The Point Fortin Per­form­ing Arts As­so­ci­a­tion is now prepar­ing to pro­duce its 2016 stage play Live Light & Weigh Heavy. And it is in the process of de­vel­op­ing a dance troupe.

Michelle Syd­ney is artis­tic di­rec­tor of the Point Fortin Per­form­ing Arts As­so­ci­a­tion, a group which she be­gan in 2011 af­ter re­turn­ing to Trinidad from many years of liv­ing in the US. She found­ed the group to ex­press and de­vel­op the cre­ative tal­ent of her home­town, Point Fortin. The group so far has pro­duced two shows in the South, in 2011 and 2013.

Syd­ney, how­ev­er, felt like some­thing was still miss­ing. She won­dered: where was the next gen­er­a­tion of dancers, vo­cal­ists, and drama­tists? So, through the as­so­ci­a­tion, she be­gan an arts stu­dio in May in La Brea for chil­dren as well as adults–she said any­one who is ar­tis­ti­cal­ly in­clined may come and hone their tal­ents, learn new as­pects of cul­ture, and bet­ter ex­press them­selves.

Syd­ney said, while the dra­mat­ic ef­forts of the as­so­ci­a­tion have been well re­ceived, the arts stu­dio still has a long road ahead of it, but is wel­com­ing all new­com­ers. Syd­ney al­so held a va­ca­tion arts camp for chil­dren this year, which is de­vel­op­ing in­to an an­nu­al event.

Point Fortin res­i­dents may re­mem­ber the as­so­ci­a­tion's first stage play Blood Trans­fu­sion, and its lat­er play House ah Re­al Hor­rors which showed at the Na­pari­ma Bowl, San Fer­nan­do.

Syd­ney said: "...Spec­ta­tors fell in love with both pro­duc­tions and the sup­port and en­cour­age­ment...gave us the de­ter­mi­na­tion and per­se­ver­ance to open the doors of our per­form­ing arts stu­dio in May."

Short­ly af­ter the shows, Syd­ney said she as­sem­bled a board and or­gan­ised for a team of ex­perts to de­sign the stage and set­tings for her stu­dio to ac­com­mo­date dance, dra­ma, po­et­ry, mu­sic, mu­sic pro­duc­tion, vo­cal train­ing and pub­lic speak­ing.

"The as­so­ci­a­tion's ob­jec­tives are pri­mar­i­ly steered in­to the di­rec­tion of merg­ing cul­tures to­geth­er, en­abling in­di­vid­u­als to ex­press their tal­ents, em­brac­ing young peo­ple and mak­ing them feel at home," she said. She added the as­so­ci­a­tion is open to col­lab­o­ra­tions with oth­er groups.

Syd­ney is en­thu­si­as­tic about the as­so­ci­a­tion's po­ten­tial for growth, not­ing it cur­rent­ly has five tu­tors. She promised that Point Fortin's tal­ents will soon be on the rise.

–with re­port­ing by Valdeen Shears-Nep­tune

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Point Fortin Arts Stu­dio: 1354 South­ern Main Road, Vance Riv­er Vil­lage, La Brea. Of­fers dai­ly stu­dio ses­sions in per­form­ing arts ($40 & $60/ses­sion).