Tivoli dance troupe on point
TIVOLI Dance Troupe presented a top-shelf production during their 24th season of dance dubbed Stages at the Little Theatre on Arthur Wint Drive in Kingston, last weekend.
Although a quarter of the seats were unoccupied on opening night, that didn’t stop the troupe — which totalled 98 — from performing at their best.
The West Kingston-based troupe, through their various routines, stepped to a plethora of beats and tunes including African drum beats, jazz, gospel mixes, dancehall mixes, hip hop and rap songs, including Iggy Azalea’s Fancy, as well as reggae selections from Taurus Riley and Damian Marley, and even military rhythms.
Chief choreographer Roberta Daley said Stages’s concept was to showcase the troupe’s longevity through its generations of dancers.
“You can see that we have babies straight up to adults. We wanted to show the entire Jamaica that we cater for all ages, all size, [and] all figures. When we first started we started only with adults. We realised that most of them have little sisters and nieces and they used to bring them to classes, so we decided to start a baby class,” she said.
She said proceeds would be used to fund several community programmes.
“The troupe has been doing pretty well. With this that we do here, we have feeding programme and we have back to school programme that we do; we give it back to the kids. Send them back to school in fine style,” she smiled.
The opening number sought to encapsulate the show’s theme. It saw a well-choreographed team of dancers in different life stages, from the very young to adult, dancing in neon jumpsuits, and a trio of steps of varying levels. This set the perfect stage for what was to come.
The juniors took to the stage first, with a tribal African piece, entitled Roots and Rhythm. They later returned with a quartet clad in blush pink for Sisters. The four young females performed delicately in a piece that was as homely as it was sweet, and probably tugged at the heartstrings of all those in attendance.
The Weeny Tots and Tigi Tots, four to eight year olds and eight- to 12-year-old categories of dancers respectively, were perhaps the audience’s favourites. The little ones hit the stage time after time with performances that had the audience in awe performing complex and high-energy dance routines.
The seniors also had a
good showing. One of the highlights was their choreographed impression of vagrants in a piece called Crazees. This added some humour to the show and had the audience calling for an encore.
There were also combined routines, which saw members from all the categories taking part. The most prominent of these was the gospel piece, which was actually a series of performances from the different groups of dancers. This was truly a spectacle, as the purple-and-white clad dancers flawlessly formed a cross in the stage to piece’s end.
Patron Stephen Davidson described the show as “excellent”.
“It was an excellent show. Tivoli always does a wonderful show. They show variety. They go through a range of dances; very high and very low, so it was a very good show,” he added.
— Aldane Walters