Expect to see no less than 200 stiltwalkers when CARIFESTA begins later this week.
This is according to master stiltswalker Jeffrey “Ife” Wilkinson who was in Queen’s Park conducting a clinic for his walkers over the weekend, in preparation for the grand opening of CARIFESTA XV on Friday.
The 69-year-old professional stiltwalker told the DAILY NATION that a new generation of stiltwalkers had come out of the Bush Hall, St Michael area during a recent workshop and Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley is continuing to support the art form, especially for CARIFESTA.
“She wants to have a group of stilt walkers representing Barbados and her pet peeve, the Prime Minister’s project, is that they are more stiltwalkers to add to the present company of stilt walkers we have in Barbados, hence the reason for this project that is going on all now,” he said.
Wilkinson said to expect a large contingent for the opening of the festival.
“Anywhere between 200 and 300 within the limited time that we have had and I’m sure that according to my understanding, . . . after the whole CARIFESTA project that the onus is on getting the numbers up to maximum point because we are (approaching) celebrating the 60th anniversary of Independence.”
Ebony Barrow, one of the tutors with 26 years of experience said to expect a mixture of veteran and new walkers ready to showcase their talent at the grand opening.
“We are just in training for CARIFESTA and . . . we have repeat walkers and we also have new persons who came who started from today (Saturday). We have one person in particular. . . a parent who has been here for the last month with her children but she decided to take a chance and learn. We have one lady who is 71 years old that started stiltwalking in this programme.”
The parent is Leanndra Brown, who only started practising over the weekend.
“My children really motivated me to be honest. I did make a promise with my daughter to start and she was a little scared at first and I said ‘if you stiltwalk then mummy will do it’ so I tried to get them started first. My son he wanted to do it as well, so I said if he does it, then I would do it as well, so I have to fulfill on my promise.”
The mother of two explained how she quickly overcame her fear of falling.
“My biggest fear was the height in terms of falling. . . . I started off on the 12s and then I walked from the esplanade to the first tree and ‘Ife’ was like, ‘Take her down. Next height.’ So that went up to the 24s and then he said,
‘You’re dancing. Take her down . . .do 36s’ so now I am on to 36 stilts. . . .Right now that’s my comfort level till I get more comfortable with the height because for me 24s were okay but now the 36s are shaped different so it’s now getting back my confidence and being able to walk.
“One of the things right now for me is lifting my knees. I tend to drag so that is one of the things I have to work on right now so when I accomplish that, then I would think of going further.” (SG)
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