Troupe in opening show for Pan Am Games

Photo courtesy of Dance Caribe Performing Company
By Alicia Sealey

A commemorative dance piece is being created for Dance Caribe Performing Company for the Games.
A commemorative dance piece is being created for Dance Caribe Performing Company for the Games.

Toronto-based Dance Caribe Performing Company (DCPC) has been chosen as one of the professional dance troupes that will perform at the opening ceremony of the 2015 Pan Am Games.

“We will be working with (Montreal-based) Cirque de Soleil on the opening ceremony presentation,” Artistic Director and Founder Martin Scott-Pascall told The Camera in an exclusive interview.

“For this upcoming, 2015 Pan Am Games’ project,” says Scott-Pascall, “I have been asked to create a new, commemorative dance piece. I look forward to this creative challenge and I know that my dancers and I are up to this expectation.

“Honestly, we are all very anxious and eager to show the world what we can do.”

Celebrating its 25th anniversary this month, DCPC’s mission statement is “preserving though dance, the cultural diversity of the Caribbean.”

During its silver past, DCPC participated in several, high-profile, Canadian cultural events including Taste of the Caribbean, Montréal; Caribana, Toronto; and Winterlude Festival, Ottawa.

Internationally, DCPC was invited to be part of a Caribana cultural exchange tour between Toronto and Hong Kong in 2004 and 2005.

In 2010, Scott-Pascall was appointed as the artistic director for the Caribbean contingent of the Ontario Pavilion during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, part of the global cultural initiative hosted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

As DCPC’s lead costume designer, Scott-Pascall says, “Canada is a multi-cultural fabric made up of many diverse and interesting threads. DCPC is very proud to be considered as a valuable cultural thread that is both relevant and vibrant.”

For more information about Dance Caribe Performing Company’s 25th anniversary (Oct. 19 – 25), visit www.dancecaribesite.com.

For details about the 2015 Pan Am Games (July 10 – 26, 2015) and the Parapan Am Games (Aug. 7 – 15, 2015), visit www.toronto2015.org.

Alicia Sealey is freelance journalist and broadcaster based in Toronto, ON, Canada. Email: asealey@the-wire.com.