Producer of NIFCA and Chief Cultural Officer at the National Cultural Foundation (NCF), Andrea Wells in conversation with Cultural Officer of Music, Ronald Davis, Director of Marketing at Digicel, Carolyn Shepherd (centre) and Sponsors Representative with the NCF, Margaret Allman-Goddard.
By:
Marsha Gittens
There has been an increase in the number of individuals who have registered to be a part of the National Independence Festival for Creative Arts (NIFCA) in the area of dance.
Producer of NIFCA and Chief Cultural Officer at the National Cultural Foundation (NCF), Andrea Wells, revealed this during a recent interview.
“We can only speak in terms of the registration response, [it is] very encouraging. We have a spike in dance. We have a lot of very promising entries in music; we are seeing a large number of original songs again being entered. In theatre, we are very impressed at the increase in the number of mixed media entries. These are entries that are presented utilising elements of music, elements of dance and acting; that is a trend that we are seeing in this year’s Festival based on registration.”
Wells, who spoke to the media while in Jubilee Gardens where the public got a taste of the calibre of talent which has graced the NIFCA stage in the areas of dance, drama, music and visual arts over the years, added that the NCF was “very pleased” with the response so far and looked forward to seeing how NICFA 2016 shapes up.
Cultural Officer, dance, Alicia Payne-Hurley also expressed delight in the spike in persons registered to be part of NIFCA-dance. She described the growth as “phenomenal”.
Giving a possible reason for it, Payne-Hurley suggested that the NCF’s developmental programmes exposed individuals to “further training in dance, therefore making them more excited and more ready to come to NIFCA and be competitive.”
“So through our programmes in the schools, we have now seen a return of schools. We had a drop in NIFCA schools for dance in previous years but this year we confirmed that we have five schools – so I am very pleased with that. It is a good start. One nursery, three primary and a secondary school, so we are very pleased with that and then we see all of the regular dance schools, and companies coming out, as well as some new community groups coming out.
“We have genres like street dance; we have ballroom and Latin; we have afro-Caribbean; we have some mixture and some fusion that seems to be quite interesting, and then we have some mixed-media pieces which blend dance and theatre,” she added.
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