THE Trinity Dance Theatre's 2024 dance season will feature a piece that highlights the troubling issues of human trafficking and gender-based violence.
Artistic director Allan Balfour said the concept of the piece came from his work with victims of human trafficking.
“About eight years ago there was a spate of girls being taken from Trinidad, and one of them was close to someone I knew, and so it just became a reality. You would see this happening on TV about people being taken and sex trafficked abroad, in another country, and you would think it would be something far away, but then seeing it happen here it really brought the reality home.”
“When we had the Venezuelan influx, a lot of them were being sex trafficked in Trinidad, and we needed to do some aftercare for some of them. I saw some of them grow up, I was like a father figure to some of them and that reality of 14-year-olds being trafficked and pregnant really impacted me."
He said many times people see it as not their problem because they think it only applies to immigrants.
“I find it’s a social ill we have in the country that’s not very highlighted. It’s definitely our problem as well, as our girls can be trafficked outside, just as people are being trafficked in Trinidad. It means that local people are supporting it, supporting that industry, so it’s a big problem from that perspective as well. Because of that connection with the girls and stuff, I really felt I wanted to do something to sensitise people to this social ill.”
Balfour said part proceeds from the show will go towards an agency that helps with human trafficking.
“Our patron is Senator Donna Cox, Minister of Social Development and Family Services, and part of the ministry’s remit is to do aftercare with victims. Our other parter is the Counter-Trafficking Unit, and they are the ones who deal with a very important chain of the human trafficking, which is the rescue of victims and prosecution of perpetrators. They will point us towards where the victim care and the proceeds will go.”
Balfour said the overall theme of the show was Alpha, as the pieces looked at the beginnings of different things.
“It’s the first time we’re having a full-length season in a long time, the company hasn’t toured before previously, it’s toying with the number of different things that remain first, basically. So that’s one of the main themes for the show.”
Balfour said one of the firsts that would be toyed with was the inclusion of spoken work and vocals.
[caption id="attachment_1087208" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Members of the Trinity Dance Company perform at the 2018 COCO Dance Festival at Queen's Hall. - Photo courtesy Karen Johnstone's Motiontography[/caption]
“I’m quite Christian-based so that first we’ll be toying with will, and it will also feature two other artistes, Renaldo Mohammed who was a finalist in the First Citizens National Poetry Slam and well-renowned vocalist Margaret Alexis.
“The piece explores how in life we’re taught to try to be first in everything, in tests,
