There were a few memorable acts at the second NIFCA semifinals, held at St Leonards Boys School Sunday night, which are worth seeing again at the finals.
St Cyprians Boys Choir group The Cyptones is certainly one of them. Ably led by Randy Harris, the boys aged five to 11, sang Tek De Blame. The original song deals with the menacing issue of the island’s garbage woes. Accompanied by two students dressed as Sanitation Service Authority workers, the group sang and danced spreading the message to “practise the removal of waste”. They were simply entertaining. For their efforts the crowd gave them a resounding round of applause, the loudest for the night.
Tila Seete was emotive and expressive in her theatre piece called Disabled Welfare. In it, she paints a picture of the horrors disabled people encounter daily at the hands of the Welfare Department especially. Skeete, who has cerebral palsy, started her performance by sitting in a wheelchair. She told of the indignity of visiting the office to inquire about benefits only to be told: “get a job”. She outlined other instances of mistreatment. Each verse ended: “Welfare, disabled welfare, just ain’t fair…” At one point, the crowd joined in with her as if in agreement.
Twelve-year-old Isaac Dasilva was very impressive and entertaining too. Although he has a minor speech slur, his theatre piece That Thing About Me was well delivered. In the act, the St Michael student speaks about himself, a boy once hooked on social media and who hated books as his grades sank. Until one day, it all changed. Now he is reading, it has opened doors. He now loves poetry, history, geography since he reads a book every day.
Three little ones from Providence Elementary School blew the audience away with their vocals. Ten-year-old Kailey Griffith was flawless in This Girl Is on Fire as was Sarah Maloney who sang Head Above Water. Impressive, too, was Shasanya de Rushe-Hall who sang When I’m Gone.
Spoken word act, Danielle Thomas, was impactful with his Song of My Sin. The theatre piece was effectively done by the St Michael School student. Of note too was Mark Burgess’ dance piece entitled De Inside. Apparently it was about a female he has lost either in love or to death. Mark danced across the stage holding a dress in a very emotive performance.
Other performances for the night came from: Deacons Angels Academy (Guns Downs, Bibles Up); Angel Stringz (Unthinkable and Leadpipe & Saddis Tribute); Praise Academy of Dance (Alive); The WOW Band (TheTime Is At Hand); Haynesville Youth Group (Divine Feminity); Jason Holder (Trip) and Dance Strides Barbados (A.N.T.I Social). (IMC)
