Thursday, July 12, 2012 Page B1
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Photos by Marisol Diaz
MASTER OF CEREMONIES Jamal George, right, leaps triumphantly after passing under the limbo bar. Andrea Perez, left, dances with her 5-year-old daughter Noni Davis.
No dancing shoes required at party in the park By Qainat Khan newsroom@riverdalepress.com
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PARTICIPANTS YOUNG and old parade and dance to Trinidadian drum beats on the Van Cortlandt House lawn during the first of four Barefoot Dancing events this month.
aughn Subran wore a costume of gold-trimmed, billowy sleeves, a feathered crown and bright blue spandex shorts, embellished by fronds of sequins. “Left, right,” he instructed as he slowly adjusted his weight in one fluid motion to the beat of two drums inside Van Cortlandt Park on July 5. “It’s all in the waist.” Mr. Subran is a principal dancer with Something Positive — an AfroCaribbean dance troupe based in Brooklyn. The lesson he taught in Trinidadian dance was the first in the month-long Barefoot Dancing series at Van Cortlandt Park. The summer series, which is organized by the Van Cortlandt Park Conservancy and is now in its fifth year in Vannie, brings together dance troupes representing different cultures to the lawn every Thursday in July. Margot Perron, president of Van Cortlandt Park Conservancy and park administrator initiated the Barefoot Dancing program at Wave Hill almost two decades ago. “People were dancing in the flower beds,” she said. Ms. Perron said the event continues to be a celebration of both the park and the many cultures found in the Bronx.
The part professional performance, part interactive workshop gave the audience a taste of Carnival as it is celebrated in the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago. Dancers and drummers wore bright costumes and seemed to never stop smiling. Jamal George, the treasurer of Something Positive and the master of ceremonies, led the crowd in Calypso song and prodding shy adults and notso-shy children to come up to the lawn and dance. Mr. George took the diverse group of participants on a brief tour of Carnival — showing them how to limbo by bending backward and dancing under a chest-high stick that gets lower with every round, play carnival games and parade around the lawn. “If you’ve never limboed in your life, you have not lived,” Mr. George said. While children were eager to give it a go, adults were more hesitant . “I want the adults to try, so that you can say you’ve lived,” he prodded. Barefoot dancing is free and open to the public. It begins at 6:30 p.m. every Thursday in July on the lawn in front of the Van Cortlandt House Museum, just south of West 242nd Street and Broadway. For more information about upcoming performances and performers, go to www.vcpark.org or call 718430–1890.
VICTORIUS REMAK, above, dresses as a bat, a costume that might be worn during Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago. Participants jump in the limbo line, at right.
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