AS TOLD TO BC PIRES

My name is Bridgette Wilson and I’ve been a choreographer since 2009.

I live in Cascade now, but I come from Trincity, where I lived until I was 12 years old, when my mom died. And my sister and I moved to Petit Valley to live with my aunt, uncle and cousins. My dad’s job had him travelling all the time. At the time, he was living in St Lucia. I think it was the best decision, rather than uproot us every two years. It really has helped me feel rooted.

I was the girl in the Trincity streets running around with the boys, riding my bike with no shoes on, not eating lunch. I think my father, Guy, was kind of proud I was a tomboy, because he didn’t have any boy children. It was me and my sister Guyanne. My mom is Joanne.

Losing my mom was my first experience of knowing someone who died, and it was very jarring. I go to therapy – a friend was murdered this year. And in dealing with that grief, my lack of dealing with my mother’s death has come up. It was hard but I consider my aunts like mothers. Aunty Denise – Daddy’s sisters – Aunty Helen, who I lived by for a long time, Aunty June, who I lived by for a short time; and Aunty Carole, who takes care of everybody in the family.

I didn’t want the husband, but I always wanted to be a mother when I was younger. More recently I’ve missed a supportive partner to share life with when I’m depleted by overwork. I’m not sure I want to be a mother any more. If it comes, I would not say no. That mothering part of me may be fulfilled because I’m with children all the time.

I’m a Catholic. I don’t go to church. Miss Thom at Convent would always tell us, “God is everywhere!” So my argument became, “If God is everywhere, why do I have to go to church to speak to him?” I can speak to him in my car.

I was one of those people who said, “Nah, the crime not coming by me! I not doing anything! I have no reason to be afraid!” But in recent years I’ve changed the tune of my song to, “Anything could happen to anybody anywhere.” They shooting and they going and it don’t matter if you were the target or not.

When we win a football game, you forget who next to you, who looking like what, who might be the criminal. And when we just come together as a country full of pride, I think that is the hope in the country.

I went to St Joseph’s Girls’ Primary and passed for Providence, but my sister was at (St Joseph’s) Convent (Port of Spain), so in form two, I transferred.

I did my undergrad in dance at York University in Canada.

In 2016 I did my masters in choreography in London at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in Greenwich.

I’ve been kind of obsessed with London for a long time. I went in 2002 for the first time to tour with Metamorphosis Dance Company for a month, dancing all over the place. I went again in 2003 to drop my sister off to university in London and again as a dancer in 2004. I’ve always found random reasons to go to London and my masters became one of them.

I always say there’s not much difference between Independence Square an