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Friday, July 18, 2025

Walking tall: Valencia youths on stilts

by

Mary Cuffy
152 days ago
20250216

The Va­len­cia com­mu­ni­ty, his­tor­i­cal­ly known as the “Place of En­cour­age­ment,” is where Joshua Lam­orelle found his pas­sion for stilt walk­ing.

Un­der the guid­ance of the es­teemed Ju­nior Bis­nath, Joshua de­vel­oped his skills and, in re­sponse to the chal­lenges pre­sent­ed by the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, sought to en­gage the minds of the chil­dren of the com­mu­ni­ty. This am­bi­tion led to the es­tab­lish­ment of the Kaiso Kah Va­len­cia Cul­tur­al Group.

Joshua Lam­orelle ded­i­cates his ef­forts to train­ing chil­dren in the San­gre Grande re­gion and col­lab­o­rates with var­i­ous pris­ons and com­mu­ni­ty or­gan­i­sa­tions. The group has par­tic­i­pat­ed in sev­er­al lo­cal events, in­clud­ing the Spir­it Band cul­tur­al launch, and cur­rent­ly holds work­shops at West Mall every Sat­ur­day.

When asked about his mo­ti­va­tion af­ter five years of the group's ex­is­tence, Joshua ex­pressed a de­sire to show­case the tal­ents of the chil­dren and the rich cul­ture of T&T on an in­ter­na­tion­al stage. He aims to broad­en the chil­dren's hori­zons and in­still in them an un­der­stand­ing of the world be­yond their im­me­di­ate com­mu­ni­ty.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, Joshua is ac­tive­ly seek­ing to en­gage cor­po­rate spon­sors to bol­ster the group's ini­tia­tives. Present­ly, he en­joys sup­port from lo­cal busi­ness­es such as East­er Sawmill, Gill’s Bar, and Quashie’s Fu­ner­al Home.

The group's ef­forts have gar­nered strong back­ing from par­ents, in­clud­ing one in­di­vid­ual whose chil­dren are US cit­i­zens. She ex­pressed her ap­pre­ci­a­tion for her chil­dren learn­ing about stilt walk­ing, be­liev­ing it will en­able them to share their cul­tur­al her­itage abroad. She al­so not­ed the pos­i­tive im­pact stilt walk­ing has had on her son’s co­or­di­na­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly as he par­tic­i­pates in foot­ball.

The Kaiso Kah Va­len­cia Cul­tura Group caters to chil­dren aged four to 17, all ex­pe­ri­enc­ing the joy of stilt walk­ing. Par­tic­i­pants Kanye Sim­mon, Dali­ah Ramoo, and Je­neala Ramd­lan shared their in­sights on be­ing part of this cul­tur­al ini­tia­tive.

Kanye, who has been a mem­ber for two years, men­tioned that he en­joys the move­ment and the dance as­so­ci­at­ed with stilt walk­ing. Dali­ah not­ed that her in­volve­ment in the group has sig­nif­i­cant­ly boost­ed her self-con­fi­dence dur­ing her year of par­tic­i­pa­tion.

Je­neala high­light­ed the wel­com­ing na­ture of the coach, which fa­cil­i­tates an en­joy­able learn­ing en­vi­ron­ment. She al­so ap­pre­ci­ates the dis­ci­pline she has de­vel­oped through her in­volve­ment and com­mend­ed Mr Lam­orelle's ded­i­ca­tion to the chil­dren.

From its hum­ble ori­gins in an­cient civil­i­sa­tions to its mod­ern in­car­na­tion as a cap­ti­vat­ing art form, stilt walk­ing has en­chant­ed peo­ple through­out his­to­ry. Whether it's the el­e­gant move­ments of tra­di­tion­al per­form­ers or the dar­ing feats of mod­ern stilt walk­ers, this unique prac­tice con­tin­ues to in­spire and ig­nite imag­i­na­tions.

Mem­bers of the group

Dwayne Valen­tine, Jay­don Di­az, Markelsey Den­nis, Aa­jean Beck­les, Liam Gumbs, Jas­mine Ramd­han, Dali­ah Ramoo, Je­neala Ramd­lan, Kanye Sim­mon, Ne­veah Williams, Jen­na Ramd­han, Av­ery Richard­son, Dar­ius Wil­son, Krys­t­ian Syd­ney, Shane Gas­parez, An­tho­ny Alexan­der, Jamil Samuel, Josi­ah De Ver­teuil, Aidon John­son, Keshon Thomas, Nick­olie De Ver­teuil, Jal­im Smith, Seth Syd­ney, Kendall Prescott, Hay­den Richard­son, Mjay Lopez, Nyasha Reed, Ty­mari Reed, She­mayah Maxwell, Jay­lon Mar­cano Arielle Bed­doe, and Leil Ed­wards.

Mary Cuffy is an ed­u­ca­tor and lo­cal chil­dren’s au­thor. Ms. Cuffy is the au­thor of the La­dy­bug book se­ries. Ms. Cuffy be­lieves the best in­vest­ment we can make in chil­dren is in the ear­ly years. Email: mary.cuffy@ya­hoo.com • IG: marycuffy • FB: mary cuffy/Lo­la and the Danc­ing La­dy­bug


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