Its that time of year again for the Muraldo D.C’s School of Africanistic Movement Christmas End of Term Fundraising Performance.

Date: 4th December 2010

Time: 1:30pm

Where: St Luke’s Church, Homerton Terr (off Morning Lane), Hackney, London E9

Come and enjoy and afternoon of traditional dance and drumming and get a chance to win a place on the 2012 Caribbean Dance Course in our raffle (to be drawn at Quadfest ’12) So Come along bring your family and friends and enjoy together.

Muraldo D.C

p.s. Please feel free to pass on to anyone you feel may be interested.

This Caribbean dance course turned out to be quite special as this year as we were honoured to have only elders on the course, with all accept one (who is from South Africa) from the Caribbean.

At the start of our journey we were delayed at Gatwick by the heavy snow. We should have left at 11.25 but did not actually leave until 16.45 but there was a plane on the tarmac near us who had been there since 6.30 am so we were certainly not the worst off!

Fortunately I had already booked us in to stay at the Grand View Hotel in Grenada for the first night as, as it turned out, we would not have made the Ospray over to Carriacou that first night with such a long delay at Gatwick.

The next day we took the Ospray to Carriacou which was quite an exciting crossing for some but stomach churning for others as the sea was particularly rough. We did have to take one of the students to the one hospital on the island, as a result of her sea sickness, and were treated well by the doctor and his staff who not only cared for our poor student but enquired of the health of all of us while he was at it!

In addition to our classes we spent the first week in Carriacou exploring the small local shops, the museum, restaurants, went on an interesting tour of the whole island learning much about its fascinating history, many spent each morning before class swimming in the sea which was a short walk away and enjoying the local food especially mangos! One of the restaurant we visited was the ‘Lambi Queen’ in Lesterre where the elders really showed what they are made of, which was all the more incredible as four of the elders had to be wheelchair assisted to the plane at Gatwick and yet this very same four as well as the others really got down on that dance floor!! One of them, Edward Greaves, told me that he didn’t know what has happened but he felt like a young man again since he had arrived back in his country!

There were many lively conversations about food and plants along with the differences in names, and how food is cooked in the different Caribbean islands as our students consisted of people from St Vincent, Jamaica, Barbados and Grenada.

At the end of the week we held an end of week performance unfortunately we did not have a very big audience but this did not stop those who came really enjoying the performances and the elders had a good time sharing what they had learnt.

We left on the Osprey on Sunday 13th and much to some of our students relief the return crossing was much less rough that the first crossing. We returned to Grand view inn to spend our second week and what a full week that was!

Ignoring the pretty swimming pool at our hotel as many felt it was too deep as the shallow end was 5.5in and other simply prefer the beach even though they had to walk down the hill to get there, the students explored the beach at the bottom of the hill which the hotel looked over as well as Grand Anse beach nearby, there was lots of shopping in local malls and in the market, eating out as well as at the hotel, a whole day tour of the island with stopping for swimming at the renowned Bathway beach and an interesting look Carib Leap where the Caribs preferred to jump off into the sea rather than be captured by the British. And our Grenadian students were able also to show us a little of their roots with one in particular taking us to see a large settlement on a hill which belonged to his Grandfather and now inhabited by his family members.

The time on both islands also included afternoons or evenings were students did what they wanted, some took the time to rest, others went out to see friends or relatives on the islands while others took the opportunity to visit the beach and have a swim or a walk.

For most of our journeys we were driven in what is called on the islands a ‘bus’ as they are used as the local buses while to English folk it would be better to describe them as a mini van seating 15 people. In Grenada we were driven by a driver known as ‘Pirate’ who drove us around the island when we last came to Grenada four years ago. An excellent driver, very helpful and supportive.

One of the places we ate at in Grenada was ‘Island View’ in Woburn which everyone on the island seems to know. The food was delicious and not overpriced, the staff friendly, the restaurant beautiful situated at the sea front. Another place that was well know is the Medical Centre situated on the seafront at Grand Anse beach which serves a really good amount of delicious food for only $15 EC ( £3.00)!

Much to our surprised we found ourselves being recognised by people in the street due to a television interview we did. One person who came up to me to congratulate me on our work gave me a full demonstration of what he saw us doing right there in the market, much to everyone’s amusement!

We were honoured to have a dancer known as Sindy-Ann from the renowned Tivoli Drummers take one of our classes each morning teaching a range of movement from their traditional repertoire. Sindy and I also spent an interesting time sharing dance vocabulary from each company.

