Shas­tri Boodan

At 37, Leeann Dass is prov­ing that step­ping out­side one’s com­fort zone can open the door to an en­tire­ly new chap­ter in life.

The dancer, chore­o­g­ra­ph­er, dance in­struc­tor and artis­tic di­rec­tor of 4.1.1 Dance The­atre will car­ry the Trinidad and To­ba­go flag on­to the in­ter­na­tion­al stage when she trav­els to South Ko­rea to com­pete in the Woman of the Uni­verse 2026 pageant from Oc­to­ber 1 to 9.

Dass, who was born and raised in Princes Town and now lives in cen­tral Trinidad, was crowned Mrs Woman of the Uni­verse T&T 2026 in Jan­u­ary by Alve­da Meah, na­tion­al di­rec­tor of the Mrs Uni­verse T&T fran­chise.

For a woman who has spent much of her life ex­press­ing her­self through dance, pageantry rep­re­sents an en­tire­ly dif­fer­ent form of per­for­mance—one that has chal­lenged her per­son­al­ly and emo­tion­al­ly.

But Dass says that is pre­cise­ly why she de­cid­ed to do it.

“I want­ed to set an ex­am­ple for the young peo­ple I teach and men­tor,” she said.

“As their in­struc­tor, I am al­ways en­cour­ag­ing them to be strong, con­fi­dent and coura­geous, so I felt it was equal­ly im­por­tant for me to demon­strate those qual­i­ties in my own life.”

Dass men­tors more than 300 stu­dents through her work with 4.1.1 Dance The­atre, where her in­flu­ence ex­tends be­yond teach­ing chore­og­ra­phy and per­for­mance.

For her, dance is al­so about build­ing dis­ci­pline, con­fi­dence, self-ex­pres­sion and per­son­al de­vel­op­ment, par­tic­u­lar­ly among young girls and women.

It was that same phi­los­o­phy that even­tu­al­ly led her to en­ter the world of pageantry.

Dass ad­mits that en­ter­ing a beau­ty pageant was not an ob­vi­ous next step in her life.

It meant leav­ing be­hind a fa­mil­iar en­vi­ron­ment and putting her­self in a sit­u­a­tion where she would have to con­front some of her own fears and in­se­cu­ri­ties.

“En­ter­ing a pageant meant step­ping out­side of my own com­fort zone and chal­leng­ing my­self in a com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent way,” she said.

Like many peo­ple, she has ex­pe­ri­enced dif­fi­cult and emo­tion­al­ly chal­leng­ing pe­ri­ods in her life. Rather than al­low­ing those ex­pe­ri­ences to de­fine her fu­ture, Dass said the pageant jour­ney has giv­en her an op­por­tu­ni­ty to re­build her con­fi­dence and re­dis­cov­er as­pects of her­self.

“It has re­mind­ed me that some­times growth comes from al­low­ing your­self to be vul­ner­a­ble, be­liev­ing in your­self again and hav­ing the courage to do some­thing that may ini­tial­ly fright­en you,” she said.

That mes­sage is one she hopes to car­ry to the young women she men­tors.

Dass be­lieves peo­ple should not be afraid to try some­thing new sim­ply be­cause it is un­fa­mil­iar or chal­leng­ing.

Her own ex­pe­ri­ence, she said, demon­strates that dif­fi­cult pe­ri­ods in life do not have to de­ter­mine what comes next.

“With faith, de­ter­mi­na­tion, courage and be­lief in your­self, you can con­tin­ue mov­ing to­wards your dreams, even when the road is not easy,” she said.

While dance re­mains at the cen­tre of her life, Dass has al­so built a ca­reer in mar­ket­ing, work­ing as a mar­ket­ing spe­cial­ist. Her out­go­ing per­son­al­i­ty and abil­i­ty to con­nect with peo­ple from dif­fer­ent back­grounds have served her well in both fields.

Her ex­pe­ri­ence in mar­ket­ing has al­so strength­ened her com­mu­ni­ca­tion and in­ter­per­son­al skills—at­trib­ut­es that have be­come valu­able as she pre­pares for the in­ter­na­tion­al pageant.

