Event

The UWI Department of Creative and Festival Arts Dance Unit is proud to host Fete de la Dance, a celebration of movement and creativity of the spirit.  This Concert runs for two  evenings, November 29th at 8pm and November 30th at 6pm. The mission of Fete de la Dance is to promote dance arts, create new opportunities for dance students to perform and provide new spaces for dancers and audiences to interact with each other through dance. 

Fete de la Dance will feature “Into Me Into You,” a duet choreographed by Alumna Roxanne De Souza and danced by graduates Ian Baptiste and Salome John. The duet represents a love story between two young lovers and will recreate the dynamics of a tempestuous relationship expressed through embodied connections and disconnections, ruptures and attachments.   

UWI’s Festival Dance Ensemble will surprise the audience with three new dances: ‘Shadows Approach,” a contemporary piece choreographed by Sally Crawford; “The Festive Occasion of Dhassara,” an Indian piece choreographed by Deboleena Paul, and “Fire and Water,” a fusion piece choreographed by both instructors. Crawford has also choreographed the solo piece “Simple Kind of Man,” danced by Dance Degree student Zari Kerr, winner of the Felix Harrington Prize, while Paul has choreographed the duet “Saraswati Vandana,” interpreted by Dance Degree students Anya Reyes and Danielle Balroop. 

Dance Degree student Lee-Anna Boyce will share with the Fete de la Dance audience her talented Secondary School Dance students Kenson Laudat and Shanika Blackman, both winners in the Sanfest Festival. The two solo pieces choreographed by Boyce are: “The Tribute,” a piece dedicated to the victims and survivors of cancer, and “Motherless Child,” a piece that expresses the difficulty of growing up with an authoritarian father as the only parent in the household. 

Tobago’s folk dances will be represented by the piece “Temne Fusion,” a colourful expose of Tobagonian culture choreographed by Dance Degree student Jillian Franklyn and interpreted by dancers Keisha Davidson, Lizelle Taylor, Christelle London and Kimmie Potts. 

“Broken,” a piece choreographed by Lecturer and Dance Coordinator Jorge Luis Morejón, in collaboration with Zari Kerr and Dance Degree student Candice Brathwaite, references an important parable from the bible. The archaic story interpreted by the duet reveals universal themes such as humbleness, opulence, greed, grief, godliness, in an attempt to connect the dance experience with a lost sense of the sacred. 

The Caribbean Dance Degree Class will bring to Fete de la Dance’s audience Trinidad and Tobago’s African Nation dance “Saraka, (A Thanksgiving).” The vibrant, entertaining and contagious Caribbean piece choreographed by Degree Student and Instructor Mindy Giles, winner of the Humanities Faculty Award, in collaboration with the students will invite both, audience and dancers to thank the ancestors for the blessings received at the rhythm of live drums. 

The tickets are priced at $50 for adults and $30 for students. Sitting is limited. Tickets can be purchased the last working day before the show and will also be sold at the box office on the nights of the production.   

Performances will feature the Festival Dance Ensemble, the Dance Certificate programme, UWI Alumni, and special guests. The dancers will explore a variety of styles such as classical Indian dance, contemporary dance, physical theatre, and traditional folk dance.

Fete de la Dance forms part of the DCFA's Season of the Arts. Join the DCFA for an exciting evening filled with dance!