From the backyard to the international stage: Maxine pushes La Gracia to excel

Fifteen years ago, she received support for an idea to bring together dancers from various dance groups in the Lowmans Leeward community to produce a dance for the National Emancipation Day rally in 2002.

“I ran it by my sister and some good friends and they endorsed it; even the dancers were excited about it,” Maxine Browne explained to SEARCHLIGHT via email from overseas.

The choreography was titled “Freedom,” but this new configuration needed a name.

“I knew it was going to be a Spanish name,” added the Spanish-loving Browne, and, with several other considerations thrown in, the La Gracia Dance Company was born.

Browne, who is the point person for dance within the Ministry of Culture, is artistic director and principal choreographer of the group. She aims to shape dancers to be “graceful, fluid…filled with beauty and elegance,” who would represent their community and country as artistic ambassadors.

They have been doing this with excellence at home, and also have performed with distinction abroad at the Trinidad and Tobago Rhythm and Motion festival; Barbados’s Universal Dance Expression; at Carifesta in Guyana, Suriname, Haiti and Barbados and at the 2016 CIOFF (International Council of Organizations of Folklore Festivals and Folk Art) World Folkloriada in Mexico.

Browne, who holds degrees in dance (UWI) and arts management (USA), has her eyes set on the Russia staging of the CIOFF World Folkloriada in 2020.

From a few children in the neighborhood willing to be taught various “dance moves” in her backyard, Browne now choreographs for a troupe of around 100 children and youth from a number of communities across the country, who practise at the Lowmans Leeward Anglican School on Saturday mornings.

Children may join from three years old; however, “there really isn’t an age limit; once you love to dance and you have a knack for dancing, you can come,” explained senior dancer and budding choreographer, Kia Henry, who along with two of her peers, assumes responsibility for practising the group in Browne’s absence.

With just one ‘thorn’ among scores of ‘roses’, Henry sees room for more young men.

“For some reason, boys are not really enthusiastic about joining a dance group that offers [mostly] modern dancing and creative folk and so on, so I encourage the boys of the community to come out and join with us.”

Parents and grandparents speak of the positive influence of La Gracia on the lives of their charges.

For instance, Joy Matthews found in La Gracia the avenue for continuing holistic development of her granddaughter, while Keith Edwards is convinced that the group has been playing a pivotal role in the academic performance of his daughter.

The children are just as enthused about the role which the dance group is playing in their young lives.

Aalyah John, Tyler Matthias, Jennaya Bonadie, Josel Da Silva and Juliana and Amara Sterling – all junior dancers – speak about the way in which La Gracia provides a place for expression of their love of dancing.

The group invests further in their immediate community by helping the primary school to prepare for various national competitions and other events.

Its work in the community was approved by the public, who recognized La Gracia’s as the Best Community Group in the 2016 Best of SVG Awards.

Henry told SEARCHLIGHT they were honoured to have been so recognized and “would continue to encourage the youth of the community to continue dancing and to ensure that we not only focus on the arts, but on education as well.”

La Gracia, whose juniors won the 2016 KCCU National Dance Championships, is already looking ahead to its 2018 production, which will be a full gospel showcase.

The telephone contacts are: 433-5334; 593-0083; 457-8922/7227 and email at: maxa73@hotmail.com