-, "We want more than St. Lucians coming out," said Ted Francis, director of the St. Lucia Cultural Development Foundation, "and towards that end we have put together special combination trips to carnival that will include tours of the island." "The mid-February celebration was complicated," Francis explained, citing St. Lucia's traditional four-day New Year's celebration, observance of its independence and "the shadow of the Trinidad and Tobago carnival."
Plans are underway for St Lucia's Carnival to be held later this year were outlined at a press breakfast meeting by Teddy Francis, Director of Culture, St. Lucia. One of the highlights of this year's carnival scheduled for July 4 -- 20, will be the focus on cultural costumes. "We are putting emphasis on ensuring that the costumes reflect the theme of the carnival, so that our carnival can be differentiated from other carnivals, even though nothing is wrong with other carnivals," Francis said.
The recent performance featured five of the pieces from their repertoire. Three of the pieces, 'Sankofa-Ja' (choreographed by Professor Kariamu Welsh Asante), 'Evolution' (choreographed by Abeldo 'Tokie' [Monika Lawrence]) and 'African Nite' (choreographed by Monica Lawrence assisted by Orville Hall) were added to the ensemble's repertoire this year. '[Liza]' weaves together the stories and music from 'Linstead Market', 'Mout-a-Massie Liza' and 'Every time me Memba Liza' to tell the story of a young girl who becomes disaffected with country life and goes off to the city.
