I’m not sure how I’m going to sum up this trip to Trinidad in one post.

My life is pretty weird when I think about it, I often wonder how I came to be in places and meet people. I am from a little place in the middle of England and I came to be in Trinidad in December 2014 seeing and doing some amazing things. I work for international performance and arts charity Global Grooves (as well as two other organisations we run), I did a project with them in 2009 as a participant and did every course and class they put on over the next 5 years…now I work for them and I have no idea how that happened but I’m glad it did.

Earlier in the Autumn I got an email saying we were going on some training…I scrolled down the page and then nearly poured boiling water down myself (I was making tea and reading it on my phone), when I found out it was to Trinidad & Tobago. I really didn’t know much about the place but the subsequent 12 days would change that. As an organization we are really lucky to be funded by British Airways as they make this international work possible, their charitable arm is fantastic.

Trinidad historically has a huge rich Carnival culture and it was fantastic to experience some of these traditions first hand. There’s a brilliant organisation called Arts-in-Action headed up by an amazing fella called Marvin George, he was over in Manchester a few years ago and that’s how the connection was made. Marvin opened up a lot of these opportunities for us whilst we were there and he is a fantastic human being in general, I think he may have an extra brain he keeps in his pocket for all of his knowledge. I didn’t have much to do with the organising of the trip, I just ended up getting whisked off to see fantastic things.

We stayed in a picturesque part of the Island called Maracas Bay in a Villa, I’m not going to lie, it was achingly beautiful. I remember when I was in high school we read a book about a boy in Trinidad, I can’t remember the name of it now, but I remember having really vivid images of the place and they came to life as I was wandering down to the beach one day, it was almost exactly how I imagined it to be, the heat, the colour, the smell. Beautiful.

A big portion of the trip was to do some organisational development within the companies. We (there were 9 of us) landed and the next day we were working solid for the next 5 days. I’ve never been on a training trip and I admit I was uncomfortable at first, then I just let it all wash over me and I came away with a lot to think about, there was a lot of self-reflection involved and it was really intense, but now looking back I really want to utilise the time I had there back in my real life. I won’t talk about the ins-and-outs of the training as it would take forever, but I am going to blog about a talk I gave there as part of one of our tasks. I got to know my colleagues (who also happen to be good friends too) on a different level too, which I am also grateful for. I am surrounded by very inspirational people.

I got to see and do some incredible things in Trinidad and I met some amazing people, it was almost like meeting characters from a play, I know that may sound weird but a lot of the experience I felt like I was in some sort of theatre, watching it all happen. A really lovely introduction to the Carnival culture was a visit to the Mount D’or Cultural Performers. We turned up to the community centre, it was boiling hot and humid, and we launched right into some of the traditional characters by actually becoming some of them through dance, music and role play, it was really fun and Marvin was telling us the stories as we were lead by the choreographer, it was like being in an interactive performance. I found out about Blue Devils, Dame Lorraine, the sailor tradition, stick fighting amongst others. If you want to read more about traditional Trinidadian Carnival Culture, here’s a great link. We then taught them some Afro-Brazilian moves, well we played and the fantastic Adriana Rosso (our main dance practitioner) took them through lots of different snippets of Brazilian styles.

 

During the trip I also found out a hell of a lot about Steel Pan, meeting the renowned steel plan player and arranger Dane Gulston, and meeting and hearing the young pan players of City Sun Valley, it was an amazing sound to hear, unfortunately we didn’t get to see a pan showdown… one day! We also got to have a workshop with Wasafoli, a full on West African inspired performance group, wow the energy in that room was powerful, I wasn’t well so I couldn’t get involved in the intense 2 hour dance workshop, but those on our team that did got super sweaty, we then did another exchange and played for them and did a dance workshop, it was a special evening.

The wonderful thing about trip like these are the genuine people you meet and you all have a connection through art and culture, it’s a universal language, all of the people we met were so passionate and I felt out of all the places I have been, these people were some of the most giving. They gifted us with so much. Other special moments included going to the Egungun festival, a traditional Trinidadian ancestor festival rooted in the Orisha tradition, an experience which I won’t forget in a hurry, they were so open with us being there and it was magical to see some of the true roots of Carnival. We also visited The University of the West Indies and hopefully we will cultivate a great connection with them within more of our work, some bridge building taking place, which is exciting. On the same day there was also another sharing session at the University with the fantastic Adam Pascall who is a brilliant choreographer/dancer/singer/drummer/historian/everything, more mind-blowing energy with a room of around 50 people dancing, singing and drumming for hours, it was a great experience.

 

 

On the last evening we got to meet a certain Peter Minshall, one of the true greats of Mas (Masquerade) in the world from a design and making perspective, he really was a true eccentric artist. I’m not sure if I can really describe the 2 hours we had in his company, we sat on his balcony surrounded by his 10 black barking dogs in the courtyard, and he gave us what can only be described as a one man show. It’s something I won’t forget in a hurry. Please look up his work, he changed the face of Mas in Trinidad (and the world), a true genius.

 

 

I found it hard to do a short summary of the trip but feel really lucky to have got to visit a place I probably would never have got the chance to go to otherwise, it was beautiful, mysterious and life-affirming. I want to bottle up some of the magic and open it on these dark winter nights.

 

You can read more about the trip from the Global Grooves Creating Carnival 2014 page here