by DONNA SEALY
Christ Church Foundation School Steel Orchestra might be on track for more gold awards this year after scintillating performances on the second night of the National Independence Festival of Creative Arts (NIFCA) Performing Arts semi-finals on Saturday.
Their musicality is unmatched, their one band, one-sound concept never misses, add their showmanship, the fact that the steel pannists and their director Lowrey Worrell seem to enjoy making music and apply it to their entries – De General and 246 – and they should make the NIFCA Performing Arts Finals. De General
features Edwin Yearwood’s songs and 246 has Mikey’s winning Like Ah Bajan and Lil Rick’s Iz A Bajan.
The audience in the Major Noott Hall of Combermere School in Waterford, St Michael, was also treated to a good performance of H.E.R’s The Journey by the Church Hill school’s pop band with vocalist Janae Lavia. The band of four was the only other music entrant at this semi-final that featured six performances in the theatre discipline and eight in dance. In theatre, Janea Greene’s The Cry Of The Youth and Paula Harper-Grant’s The Room Is Still Pink were thought-provoking, stirring and heavy spoken word pieces that offered a depth of emotion within their words.
Greene spoke about feelings of anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation in her piece, while imploring adults to listen to and help young people navigate their way and feelings. Her use of a heartbeat and whispers signifying voices in her head were effective in conveying the emotion.
Harper-Grant’s exploration of the stages of grief, memory, identity and the refusal to accept the finality of death grief in the dramatic presentation was palpable. She depicted a mother wrought with grief after losing her daughter, whose room she has kept the same. The lines – “Everyone says time heals, time heals . . . but time is wicked.
Time is a thief. Time keeps happening without asking me if I am ready” – were profound as anyone who has lost a child can attest.
Ten-year-old Serayah Weekes gave her perspective on the impact of crime and violence on families and society on a whole in Speak Up, Speak Out. The rhythm poetry entry was enhanced by her use of Bajanisms, dialect and everyday happenings. At her age she was not afraid to stand on stage and call out the negativity while urging others to do the same.
In Frontpage: We Are Losing Our Boys, Ramiah Kahlil not only highlighted the negative impact of crime and violence and the critical decline of boys, but spoke about the fact that despite supporting their children financially, some mothers “keep good fathers away”, and what obtains in education using the 11Plus examination as a benchmark to show the boys are not faring well.
One of his proposals to bring about change was newspapers having positive stories on their front pages weekly so that page became a destination instead of a warning.
In NH Production’s short play titled The Vow – Part 2 An Excerpt, the five actors examined the brokenness which resides in people and how that is borne out in relationships with others. It was another heavy piece as the main character Regina is filled with anger and resentment in the twoscene excerpt with her estranged husband Nicholas, his mother Caroline and her optimist sister Aisha.
In the second scene, the audience learns that Regina’s behaviour and attitude to life were shaped from her childhood, owing to their father’s abandonment because of his alcoholic addition, her weakwilled mother and multiple miscarriages.
The multi-awardwinning Alister Alexander took the audience down memory lane with And One For The Shopkeeper,
dedicated to those entrepreneurs who helped families back in the day. The humorous entry had him recalling the gossip he gleaned from being the shop boy and the fear when he lost money after stopping to play a game of ‘tip me two’ cricket.
In dance, there were interesting choreographies from S.H.E Dance Collective ( When Mama Cries Out), Powerhouse Academy of the Arts ( Us), J.O.Y Productions ( The Dilemma), Dancin’ Africa ( Pun De Road and Of Now), Arah Fine Arts ( Whispers Of The Missing: Threads Of Hope), Unveiled Dance Collective ( The Harvest) and S. Neverson Dance Company ( Zazi Mina).
The three that stood out were Of Now, an exploration of “the emotional landscape of companionship and the intricate connections that exist between two individuals”; Whispers Of The Missing: Threads Of Hope which told a story about missing children and the shared responsibility to protect them through movement; and Zazi Mina because of its motion and energy as it depicted two tribes, divided by generations of distrust, coming together. The NIFCA Performing Arts Semi-finals continue next weekend.
The post CCFS steel orchestra dazzles at NIFCA semis appeared first on nationnews.com.