Seychelle is queen

SEYCHELLE ROSS, representing the North West Laventille Cultural Movement, is the 2019 Miss La Reine Rive queen.

Ross wowed the judges – first with her dress, and then with her response in the question and answer category of the competition.

She was crowned on Saturday night at the National Academy for the Performing Arts, Port of Spain as part of the Prime Minister’s Best Village Trophy Competition.

Ross won the prize for best gown and best self-expression with her outfit De Washer Woman. The colours used on the gown were sand, teal and turquoise and it was embellished with semi-precious gem stones and wooden clothes pins arranged in various patterns. She also won the Best Talent category.

In the question segment she was asked, “What strategies would you implement to uplift the Prime Minister’s Best Village Trophy Competition? She said she would create a male version of the La Reine Rive competition.

“As a young black woman, I have realised that our media houses have portrayed young male individuals in our society in a negative light. I feel this initiative would allow them a platform to showcase their many talents, their skill set and their masculinity.”

In second place was Kadisha Kent representing the Tobago Drama Guild. She was a favourite with the crowd throughout the competition. She was asked to elaborate on the statement, “A people without culture, is a people without a soul.” She quoted Marcus Garvey saying, “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” She said the people of TT were strong because their culture was their identity, that TT’s culture was dynamic and allowed TT to be a role model for the rest of the world.

Placing third, fourth and fifth respectively were Janine Sobers of the Soul Oasis Cultural Ambassadors, Shiniqua Williams of the Curepe Invaders Performing Company, and Kelsie Robley of Sisters in Culture.

Robley, from Tobago, was also a crowd favourite with her chocolate and cream-coloured sheer dress with strategically placed embellishments of mostly recycled materials including burlap, rope, twine, wooden beads, CDs, and even pasta. But she fumbled over her answer even as the crowd cheered her on in an effort to encourage her.

Other winners included Kenthia Roberts, representing RG’s Musical Production and Services with best make-up, and Williams for best hair. Her hair certainly was the most interesting arrangement of them all as it was wrapped up and shaped like two cones with a hand protruding from the top of each to hold a small globe in the middle.

Williams’ dress, Miss Universe, was a black ball gown with a sweetheart neckline, pleating on her right side reaching towards the sky, and full skirt edged with silver and dotted with white to resemble stars in the galaxy.

There were also performances by Best Village winners including a folk dance by the Curepe Invaders, a poetry performance by Dellon Mathison, and a limbo dance by North West Laventille. Representatives from The Cayman Islands, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, and Antigua and Barbuda also performed bélé dances and were well received.

Although the contestants and performances were appreciated, the organisation of the event was not. There were abrupt starts and stops without announcements or explanation, and too-long pauses between both the contestants and performances.

The most jarring was after the evening gown presentation and two performances. The lights abruptly came on in the auditorium and people sat bewildered for a while until they realised it was an intermission.

Then there was the wait. After half an hour, the crowd started clapping and cheering trying to get the organisers to continue with the programme which eventually started, again abruptly, about ten minutes later.

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Another seemingly long waiting period was after the question and answer segment and the final performances. Thankfully it was announced that the judges needed more time to deliberate, so people were understanding when music began to pipe through the speakers. But people started to get restless after a while in the darkened auditorium. Some began to clap again, hoping the programme would resume, but to no avail. One man started shouting “marco” to which many people responded “polo,” causing much laughter.

There were many such moments where this reporter thought she was back at the Globe cinema for a double feature with enthusiastic audience members shouting from the pit section. For example people cheered and clapped while contestants were being introduced, causing interested people to miss the announcements. Some commented loudly on the dresses or called out the names of individual dancers, while others whooped, shouted, whistled and laughed at seemingly random moments.

While the programme was too long at four hours and had slightly frustrating lags, between the entertainment on stage and from the audience, the evening was enjoyable.