For Verna Walcott-White being part of the inaugural Carifesta in 1972 and two subsequent Carifestas in Cuba and Barbados has helped to shape the journey her life has taken, which involved her opening a dance school in the US and being a dance instructor at several schools.
Walcott-White was a starry eyed teenager in August 1972, but if you speak to her today her memory of that inaugural festival, which among other things birthed the Festival City community as the houses there were custom built for the artistes from the various countries, is still crystal clear. And years later, every dance production she has done since has had a little piece of Carifesta ’72, even if it is just the lighting.
“…Carifesta shaped my life because seeing those traditional dances, how the body moved, … the stage presentation, the projection on stage that when I started to dance I was able to be in the National School of Dance under the tutelage of Madam Lavinia Williams, who came to Carifesta 72…,” Walcott-White told this newspaper.
