By SEAN DOUGLAS Saturday, February 6 2010

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Spirit of Carnival: Tara Carvalho is exuberant in her portrayal of 'Tiki Princess' at Queen's Park Savannah, Port-of-Spain on Thursday night to advanc...

BRIAN Mac Farlane’s band, Resurrection, the mas, won the preliminary round of both the King and Queen of Carnival on Thursday night at Queen’s Park Savannah, Port-of- Spain respectively with Gerard Weekes’ “Dragon can dance” and Sevel Nicholls’ “Dame Gwo Bunda”.

Last year Mac Farlane won Band of the Year, Carnival King and Carnival Queen, from the band, Out of Africa — her people, her glory, her tears.

Weekes, totally carried his huge outfit — a huge, mystical, fiery dragon — with intricate wings. It changed from dark gold, to pink, to bright gold under the changing stage lights, and even suddenly emitted points of blue light.

It was jaw-dropping in impact, and warmly welcomed by the awe-struck audience.

Second-place king was Wade Madray’s “Karma” which was full of Eastern religious icons, and cut-out figures showing man’s cycle of life, death and rebirth, and the breaking of the chains of mortality.

Third came Roland St George’s “Phantasm”, a bug and scary skeleton rising from a ghostly cloud.

Aaron Kalicharan placed fourth with “Danhyang Desa”.

Curtis Eustace came fifth with “Spirits of Mandingo”, a vast blaze of red, topped by an arc of skulls. Also making a splash was Leroy Prieto in a huge sombrero (themed on a midnight robber) which he made to bob and undulate like a jellyfish.

Interestingly, Weekes’ “Dragon can dance” was a totally carried costume — as was his “sister” queen Nicholls’ “Dame Gwo Bunda” which she portrayed on stilts and defied the Carnival tradition of a potpourri of colour by being virtually monochromic — except in changing stage-lighting.

One shock exclusion from the queen semi-finalists was La Toya de Leon’s “Here I am again” — a fully carried, pleasant yellow and orange outfit — from a band, “Fantasia”, paying tribute to designer Peter Minshall.

There were at least two mishaps in which competitors took a tumble.

As Earl Beckles danced his small costume, “Keeper of the gems”, on stage during the Kings round, an earlier competitor, Jerome Mohammed, who had portrayed a delicate fancy Indian in lime-green and silver, “Medicine Man”, reportedly collapsed and had to be rushed for medical attention at stage-side, but later seemed well and recovered.

Tamara Alleyne Gittens, portraying the “Moroccan Fan Dancer”, collapsed and received medical attention as well.