Pa­trons of the na­tion­al li­brary were thrilled as they were treat­ed to live en­ter­tain­ment and wide­spread tal­ent. This, as the 2011 Decades of Dance – Trinidad and To­ba­go Dance Fes­ti­val took place on Oc­to­ber 13th.Pa­trons saw an ex­plo­sion of lo­cal Hip-Hop and So­ca flavour. There were guest per­for­mances by Elec­tric Break­ers and even the launch of an as­pir­ing new So­ca artiste's 2012 con­tri­bu­tion. Dur­ing the pe­ri­od Oc­to­ber 10th -15th the Fes­ti­val of Dance show­cased per­for­mances, work­shops and sym­posia pre­sent­ed by some of the best dance com­pa­nies of Trinidad and To­ba­go along with vis­it­ing com­pa­nies from Bar­ba­dos and Ja­maica. The event was an idea of Ms Emel­da Lynch Grif­fith that was brought to fruition through the Na­tion­al Dance As­so­ci­a­tion and the kind sup­port of the Min­istry of Arts and Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism.To this ex­tent, the Min­istry of Arts and Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Na­tion­al Dance As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go de­vel­oped the Dance Fes­ti­val 2011. The theme for the Fes­ti­val was 'Re­mem­ber­ing our Past Mov­ing to the Fu­ture'. It pro­vid­ed dance prac­ti­tion­ers in Trinidad and To­ba­go with train­ing in dance tech­niques; ex­po­sure to dance forms tra­di­tion­al to these re­gions; an op­por­tu­ni­ty to share ex­pe­ri­ences, styles, chore­o­graph­ic tech­niques and op­por­tu­ni­ties to pro­mote and ad­vance not on­ly the art of dance but the Caribbean as the Mec­ca of Cul­tur­al Di­ver­si­ty.

At the event, the up-tem­po beats, en­er­getic vibes and snazzy dance moves kept the au­di­ence chant­i­ng sup­port. The crowd was treat­ed to a dance com­pe­ti­tion that in­volved groups, in­di­vid­u­als and a dance off. Groups and in­di­vid­u­als com­pet­ed for the top spot in their cat­e­go­ry while a dance war was de­clared dur­ing the face off. Sur­vival of the best dance moves and tech­nique was the on­ly way to win. The evening be­longed to the win­ner of the dance off cat­e­go­ry – David Gra­ham, who per­formed a rou­tine straight out of an ac­ro­bat­ic hor­ror movie. Danc­ing to Michael Jack­son's Thriller, Gra­ham was flex­i­ble and dou­ble joint­ed in places we didn't even know ex­ist­ed. He drew the au­di­ence in­to his per­for­mance and com­mand­ed the at­ten­tion of the judges. There was ab­solute­ly no doubt in our minds who would take the crown. Ku­dos to 'ben up' (as he is now lov­ing­ly named) for dis­play­ing an in­ter­na­tion­al lev­el of dance right here in Trinidad and To­ba­go.