The Bel­mont Free­town Cul­tur­al Arts and Folk Per­form­ing Com­pa­ny once again stamped its mark on Trinidad and To­ba­go’s cul­tur­al land­scape with Cul­tur­al Ex­plo­sion 5: “A Won­drous Odyssey,” at the Winifred Atwell Au­di­to­ri­um, Queen’s Hall, on Sep­tem­ber 27.

This now an­nu­al show­case from the 27-year-old or­gan­i­sa­tion, found­ed by Chris­tine and Earl Mark, proved that the Bel­mont-based group con­tin­ues to be a pow­er­house in lo­cal dance and dra­ma. Year af­ter year, their stu­dents take the stage in a blaze of colour and rhythm—and this year was no ex­cep­tion. Dressed in daz­zling cos­tumes, per­form­ers moved in per­fect syn­chro­ni­sa­tion to the sounds of drums and the fa­mil­iar beats of T&T’s pop­u­lar mu­sic.

The evening fea­tured chore­og­ra­phy by Ar­ling­ton Se­ries, Ar­lene Alexan­der, La­toya Bushe and Mar­cia Mark, daugh­ter of the founders.

The drum en­sem­ble, led by Sean Singh, de­liv­ered a rous­ing na­tion­al dru­mol­o­gy piece that re­flect­ed the in­flu­ences of African, In­di­an, Venezue­lan, and Chi­nese rhythms—a mu­si­cal cel­e­bra­tion of T&T’s cul­tur­al mo­sa­ic.

The first half of the show re-imag­ined the events lead­ing up to the Can­boulay Ri­ots of 1881, blend­ing his­to­ry and per­for­mance in a dy­nam­ic retelling of one of the na­tion’s piv­otal mo­ments.

The ju­nior com­pa­ny led the charge with a cre­ative mix of fac­tu­al nar­ra­tion and the­atri­cal flair, while the se­nior dancers added en­er­gy and au­then­tic­i­ty with their ex­hil­a­rat­ing kalin­da chants and fight se­quences.

One of the evening’s most mov­ing per­for­mances came from Nao­mi Sen­nette, whose haunt­ing ren­di­tion of Cashew Tree vivid­ly por­trayed the atroc­i­ties of Count Lopinot and sent chills through the au­di­ence. Guest per­form­ers Bon Bas­sa Pro­duc­tions al­so made a strong im­pres­sion with their soul­ful in­ter­pre­ta­tion of Wade in the Wa­ter, which fit seam­less­ly in­to the show’s over­ar­ch­ing theme of strug­gle and re­silience.

In the sec­ond half, “A Won­drous Odyssey” car­ried the au­di­ence through a sweep­ing jour­ney—from the stew­ard­ship of the is­land’s In­dige­nous peo­ples, in­clud­ing the Taino, Gar­i­fu­na, and Nepuy­ol, to the cre­ation of the steel­pan, the world’s on­ly per­cus­sion in­stru­ment in­vent­ed in the 20th cen­tu­ry. The pro­duc­tion al­so ex­plored T&T’s im­pact on glob­al gen­res such as pop, Afrobeat, and reg­gae.

Guest artistes Shaquille “Fl­o­go” Forbes, Twig­gy, and Ter­ri Lyons kept the tem­po high, while MCs Chema Boss and Gerelle Forbes en­ter­tained with wit­ty ban­ter and ex­tem­po vers­es that had the au­di­ence singing along.

The youngest dancers—chil­dren aged five to nine—were crowd favourites, de­light­ing pa­trons with their en­er­gy and bright neon cos­tumes, even giv­ing the teenage per­form­ers who closed the show a run for their mon­ey.

The group’s dra­ma fa­cil­i­ta­tor and the show’s writer/di­rec­tor, Tyk­er Phillip, took a mo­ment to ho­n­our Bel­mont’s rich lega­cy, re­mind­ing pa­trons that the com­mu­ni­ty has pro­duced cul­tur­al gi­ants such as Kwame Ture, Lancelot Lane, Ken Mor­ris, and Ja­son Grif­fith. A spe­cial award was al­so pre­sent­ed to Ken­neth Alex­is in recog­ni­tion of his out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tion to cul­ture and to the group.

By the fi­nal cur­tain, the au­di­ence was left both in­spired and ea­ger for the next in­stal­ment—Cul­tur­al Ex­plo­sion 6. “A Won­drous Odyssey” was not just a per­for­mance; it was a vi­brant, heart­felt cel­e­bra­tion of who we are as a peo­ple.