L’Acadco 40th Season of Daaance ‘a celebration of life’
Published:Sunday | April 23, 2023 | 1:18 AMAaliyah Cunningham - Sunday Gleaner Writer
Come Saturday, April 29, the home of L’Acadco, Philip Sherlock Theatre, will come alive as at the dance company hosts Gala Night for its 40th Anniversary Season of Daaance. The occasion is not only special as it commemorates four decades of presenting an unmatched rhythm experience, but it will celebrate life and purpose during a time of worldwide uncertainty.
Speaking with The Sunday Gleaner, founder and artistic Director of L’Acadco, Dr L’Antoinette Stines, reflected on the very first season of dance.
“I remember it was at the Little Theatre and I had not one penny to put it on. I was downtown trying to buy material for costumes and I started to bawl in the middle of the road on Orange Street,” she reminisced.
“I remember that one firm named Heffes. I walked in and I told the man my problem and he said he’s going to carry me upstairs to pick the costume that I want and I will never forget that, and I remember another firm named GraceKennedy sponsored the piece named Satta – Give Thanks and Praise to the Most High, 40 years ago. It is now documented as one of the most iconic pieces of the Caribbean,” she continued to share.
As she geared up for her very first presentation, she did not exactly know how it would be funded but she knew it had to be done, because dance was her passion and delivering an experience through it was her ultimate desire.
“I remember only having 12 dancers. I remember everything, it was just like giving birth. I remember I had one male dancer that season. I had no drummers. I remember the love that was given to me by Jamaica and I can still feel the love in my heart. Jamaica gave me the love and I mean that does not mean everybody gave me the love cause people were still wondering who the hell is this girl and mi cyaa get no sponsorship because dem ‘fraid mi go take the money go buy pretty shoes – at least that’s what I think,” Stines said.
She even went broke in the process of putting on the show.
“Satta was sponsored and when it was finished, I had no money. I couldn’t even buy food cause I had to pay for the theatre and everything and it was very expensive, but I had to take a chance. I just knew I had work to present that was totally different from anything else being done in Jamaica. Not that it is a competition, but it was another space to go and see something different. That is why I do not present L’Acadco as a performance but as an experience,” she revealed.
Stines began building out L’Acadco when she returned to Jamaica in 1982 and it has become one of the most notable and esteemed dance companies on the island. But how did Stines manage to keep it alive across the four decades? She chalks it up to possible insanity.
“I have a mad degree because to have a dance company for 40 years is my gratitude to God. I am grateful to God that I can celebrate 40 years because I just don’t know how I did it. It was a difficult road, and it is difficult for every dance company in Jamaica because it is difficult to get funding. We have been doing it with a lot of love and some people over the years who have been supporting us and who come and volunteer their services,” she told The Sunday Gleaner.
As they prepare for this Season of Daaance on April 29 and 30, and May 5-7, Stines says she wants the patrons to “leave the theatre happy to be alive and wanting to stand up in the audience and dance”.
“We have been through COVID and right now there is a flu going around that no one understands and every single week it is something. I recently got a call that one of my dancers’ grandmother died in Grenada and last week it was somebody else, and the week before it was somebody else. So, my focus this year is about celebrating life and in a very sensitive way,” Stines said.
This staging features several guest choreographers, including Michelle Grant Morris, Marlon Simms, Toni Gay ‘Happy Feet’ O’Meally and others. Sponsors include Supreme Ventures, Philip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts, Ministry of Culture, the Tourism Enhancement Fund, GraceKennedy, Heffes, Spanish Court Hotel, Bank of Jamaica, CPJ, IRIE FM and Grapevine Marketing Associates Limited.