For several decades, Barbados has had a strong cultural presence to dance and in it’s all of its forms. With it’s way of incredible skill, dedication, grit and self expression, production has truly focused on the core elements from the mind and bodies of the professional instructors, Celia Grannum & Kris Jobson. During the making if this production, we want to take the audience through the journey and experience of Celia & Kris going back to a place to where they started their dance careers and make an impactful yet emotional story. Capturing these elements, the delivery to the audience with appreciate and want to ry out Barbados whether if it’s ballet, free-form, jazz, contemporary dance, etc, they will feel a complete visceral reaction to the island!

 

    Having the opportunity to connect and speak with Celia for the first time regarding the project, all I could sense and see the amount of imagery and color the island of Barbados has. The extinctive history of their dance community and how The GiveBack Team is able to encourage our production’s vision to capture their professional teaching’s to the youth of Barbados. The ability to establish a trusting relationship to seek the similar balance of emotion of the younger aspiring dancers as they interpret the older, wiser and developed mindsets of Celia and Kris, was a unique interpretation coming to a different country as reception varies and comes a different artist delivery. Working with children, during these modern times, requires much imagery and attention to detail. Often time, finding Kris or Celia in their one on one speaking with the students is what we want to take away during the Giveback process, the ability to GiveBack of what they mastered (or what one mastered) and reciprocate it back in a form or way so the youth can take in and they understand. Capturing the light in their eyes, as they made sure that the kids got it!

 

    What drew me most to cultivate this story was the relationship Celia had with her mentor Richild Springer as she was the island’s dance legend, a free spirited angel that danced to the infinity. It was very important to me to have the audience feel the same emotion connection as she once had with her and how her career was vastly encouraged by her wisdom and her acceptance of Celia. During production, I didn’t want a single numb moment or a dull second, with so much to see and experience in Barbados there is a story to tell in every corner. Kris and Celia journey to the different schools and studios during filming. I discovered testimonials from different mentors about how dance was becoming more of a larger then an average living, more then just the basic careers (i.e, doctor, plumber, accountant, etc), it’s broke through a barrier of dance arts careers to inspiring a span of different dance careers for entertainment throughout the world. To show the language of dance and how Kris and Celia explain it has momentous and spiritual truth.

 

    To wrap up, we want you to move you through dance. We want to have a connection with want is new and how the older methods meet them to transpire a new mode of dance. This was a real challenge keeping up and adapting to the dance style of filming for this documentary. With honorable mention to the ones we met and let us in the doors of their establishments of the National Culture Foundation, Louise Woodvine Dance Academy & Powerhouse Studios, production will delivery a touching notoriety for the audience to have similar empathy for the art of dance and all of it’s similar proprietaries in Barbados.

 

Ricky Mendez

Director, Reverie Films