We held our performance at the end of the week which was so well received again the audience could have been bigger but this did not spoil the evening in any way. After the show students and guests gather to eat and drink Rum punch on our last evening.

Everyone told me what a wonderful time they had and some have already told me that they want to come again next year. Having a mixed group of ages on the course we believe will be really interesting for everyone and we are really looking to experiencing this.

We would like to especially thank Nkrumah Nelson leader of the Tivoli Drummers and Sindy-Ann, Debbie from Grand View Inn, Kizzy from John’s Unique, Denis and Greaves and Pirate for all their support and assistance.

Roll on next year!

Muraldo D.C.

Well this year turned out to be the most eventful course yet! The company had to contend with an unbelievable number of unexpected occurrences but according to the students this things were tiny compared to the wonderful time they had!

It started with one of our poor students having a terrible time with sea sickness as we travelled on the ferry to Trinidad but we tried our best to make her as comfortable as we could.

When we arrived in Trinidad it turned out that in spite of personal recommendation and checking out the accommodation on the internet that the accommodation was not what we had booked, we however instead spent our first night at what is considered to be one of the best hotels in Trinidad The Cascadia Hotel which included a beautiful swimming pool area where we were also able to hold our first classes.

We then decided to spend the rest of our stay on the other side of the island at Mayaro Beach Resort which not only had its only private pool but was also was a stones throw away from the beach.

During the rest of the time in Trinidad, in addition to our classes, visiting the local supermarket and street market in the mornings and having lunch together a variety of local eating places there was lots to do!

For example, most of the students chose to go a world famous reggae artist’s concert (Beenie Man) which was held walking distance away, we were treated to performances by local Tassa drummers and we enjoyed a boat ride through the Bird Sanctuary at Caroni Swamp. At the beautiful Maracas Bay we swam in the gentle waves and sunned ourselves, rounding off our time there by eating ‘Shark and bake’ a local delicacy, we had a local drummers spend one of the days giving extra classes in drumming with a short impromptu performance by Caroline and Shona. That evening we went to a lovely little eating place where scrumptious food was cooked and serve especially for our group and the evening was rounded off with dancing. We had another special evening when Muraldo D.C. arranged for ‘curry and roti’ another Trinidad specialty to be served to our group at the poolside. Every night many of the students sat by the pool enjoying a drink from the poolside bar until early morning along with late night dips in the pool! There was of course shopping for our ‘shopperholics’ at the local malls, who took full advantage of the fantastic exchange rate of TT$10 – £1. (Average salary in Trinidad TT$1000! per month)

Unfortunately, while we had intended to go to the world famous Pitch Lake, a few of the students had not brought suitable footwear as advised on their list of things to bring, so we were unable to go this time.

Our schedule was however brought to a temporary halt by one of the students having severe pain resulting in Caroline insisting that the student was checked out by the local hospital. (This was to be the first of three visits to hospitals for Caroline as another student had a pre-existing ear infection which became more uncomfortable after swimming but this was quickly dealt with by a very helpful local doctor) The doctors decided that she had to stay in hospital for more tests so of course we could not travel onto Tobago as planned the next day. Fortunately, after receiving a second opinion from a private hospital we were able to have our student diagnosed and treated on the day we were due to leave. This resulted in us, staying a couple extra days in Trinidad, the first day still at Mayaro Beach Resort and the second at a very nice hotel (Monique’s Guest House) back in the capital of Trinidad, Port of Spain so that we would be nearer to the port for our departure.

On the last day after our classes, we ate lunch at a picturesque restaurant, locate by a harbour of yachts and were then taken on a very interesting guided tour of Port of Spain. After this, some of us when to an American themed restaurant to have dinner, while others chose to bring food back to our hotel and sleep early for the trip the next day.

Once in Tobago the first thing Caroline had to do was something she never imagined in her wildest dreams. Unfortunately, we have on this trip one student who caused untold upset for both staff and fellow students forcing Caroline to take the unprecedented step of sending the student back to England at Caroline’s own personal expense! This dealt with; the time in Tobago was wonderful. Local dancers and drummers joined Muraldo D.C. in teaching classes each day (which took place at the Tobago’s minister of culture’s own property), the group had a trip on a glass bottom boat which allowed us to see the lovely coral, however some of us had a much closer look while snorkelling. We walked through the rainforest taking the opportunity to taste the fruit from a cocoa tree which tasted lovely and swam in a natural pool by a waterfall. We went out to local restaurants to eat in the evenings, we spent quality time on the beach, buying souvenirs at market situated near the beach and as well as taking part in a well received performance at the end of the week by students, the Tobagonian dancers and drummers plus Muraldo D.C.

