By Michel Outridge

IT is said that practice makes perfect and this is the ideal idea of Valerie Barran, a dancer and dance teacher who began dancing since she was nine years old.

It started as a pastime in the annual schools Diwali programme among the peers of her community and later developed into a career.

The 33-year-old told the Pepperpot Magazine that she continued to dance in primary and secondary schools, so she was self-taught and did not receive any formal training then.

And it was at the secondary level where they had a dance group which was birthed out of the village mandir and they began competing.

The resident of Shieldstown, West Bank Berbice, stated that after high school she decided to establish her own dance group which started at the mandir with about 40 dancers.

Barran added that she used to be very active in fundraisers for the development of the mandir and the dance group back then and after collaborating with a professional dance teacher from Georgetown, she branched out with her own dance group.

The mother of two then benefitted from professional guidance in classical dances, her all-time favourite.

Barran related that her dance career skyrocketed when she started to dance with the Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha, where they participated in several competitions and did well.

“It was there I gained experience and realised I had a deep liking to dancing and began practising to become even better, because we did not win a single competition for six years in a row,” she said.

Barran then adopted the motto, “Practice makes perfect” and on their seventh year in the dance competition they won and she was elated.

That win motivated her to continue putting more effort into her dancing and they went on to win many more competitions.

Barran now has her own dance group called “Berbice Delight,” which operates from her home with 18 dancers who are versed in classical, soca, modern, Bollywood and chutney dance-styles.

“We won the Guyana Chutney Dance Competition from 2018 for three years in a row and that worked well for the dance group,” she said.

The mother of two told the Pepperpot Magazine that because of the pandemic, they have not been doing many performances, but they do have practice sessions at home.

She disclosed that they would do music videos for artistes and perform at a few functions.

Barran stated that in 2019, two of her dancers, most of whom are drawn from across the country, participated in CARIFESTA in Trinidad and Tobago.

The Berbice Delight Dance Group is also affiliated with the Indian Cultural Centre in the city and they have benefitted from training in the form of classical dancing, such as kathak dancing.

Beauty at its best

The Pepperpot Magazine met another Shieldstown resident, Anjali Ramdeo Angaad, who is a hairdresser as well as a makeup artist and a nail technician.

She works at her own salon in neighbouring D’ Edward Village but has been home for the past three months as a result of COVID-19.

Angaad is the mother of a nine-month-old baby boy and is finding things to do at home to pass the time.

She started in her career after completing secondary school in 2011, after which she had formal training in the city.

Angaad worked one year at a salon then she opened her own business, a beauty salon, in 2013.

“The salon is my only source of income, so I depend on them to manage the home, but with the pandemic I cannot do any work,” she said.

Angaad told the Pepperpot Magazine that she would take a few jobs at home if she is hired to make-up a bride or style and cut hair or line-up the eyebrows or even do nail designs.

“Being a beautician is something I always wanted to do as a career, so you can say I am living my dream and it is rewarding to assist people in bringing out their beauty in the form of make-up, hair and nails,” she said.

Angaad disclosed that life in Shieldstown is good, since it is a quiet countryside place where she has lived all her life.