Free men­tal health screen­ings will be of­fered at ACES Dance Acad­e­my’s 2025 dance sea­son pro­duc­tion, Be­hind The Smile, which takes place at Queen’s Hall to­day and to­mor­row.

Co­in­cid­ing with World Men­tal Health Day, the pro­duc­tion aims to shine a light on the grow­ing men­tal health chal­lenges af­fect­ing T&T’s youth.

A 2020 re­port by the Pan Amer­i­can Health Or­gan­i­sa­tion (PA­HO) un­der­scored the scale of the cri­sis: among chil­dren aged 5 to 15, con­duct dis­or­ders, anx­i­ety, and headaches ac­count for 17 per cent of the men­tal health bur­den. By age 20, anx­i­ety, de­pres­sion, and self-harm rise to 48 per cent, with sui­cide rep­re­sent­ing a quar­ter of the men­tal health bur­den among those aged 20 to 35.

Di­rect­ed by ACES co-founder, artis­tic di­rec­tor, and chore­o­g­ra­ph­er Akeisha Byng-Danzell, Be­hind The Smile ar­rives at a crit­i­cal mo­ment. Through dance, Byng-Danzell and her cre­ative team in­vite au­di­ences to re­flect on and dis­cuss the emo­tion­al strug­gles faced by young peo­ple to­day.

“I am dri­ven to en­cour­age young peo­ple to be kind, em­pa­thet­ic, com­pas­sion­ate, and grate­ful. We must lis­ten to, sup­port, and lift each oth­er,” said Byng-Danzell.

“At ACES, we strive to cre­ate a safe space where our stu­dents can ex­press them­selves and de­vel­op re­silience and cop­ing strate­gies.”

Found­ed in 2014, ACES Dance Acad­e­my of­fers train­ing in bal­let, mod­ern, con­tem­po­rary, folk, and hip-hop for stu­dents as young as four. The acad­e­my em­pha­sis­es fam­i­ly, com­mu­ni­ty, and self-ex­pres­sion while fos­ter­ing dis­ci­pline, con­fi­dence, and re­silience.

Byng-Danzell, a cer­ti­fied Im­pe­r­i­al So­ci­ety of Teach­ers of Danc­ing (ISTD) in­struc­tor, leads a fac­ul­ty that in­cludes Janeal James, Whit­neyann Bap­tiste, Matthew Mc­Clean, and Maris­sa John­son—a team ded­i­cat­ed to nur­tur­ing tech­ni­cal­ly pro­fi­cient and ar­tis­ti­cal­ly ex­pres­sive dancers equipped for both stage and life.

Through chore­og­ra­phy, mu­sic, and move­ment, Be­hind The Smile ex­plores themes of bul­ly­ing, de­pres­sion, and sui­cide, blend­ing clas­si­cal, in­dige­nous, and ur­ban styles in­to mod­ern lyri­cal, jazz con­tem­po­rary, hip-hop, In­di­an, bal­let, and folk per­for­mances.

The show’s di­verse mu­si­cal score fea­tures con­tri­bu­tions from so­ca-fu­sion artiste Nailah Black­man and jazz trum­peter/com­pos­er Eti­enne Charles.

Tick­ets for Be­hind The Smile cost US$250 and are avail­able at ACES Dance Acad­e­my, 3 Long­den Street, Port-of-Spain, and the Queen’s Hall box of­fice.