Trinidad Carnival 2012 - Carnival Culture's UK Invasion II "The Brits keep coming!"

Another great piece of work from Mr Tony Magik take a look at other Britons doing their thing in Trinidad.

Minshall hits arts reporting

Peter Minshall.

VETERAN mas man Peter Minshall said media reporting on works of art is not incisive enough, and asked if the University of the West Indies (UWI) could help improve such assessment. He was talking at a panel discussion on the future of the university on Monday night at UWI, St Augustine.



Referring to media reviews of his projects as a young man which had helped him, he said he had hoped that as the society matured after Independence, the critical assessment of art would have improved. “Instead we have regressed. There is no critical analysis of artistic practice. Every review is a bland and benign ‘PR’ blurb,” Minshall said.
Every painter is ‘talented and self-taught’, every play ‘had the audience in stitches’, all the work is ‘wonderful’, when in fact a pall of mediocrity blankets the landscape,” he added. He said talent can’t produce anything of quality if there are no real standards.
“And there is no way to establish standards other than by critical dialogue, a conversation among artists and those who know art, as to what works and what doesn’t, what is good and what is bad, what is original and what is derivative, what is brilliant synthesis and what is plain pastiche.”

Art history and international references must also inform the dialogue.
“Every single work of mas I have ever created, I have approached with all the rigour and creative effort that a serious artist puts into the making of any work of art. He claimed, “Never in this country has a work of mas been the subject of a critical assessment, as a work of art. I know this as a fact, I have all the clippings”.

He said the news reports only said if it was “colourful”, “controversial”, or “keenly anticipated”.
“Never has a writer addressed how it worked as a work of contemporary art. This is a great disappointment to me”. He said his work in mas has had some analysis but mainly anthropological or sociological, not aesthetic or artistic.


“As a consequence of this, we as a society do not know what art is. We have not done the work to establish what are the critical terms of reference by which our own indigenous art-forms can be assessed.” He said this puts our artists and culture at a great disadvantage. Urging UWI to have a role in critical analysis, he urged, “A university should not be an ivory tower set apart but integrated into the life of the island community”.

SEAN DOUGLAS

Lady Gaga : @ American Idol in Armani

 The surprisingly long-lasting PR machine/pop star that is Lady Gaga was surprisingly quiet – that is, her wardrobe at least – for her performance at the Met Costume Institute Gala this past Monday. But come tonight, Gaga has a much bigger stage for her choreographed singing and dancing. The pop star knowing for using soda cans as rollers is slated to appear on American Idol tonight. And in typical eye-catching form – even though moderated just a tad for primetime TV – Gaga is slated to wear an Armani silk mesh bodysuit with embroidered Chantilly lace and crystal and jet beading. Over it, she will wear a silk organza cape with an embroidered hood and black patent stiletto boots. Somehow, we’re guessing the jet beading is going to be strategically placed. The designer chatted on the ongoing design collaboration. “American Idol is a real modern phenomenon that has captured the public’s imagination and delivers great drama,” said Giorgio Armani.

“It is fitting then that the show is to host another modern phenomenon who has proved to be fascinating, and whose every appearance is a piece of theatre: Lady Gaga. Dressing Lady Gaga for the Grammy Awards, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Gala, and now for American Idol has been a very exciting project. To complement the spirit of Lady Gaga herself, I have let my imagination run free, and the outfit I have created for her for American Idol is pure fantasy.”

Fantasy for fashion followers or if we’re talking silk mesh here, fantasy of another kind? From the sketch, we’d almost lean to the neo-classically romantic. But stay tuned to find out.

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Goddesses of Samba in Brazil´s Carnival: How are they Chosen?

Samba dancing may sound only as fun, especially for foreigners. But in Brazil, this activity is taken very seriously by amateur and professional dancers, as we will see below. Samba dancing in the Carnival of Brazil is part of our culture and somehow national identity. Just like Jazz in New Orleans, Tango in Argentina, and Salsa at the Caribbean, samba dancing is taught since the very early stages of life of Brazilians. In a natural form, every woman, (and some men too), learn how to samba dance to some extent, but are evidently not professionals. On this article, we will explain how samba-schools like Mangueira and Unidos da Tijuca, clubs, and other institutions linked to the carnival in Brazil conduct contests to discover and pick the best samba contests in Brazil.

