– workshops, dance production to be held

UNIQUE Arts Entertainment will be executing Kaya! – a three-day Caribbean culture exchange between Guyana and Suriname. The exchange began on Thursday and ends on Saturday.

Kaya means home in Africa, and over the past nine years, Unique Arts has been telling stories about African dance, African history and collaborating with dance companies in Guyana, across the Caribbean and, most importantly, in Suriname.

Kelton Jennings, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Unique Arts recently told the Buzz that this year, his group visited Suriname to celebrate Suriname’s emancipation, which was held on July 1, 2024.

Simultaneously he said, “We celebrated 15 years of Unique Arts, of dance and music. This has been in existence from 2009 to the 1st of July, 2024. We decided to do an exchange. This is the third year we are doing it, but this is bigger, where we took over 50 persons from Guyana to Suriname and we did a production and workshops, which is Kaya.”

Jennings pointed out that there were 100 persons involved in Kaya between Suriname and Guyana.

On Wednesday, approximately 60 persons came from Suriname to participate in the Guyana leg.

“We are doing it in schools as a theatre arts programme for young dancers because the persons that are coming from Suriname, they are young, talented people that are from a school for young talent. They just major in the arts. They will be coming over to celebrate and to do a production that I choreographed.

“And some of the pieces they are doing on their own, which is a cultural piece from their country, but mostly everything that relates to Kaya, I choreographed and costumed. They are coming to present it here at St. Rose’s and at Queen’s College on the 20th, which is this Friday (today),” Jennings highlighted.

Jennings explained that the St. Rose’s High School and Queen’s College are the only two schools in this programme, because of the short period of time that the Suriname group will be in Guyana.

He stated that these schools were selected because they are schools that do theatre arts.

“These are schools that I was involved with at some period of time through Mashramani competitions and I am attached to Queen’s College right now. I teach at the afternoon club…the dance club at Queen’s College so I selected Queen’s College and St. Rose’s due to the fact that we don’t have much time when they get here. Just three days, two shows and two workshops,” he explained.

According to Jennings, the 60-member cast comprises mostly children.

The workshops will be open to the public; however, the production is just for the two abovementioned schools.

He remarked that next year, they will try to do it bigger and better. “We will have them in the country for a week. We can visit different regions to execute this production,” Jennings expressed.

Things got underway on Thursday night with a workshop for drummers at the Queen’s College auditorium. This was opened to members of the public.

Today, there will be a Caribbean culture exchange dance production from 10:00 hrs to 11:00 hrs at the St. Rose’s High School, and then from 14:00hrs to 15:00hrs at the Queen’s College auditorium. This production is closed to the public at both schools.

On Saturday, there will be a dance workshop from 10:00hrs to 14:00 hrs at the Queen’s College auditorium and members of the public are invited to attend.

Anyone who wants to learn more about the exchange programme or make a contribution in any form, can contact Jennings on 619-6195.