Friday, July 20 2012

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Candice Clarke-Andell...

The Candice Clarke-Andell Dance Academy (CCA) will commemorate Trinidad and Tobago’s 50th Independence Anniversary with a dance production entitled “Golden Jubilee — a Celebration of Diversity” at Queen’s Hall on August 5.

The Academy will pay tribute to various cultural icons including Pat Bishop, Mungal Patasar, Brother Resistance, Ras Shorty I, the late Julia Edwards (limbo queen) and Elder drummer Andrew Beddeau. The production, will also feature TT’s first professional wheelchair dancer, Indrawattie Ramnanan.

Clarke-Andell is a certified dance educator, choreographer and facilitator of the Expressions Dance Workshop for junior dancers and CCA for advanced dancers, has showcased more than 30 dances and is credited with staging various successful productions. She said plans are moving apace for a spectacular 50th anniversary production. She said the academy has come a long way and the talented dancers of the Academy will stage a memorable production.

“Our thesis is dedicated to icons of TT. Through dance we will celebrate our diversity and our culture through over 200 dances. Various dances will tell the story of our lives as Trinidadians,” she said.

“Following this production, we will leave for a tour to the United States where we will be doing community out reach programmes, workshops and various productions. We are hoping to get financial support from the corporate sector. We are about dancing with a cause, we give back to the community through our outreach programmes. Our aim is to make dance available for people with disabilities,” she continued.

Following the production at Queen’s Hall, The Dance Creola Tour, which is named after Clarke- Andell’s signature dance, the Creola, will travel to Manhattan, New York and will conduct free workshops and various charity shows to be hosted at the acclaimed Ailey Citigroup Theater, The Joan Weill Center for Dance, in New York. Tickets are available on the day of the production at Queen’s Hall Box Office. For further information CCA can be reached at candiceclarkeacademy@gmail.com.