But per­haps her great­est prepa­ra­tion has come from years of work­ing with peo­ple.

As a dance in­struc­tor and men­tor, Dass has learned that con­fi­dence is not sim­ply about stand­ing in front of an au­di­ence.

Giv­ing back is an­oth­er im­por­tant part of Dass’ jour­ney.

Over the years, she has par­tic­i­pat­ed in char­i­ta­ble ini­tia­tives, in­clud­ing food dri­ves and ef­forts to as­sist in­di­vid­u­als and fam­i­lies in need.

She be­lieves ser­vice does not al­ways have to in­volve grand ges­tures.

For her, help­ing some­one in what­ev­er way pos­si­ble can make a mean­ing­ful dif­fer­ence.

That phi­los­o­phy has al­so shaped the mes­sage she hopes to com­mu­ni­cate through her pageant jour­ney—par­tic­u­lar­ly to young girls and women.

Dass wants them to see that it is pos­si­ble to over­come un­cer­tain­ty, em­brace new op­por­tu­ni­ties and rein­vent one­self.

Be­hind Dass’ in­ter­na­tion­al am­bi­tions is a fam­i­ly that has sup­port­ed her through­out the jour­ney.

She de­scribes Lin­da and Dan­ny Dass, her par­ents, as two of the strongest foun­da­tions in her life.

When she an­nounced her de­ci­sion to en­ter the pageant, they were proud to see their daugh­ter take on a chal­lenge that was so dif­fer­ent from her work in the per­form­ing arts.

“They have wit­nessed the ded­i­ca­tion, prepa­ra­tion and sac­ri­fices that have gone in­to this jour­ney,” she said.

“Know­ing that they are proud of me means a great deal.”

As she pre­pares to trav­el to South Ko­rea, the prayers, en­cour­age­ment and sup­port of her par­ents and wider fam­i­ly re­main an im­por­tant source of strength.

“They are ex­cit­ed to see me rep­re­sent my coun­try and will be sup­port­ing and cheer­ing me on every step of the way,” she said.

Dass ad­mits that prepar­ing for an in­ter­na­tion­al pageant has not been easy, par­tic­u­lar­ly when it comes to fi­nanc­ing the jour­ney.

Se­cur­ing spon­sor­ship has been one of the biggest chal­lenges.

“At one point spon­sor­ship was no longer some­thing I could de­pend on, so I had to fo­cus on find­ing oth­er ways to en­sure that I was pre­pared to rep­re­sent my coun­try,” she said.

De­spite those dif­fi­cul­ties, she has re­ceived en­cour­age­ment and as­sis­tance from fam­i­ly, friends, col­leagues, stu­dents and well-wish­ers, as well as sup­port from Meah.

Dass said every con­tri­bu­tion—whether fi­nan­cial as­sis­tance, ad­vice, en­cour­age­ment or prayer—has helped her reach this point.

Now, with the in­ter­na­tion­al pageant ap­proach­ing, ex­cite­ment is be­gin­ning to re­place some of the un­cer­tain­ty.

“I am ex­cit­ed, grate­ful and ex­treme­ly proud to have the op­por­tu­ni­ty to rep­re­sent Trinidad and To­ba­go in­ter­na­tion­al­ly,” she said.

She ad­mits to hav­ing some nerves but said her faith re­mains an im­por­tant source of strength.

“I am plac­ing my trust in God’s guid­ance and fo­cus­ing on giv­ing my very best.”

For Dass, car­ry­ing the red, white and black on­to an in­ter­na­tion­al stage rep­re­sents both an ho­n­our and a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty.

She hopes to show­case not on­ly her­self, but al­so the warmth, di­ver­si­ty and cul­ture of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

And while the glit­ter, gowns and com­pe­ti­tion will un­doubt­ed­ly form part of the ex­pe­ri­ence, Dass in­sists her jour­ney is about some­thing much deep­er than a crown.

“It rep­re­sents per­son­al growth, courage, ser­vice and the op­por­tu­ni­ty to in­spire oth­ers,” she said.

As she pre­pares to meet women from coun­tries and cul­tures around the world in South Ko­rea, she hopes her sto­ry will res­onate with women back home.