As you have probably heard or seen, the BrazilianCarnaval became a very professional institution. Everyone involved want to make sure only the best resources are used, both material and human. A carnival parade encompasses many wings, and in one of them, as an example, only the best can join, as the "elite samba dancers' wing", or, as they care called in Portuguese, the "Passistas Wing". Now how do these traditional samba-schools pick the very best samba dancers among thousands in the country, to represent the samba-school during a carnival season? Well, most of them conduct a challenging and very competitive samba dance contests in Rio and Sao Paulo.

The contests may sometimes take more than 2 or 3 rounds, and they normally happen at the samba-schools premises or famous samba auditoriums or specialized clubs. A series of criteria are used to aid jurors select the best dancers. Just like a beauty pageant contest in the US, not only the beauty, or in this case, the dance per say is evaluated, but a series of attributes. Some of the criteria evaluated by the specialized jury include the candidates´ grace, posture, and coordination. But above all, the judging panel closely look at the "samba at the feet" criterion, or "Samba no Pé", to use the original expression in Portuguese, which is the specific ability to dance the samba.

The jury is normally composed of experienced samba dancers, choreographers, former "Drum Queens" and important personalities in the Samba community. Number of candidates may vary and range from 20 up to 50, in famous contests. Some of the samba dancers come from very simple background, and they see these contests as a great opportunity to project themselves within the carnival community and media in general. Many of them, after winning these contests became authentic Carnival Queens, Muses, actresses and models. Tatiana Pagung, one of the all time Samba Dancers in the Carnival of Brazil, started her professional life winning several contests. Shayene Cesario, former Carnival Princess in Rio and this year´s Carnaval Queen, won Rio de Janeiro contest mainly because of her great samba skills and impressive beauty.

Rio hosts several contests, and one of the most important samba dancing contests is the Rio de Janeiro Carnival Queen and Princess competition promoted by the city´s official tourism body, called RIOTUR. This contest is always held on October and is extremely concurred. This year, more than 30 candidates took part of the competition and all major contenders displayed excellent samba routines. So next time in the Carnival of Brazil, try to visit one of these interesting contest-shows in the pre-Carnival period. Maybe you will learn how to dance the samba too!
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Here are two videos on African art and Masking

An informal talk given at the Ananse's Web African Festival, 1st-4th October 2009, by African art historian Tamsin Barzane, owner and creative director of Second Life's virtual Nigeria on Saminaka.

History survives through dance. For the Indigenous of La Costa Chica— the Amuzgo, the Mixteco, the Zapoteco— society is something to be remembered, revered, and ridiculed. No one is beyond scrutiny, not the dead and certainly not the living. In la Danza de los Vaqueros (the Dance of the Cowboys) the Minga wears a white female mask. As usual, the Minga plays a central comedic role. He is a masked man dressed as a European woman, hiking his skirt up he chases children giggling into the borders of the performance space. When not scaring the young ones away he concentrates on more traditional prey: he chases the African man, the overseer-cowboy behind the black mask. This, laugh the indigenous, reflects the manner in which the European plantation wives persisted in sexually assaulting the Africans who oversaw indigenous field labor. Lined up in work gangs, the indigenous are represented by matching black suits and pink masks. They step in sync with one another within the spaces left open to them by the black cowboy who deftly skirts the plantation owner’s lascivious wife.

Somerset Carnivals self Analysis.

How do Somerset carnivals compare on a world scale?

Somerset is the home of Europe's largest illuminated carnival but how do other countries celebrate carnivals?

An event at Bridgwater Arts Centre hopes to find out by discovering how other countries build great processional machines.

'Endless Parade' will also look at technologies and themes which are used.

The evening takes place on 3 December and will look to examine how the 'English Traditional' or 'illuminated carnival' differs from those elsewhere.

"Although lumped together with other carnival manifestations like those derived from Brazil or Trinidad, it has its own special history and form," said a spokesperson for Bridgwater Arts Centre.

"Carnival is an aspect of processional performance, one of the essential modes of outdoor celebration. We need to develop practical tools for outdoor performance in the future and find the technologies that can replace fossil fuel dependencies, pyrotechnics and paraffin.

"The carnival clubs and makers have strong links with steam fairs and enthusiasts, a world of practical and creative making and 'know-how' with a strong sense of history."

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TAKE A LOOK AT SOMERSET CARNIVALS