At the end of the course, when we were to finally about to fly home we found ourselves having to embark and re-embark twice due to problems on the plane only to have to stay an extra night in Tobago at the Tobago Hilton! With free food, drink and lovely accommodation there wasn’t much to complain about but it did mean that those of us who were due at Surrey University the next day didn’t make it!

After all that happened what could faze us now?! Roll on next year!

We would like to say a special thanks to Gilbert O’Conner, and the members of The Tobago Academy for Performing Arts for making us so welcome and for sharing their talent with us and an extra special thank-you to Earl Mills and Hermant Soobhanath for being our angels!

Muraldo D.C.

This year the Caribbean dance course took Muraldo D.C and 10 students to the island of Carriacou for the first of our two weeks, and what a beautiful place Carriacou turned out to be. With only 6000 inhabitants we really felt like a part of the community in no time at all, especially at Silver Beach hotel where we were looked after perfectly.

Each morning the students took part in three classes taught by Caroline and myself with a view of Silver beach as our backdrop serving as a constant reminder that we were truly in the Caribbean.

During our stay in Carriacou we had the opportunity to tour the island seeing sites such as Windward, Mabouya Island, and Petite Martinique.  One evening was spent enjoying live steel pan music and tasting the local dishes.

We also had a visit from the local press (Grenada Informer) who had heard about Muraldo D. C’s work on the island and came to interview Caroline for an article as well as the radio station.

The students performed some of the work they had done at the end of the week followed by a Muraldo D.C performance held in the hotel, we invited various people that we had met on the island both locals and other tourists. This was greatly enjoyed by all that attended and performed.

The second week was spent on the neighbouring island of Grenada; again the students took part in 3 classes a day followed by various visits including to Westerhall Rum Distillery, the Herb and spice gardens, and historical sites like Carib’s Leap and Leapers Hill.  More adventurous outings included the rainforest and Market square where we experienced the buzz and atmosphere of Grenada.

We had the privilege of visiting surrounding islands like Sandy Island where we were able to relax in the picturesque surroundings (where many an advertisement has been shot).  We swam in the sea known for its beautiful coral reef, not to mention practising quadrilles and some of the other dances learnt in the two weeks in the sea (which added a new and challenging aspect to these pieces).

This final week again culminated in a performance at the Grand View Inn Hotel at the poolside creating a lovely atmosphere and platform for all of the hard work which had taken place in the two weeks.

It was such a privilege to experience both of these islands during this time and we were sorry to leave but felt we had had the richest and fullest experience that surpassed our imagination.

Tamara Lewis
(Ex-Muraldo D.C. Member)

Originally we had planned to visit Grenada and Carriacou but due to not being able to get the flights we needed for the period required we had to change our plans. I implored our travel agent Cynthia Lewis of Black Knight Travel ‘Just get us to a Caribbean island!’ she obliged sending us to her home island of St Lucia.

What a wonderful time it was! We spend our first night in Marigot Bay, which was only accessible by boat. The next morning we travelled by boat around the coast of the island to our home for the rest of the period.

Apart from the classes taught by Prince Morgan, Tamara Lewis and myself we all enjoyed relaxing and enjoying the two pools at our hotel, going on an early morning climb up Pigeon Point to see the sun rise, Quadrille dancing on the beach and with the locals at a quadrille/Country and Western evening, a beach party, the street party, trips the rain forest, The Pitons, the volcano, the market at Suffriere and lots of time on the beautiful beach nearby.

At the end of the course, students were really sad to be leaving and told me that the experience was worth every penny! The company had another couple of days after the students left and took the opportunity to visit the botanical Gardens, which had a gorgeous waterfall.

St Lucia really is a beautiful island and I am really glad that our first Caribbean dance course was held there.

Caroline Muraldo
Managing/Artistic Director

“Ten days soaking up the Caribbean sun and dancing in the crisp blue sea. But if you think it was all just about enjoying the scenery think again! The dance classes were challenging and very sweaty to say the least but worth every penny, but the time we left we were all shaking our ‘boongies’ the Caribbean way and had improved so much. On the occasions we didn’t have class we spent our time getting up at 4 in the morning to watch the sunrise (which we admittedly weren’t too keen on but was incredible!) and walking though rainforests, meeting the locals and getting a taste for Caribbean cuisine. It was an opportunity that we will never forget and cannot wait to go back next year!”

Claire Bougein & Sarah Greener
(Surrey University Students)