LINDA Griffith, often called “Teacher Linda”, is one of Guyana’s most qualified dance instructors, having gained extensive training and experience in the field of dance.
She loves dancing, and has been doing it for as long as she can remember. She now holds the post of Director of Dance at the National School of Dance, located in the National Park, Thomas Lands in Georgetown. Here, she has been teaching dance since 1975, when she graduated from the Teachers’ Training College.

In an interview with the Guyana Chronicle, Teacher Linda recalled that Lavinia Williams took her and a colleague, Pamela Moseley, under her wings, and tutored them. Williams was an American woman who lived in Haiti for a number of years, after which she came to Guyana to join in CARIFESTA celebrations.

Then President, Mr Forbes Burnham invited Williams to return to Guyana to start a dance company. She came in 1973, and conducted a three-month workshop with teachers, among them ‘Teacher Linda’.

QUOTE: ‘I just love to see people dance, because it brings so much out of you. It helps you to be a stronger person; to be a more cooperative person, because in dance, you have to work with people and you have to learn to synchronize to get it right, so that helps you to bond more with people and learn to work more with them’

In 1974, Williams started a school at the Umana Yana, and the following year, Linda started a training programme with Williams, after completing college.

‘I love dancing’
Linda grew up in West Ruimveldt Housing Scheme, Georgetown, and attended Ascension Primary School before moving on to East Ruimveldt Secondary. After obtaining her basic education, she pursued her two-year stint at the Teachers’ Training College.

QUOTE: ‘It’s fascinating, Indian dance! I would learn the music, and if I don’t know what it means in Hindi, I would get someone to translate. The movements are so fascinating that even if they are not used just for Indian dance, we fuse it, do variations on it, using Indian influence music also. It makes you move in a different way’

Growing up, she was also an athlete, and specialized in long-distance running. She always knew she wanted to teach, though, and she loved dancing. Her father, Henry Griffith, now deceased, was a ballroom dancer, and was also specialized in the marathon and long distance running.

“He used to teach me. Sometimes at home, I used to see him dancing with my mother. He made me join the library at a very early age, and (he) used to bring home books on dance, and I would read them,” Linda recalls about her father.

In school, they used to have the plaiting of the May Pole, but Linda was never selected because she was short in height. This would, however, not prevent her from still going to look see when the children practised in school. “I used to practise with my brothers and sisters. So on weekends, we would tie up strings on a pole in the yard, call our neighbours over, and I would teach them.”

Linda started her formal training at age 19, even though she used to dance in groups while in secondary school and at home. “I have been trained in classical, modern, African, Indian dance…years of training. I love African dance and classical, dance in the whole.

“I just love to see people dance, because it brings so much out of you. It helps you to be a stronger person; to be a more cooperative person, because in dance, you have to work with people and you have to learn to synchronize to get it right. So that helps you to bond more with people and learn to work more with them.”

Linda firmly believes that the person who dances lives very much longer than the person who lives a sedentary lifestyle.

Our traditional dances
“I expect full commitment from my students; a very high level of discipline and performance. I also expect them to appreciate other dancers and teachers, and other styles, particularly our traditional Guyanese dances.

“That’s very important, because, sometimes we find everyone looks at the television to accept all that is there, but if you go out of the country, people look to see what you bring; they are looking for something else. So we need to appreciate what we have; our traditional dances,” Linda expressed.

She recalled what one of her colleagues, Phillip Mc Clintock, said in this regard. Phillip was an African man who specialized in Indian dance, having done four years of training in India. “I did a lot of work with him and a couple of dance teachers who came from India. I remember Phillip saying that people are always fascinated with Guyanese dancers because of the way they move, and it’s the influence of Indian dance that is fused with our African dance and our other techniques that we merge.

“We (Guyanese) move in a different way to other people.”

In 1991, whilst on a six-week dance training stint with various teachers in the USA, Linda won an award at the American Dance Festival. Her distinct style of dancing had everyone asking where she was from.

“It’s fascinating, Indian dance! I would learn the music, and if I don’t know what it means in Hindi, I would get someone to translate. The movements are so fascinating that even if they are not used just for Indian dance, we fuse it, do variations on it, using Indian influence music also. It makes you move in a different way.”

Major challenge
Linda explained that her regular challenge is getting students to come to classes according to their scheduled time. “Our education system is of such that parents are sending their children to lessons. So you don’t get them to come to classes on time and on schedule. Education, of course, takes priority.

“That would keep some of them back, in the sense that they would take longer to develop and mature as a dancer.”

On the positive side, though, Linda is fascinated when she sees a dancer whom she would have trained blooming. “I love to work primarily with persons who have no training. We are paid as public servants, but the money is not so good. But I still do it (teach dancing) for the love of it and the contribution that you can make to your country.”

She explained that there are 15 classes at the dance school, including one for adults. “We have different age groups. It’s structured just like a normal school. It’s just that we work in the afternoons. Depending on how old the person is, we fit them in a class. It’s free to enroll. Everything is Government-funded.”

According to her, the programme lasts for two years, after which the students are evaluated and promoted to another class. They also have their outreach programme, wherein they go into the different regions and conduct workshops.

“We are at present preparing to start a dance school in Berbice. Before the end of the month, we should start dance sessions there. The idea is to set up dance schools in all of the regions within the next five years,” Linda disclosed.

The dance school would usually liaise with the Ministry of Education so that it can share in various workshops and training programmes.