SAN­DRA L BLOOD

In­spired by the Bible verse He­brews 11:1—“Now faith is con­fi­dence in what we hope for and as­sur­ance about what we do not see”—the T&T and US-based Can­dice Clarke Acad­e­my of Dance (CCAD) has em­barked on its fourth Cre­o­la In­ter­na­tion­al Dance Tour. The theme of this year’s tour, Leap of Faith, is root­ed in that very con­cept.

The tour’s cen­tre­piece is the Leap of Faith con­cert, a col­lab­o­ra­tion be­tween CCAD dancers and guest per­form­ers in the US. The two-week pro­gramme in­cludes per­for­mances at two events aimed at fos­ter­ing uni­ty and spir­i­tu­al growth, hip hop and tap work­shops led by Chelsea An­dell, pho­to­shoots with Harold Gar­ner, and sight­see­ing ex­cur­sions.

Found­ed and di­rect­ed by Can­dice Nasha Clarke, CCAD is known for its sig­na­ture sto­ry­telling pro­duc­tions un­der the trade­mark Cre­o­la—a fu­sion of cul­tures ex­pressed through dance.

“It’s a con­cept, not a cod­i­fied form,” Clarke ex­plained.

The Leap of Faith con­cert will be staged on Au­gust 10 from 4.30 to 6.30 pm at the Bil­lie Hol­i­day The­atre, 1376 Ful­ton Street, Brook­lyn, New York. The pro­duc­tion will fea­ture 34 dancers from CCAD’s two stu­dios—the youngest just four years old—along­side six guest per­form­ers from New York.

“CCAD Leap of Faith is a move­ment in the right di­rec­tion to put our whole­heart­ed trust in Almighty God, Yah; to cov­er and di­rect His pur­pose for our lives; to block out the noise of the world and hear on­ly God’s voice,” Clarke said.

She re­vealed that when the idea first came to her “in spir­it,” and she shared it with par­ents, many were un­sure about trav­el­ling.

“But with the en­cour­age­ment of the theme of faith, 20 dancers, along with par­ents and sib­lings, made it hap­pen. Their faith was ac­ti­vat­ed, and they be­gan plan­ning ahead so their chil­dren could per­form on an­oth­er in­ter­na­tion­al stage,” she said.

This will be CCAD’s first per­for­mance at the Bil­lie Hol­i­day The­atre.

Co-or­gan­is­ers for the tour in­clude Jameela Al-Razi, Jean Clarke-Mills, Harold Gar­ner and Gail Hinds. Chore­o­g­ra­phers are long-time CCAD dancers Nia Trim (who joined at age sev­en), Pre­cious Hospedales (joined at 13), and Talise Par­ris (joined at four), as well as New York-based co-di­rec­tor and chore­o­g­ra­ph­er Chelsea An­dell.

While CCAD has won nu­mer­ous pres­ti­gious ti­tles at in­ter­na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tions, Clarke said this year’s tour is about giv­ing the chil­dren a stage with­out the pres­sure of com­pe­ti­tion.

“I want them to fo­cus on their craft, build con­fi­dence, and sim­ply do what they love,” she said.

CCAD, win­ner of the Grand Ju­nior Dance Group award at the 2022 World Cham­pi­onship of Per­form­ing Arts, has pre­vi­ous­ly toured Ja­maica (2011), the Ai­ley Cit­i­group The­atre in Man­hat­tan (2012), and the Colony The­atre in Bur­bank, Cal­i­for­nia (2019).

The Leap of Faith pro­gramme will fea­ture more than 22 pieces, in­clud­ing au­di­ence favourites like Nia Trim’s Sur­ren­der, Talise Par­ris’ Let’s Dance, Pre­cious Hospedales’ Spir­it Flow, Clarke’s Gen­e­sis the Bal­let, Cre­o­la 360, Praise, De­clare It, and An­dell’s new tap trio Pret­ty Me.

Can­dice Nasha Clarke is a two-time Chore­o­g­ra­ph­er of the Year (2019, 2023), trade­mark own­er of Cre­o­la Con­tem­po­rary Dance Folk, Na­tion­al Di­rec­tor for Trinidad and To­ba­go and Saint Kitts and Nevis at the World Cham­pi­onships of Per­form­ing Arts, and a mem­ber of the In­ter­na­tion­al Dance Coun­cil (CID 22090) and the T&T Na­tion­al Reg­istry of Artistes and Cul­tur­al Work­ers.

For more in­for­ma­tion, call (868) 755-6917 or (424) 249-0423, or email can­diceclarkea­cad­e­my@gmail.com.