood­l­sandy@gmail.com

The Walt Dis­ney World Per­for­mance Op­por­tu­ni­ty (WD­W­PO) is a mul­ti-faceted event spe­cial­ly de­signed to af­ford tal­ent­ed young artistes in­sight in­to Walt Dis­ney World.

Tal­ent is show­cased in front of an in­ter­na­tion­al au­di­ence at the Flori­da re­sort, and for the first time, Trinidad and To­ba­go (T&T) has a chance to par­tic­i­pate in this op­por­tu­ni­ty.

Mul­ti­ple award-win­ning Can­dice Clarke Acad­e­my for Dance (CCAD), ex­ec­u­tive di­rec­tor Can­dice Clarke (Aun­ty Can­dice), is invit­ing the pub­lic to wit­ness one of its most sig­nif­i­cant and ex­cit­ing pro­duc­tions ti­tled Blessed Ben­e­fit Con­cert (Blessed), which seeks to raise funds to help its dancers make an ex­cel­lent show­ing at the WD­W­PO 2026, ul­ti­mate­ly mak­ing their fam­i­lies, com­mu­ni­ties, schools and T&T proud.

Blessed will take place on May 31 from 4–6pm at Sig­na­ture Hall, LP63 Main Road, Long­denville, Ch­agua­nas, and will be host­ed by Adam Ho­sein.

Pro­ceeds will go di­rect­ly to­wards trav­el and pro­duc­tion ex­pens­es for the land­mark in­ter­na­tion­al per­for­mance op­por­tu­ni­ty at the elite Walt Dis­ney World event from De­cem­ber 4–6.

The cast in­cludes: Chelsea An­dell (co-di­rec­tor), Nia Trim, An­tho­nia Ab­bott, Shaki­ra James, Cait­lyn Ho­sein, Mayah Mur­rel, Adafih Kei­th, Kayel Quashie, Foluke Pelchi­er, Arielle Lal­gee, poster girl and CCAD’s youngest Walt Dis­ney dancer Kiar­ra Hen­ry, and Saleh-Marie Ali.

They will par­tic­i­pate in a pro­duc­tion host­ed by Dance the Mag­ic, where they will per­form in a Dis­ney pa­rade in Or­lan­do along­side Mick­ey Mouse and friends, and, in ho­n­our­ing a spe­cial re­quest, will al­so present a fea­tured stage show­case per­for­mance.

“This op­por­tu­ni­ty marks a his­toric mile­stone, as CCAD is set to be­come one of the first dance schools from T&T to per­form on such a pres­ti­gious in­ter­na­tion­al plat­form,” re­vealed lead chore­o­g­ra­ph­er Clarke. “The acad­e­my will present a cul­tur­al­ly in­spired Cre­o­la piece chore­o­graphed by me and An­dell, cel­e­brat­ing and high­light­ing the rich di­ver­si­ty of Caribbean cul­ture on the glob­al stage.”

Blessed Ben­e­fit Con­cert promis­es an ex­cit­ing show­case fea­tur­ing per­for­mances from 40-plus CCAD dancers rang­ing from preschool to ad­vanced lev­els. The evening will al­so in­clude a mod­el­ling seg­ment set to mu­sic by An­dell as Sauce the Rap­per, with chore­og­ra­phy by Nia Trim, Pre­cious Hospedales, and new chore­o­g­ra­ph­er An­tho­nia Ab­bott. Talise Par­ris and Kei­th as­sist­ed in train­ing the mod­els.

To help the team par­tic­i­pate in the “ul­ti­mate mag­i­cal dance ex­pe­ri­ence” at Walt Dis­ney World, it starts with Blessed. Guests are asked to be seat­ed at 3:45 pm. There will be a door prize. Madi­son Fran­cis, 10, who, on steel­pan, won the WCO­PA over­all in­stru­men­tal­ist award in her cat­e­go­ry in 2023, will de­liv­er the Na­tion­al An­them.

CCAD said it will be an evening of tal­ent, cul­ture and cel­e­bra­tion as its young dancers take an im­por­tant step to­wards mak­ing his­to­ry on the in­ter­na­tion­al stage.