At the present time in Guyana, among the most anticipated annual dance productions on stage is Greens & Golds, produced by Kreative Arts and directed by Jonathan and Esther Hamer. The other of major note is Naya Zamana produced by the Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha. True to expectation, Greens & Golds 6: The Choreographer and Blockbuster was performed on November 2, at the rebuilt St Rose’s High School Hall.
The brief history of these productions may be summarised as follows. Of all the performing arts in Guyana dance is the discipline that has benefitted from the most formal training and the most institutional support from different sources. The Government of Guyana, inspired by Carifesta 1972 and in partnership with Haiti and Cuba, started public formal training for dancers in 1974 and established a dance school and a national company immediately after. Thousands of mostly youth have thereafter been trained continuously. Additionally, dance has always been supported by the Hindu religion, which traditionally produces dance performances.
Against that background, several private dance groups and dance schools emerged, and most of them have produced annual, full-length dance productions. The oldest of them, to which tribute must be paid, is Nrityageet, which was forced to close its annual productions because of understandable circumstances. But generally, only a handful survived COVID-19. The three most prominent to have continued are the private outfits Naya Zamana and Greens & Golds, and the public institution the National Dance Company. But Naya Zamana has to contend with the fact that its main moving artist is now a minister of government whose official duties threaten simultaneous work in the theatre.
Therefore, Greens & Golds was the private production that made a major impact this year. The sixth production consisted of a film – “The Choreographer” and a long dance sequence “Blockbuster”.
These presented a few points worthy of comment. The film was a video produced by Kreative Arts whose story line came up for quite some discussion. There was a choreographer, very dedicated to his calling, who seemed to have turned into a serial kidnapper, abducting and confining his dance students, putting them to work in his choreographies and productions. However, this was up for interpretation, including that the choreographer had a split personality, and/or he was truly committed to dance and to his students, and was really on a mission to get them properly committed to the vocation of dance and to their own development.
The second part of the show was “Blockbuster”, which presented a series of dances on stage, taken from or representing the major movies over many decades which were dance films from Hollywood and elsewhere – the best known, the best, or the most popular. Almost every genre was featured – a total of 22. Most of these thrilled the audience and proved quite popular and entertaining.
The selections included movies that many will remember, or know, although most had graced screens many years ago. Some of them were sufficiently large to still be in the minds of, and still appealing to today’s audience. Among those were Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”, “Dance Hall Queen” featuring Beenie Man, “Saturday Night Fever” with John Travolta, “Dirty Dancing” with Patrick Swayze, “A Chorus Line” with Michael Douglas, and “Coming to America” with Eddie Murphy.
The more intellectual flavour of old classics was catered for with such selections as “Fiddler on the Roof”, “Singing in the Rain” and “A Chorus Line”. As is characteristic of Kreative Arts, this was a lot of difficult work, calling for extensive research, demanding choreography, and backbreaking rehearsals. A smaller number of pieces would still have made a satisfactory show.
Moreover, there are two further comments. First, many dance schools hold public performances to show off their work and give their students, mostly children, the thrill of appearing on stage. But in most of these shows the value remains with the pride of performers and their supporting family members who make up the audiences. Very little is seen of good dance or of evidence that the children are truly learning the art of dance.
It is different with Kreative Arts. The show exhibited genuine talent with many outstanding rising dancers. There was no printed programme, so it is not possible to name them, except for all members of the Hamer family, who are by now well known. One gets the impression that the students are learning to dance, including the younger children.
Secondly, this show seems to be nomadic. It has moved around different performance venues each year, affected by the cost factor. It started at the Theatre Guild Playhouse, then moved to Critchlow Labour College Auditorium, and this year was at St Rose’s because the rental of Critchlow increased. We do not need to belabour the point about the prohibitive costs of production in Guyana today.
High commendation is due to the Kreative Arts productions for the way they use the venues. Not much could be done with the use of the stage in this year’s show at the new St Rose’s, except for the way they brought in and installed very effective lighting to make the venue useable. But it was remarkable and memorable how Esther Hamer and stage manager Ayanna Waddell, who are both tutors at the National Drama School, artistically transformed the Critchlow auditorium into an impressive theatre stage in the previous two years. It says a great deal about the theatrical merits of this group that must have been feeling a bit lonely this year on the diminished list of annual dance productions.
