Walking in the clouds: Tekel Sylvan is king of moko jumbies

TEKEL SYLVAN head is literally in the clouds these days, having been declared the first King Moko Dance Champion 2024 on August 30, followed by an opportunity immediately afterwards to perform at the Apollo Theater, New York, in celebration of Trinidad and Tobago’s 62nd anniversary of Independence.

Winning the local competition with his own costume design and make-up as a skeleton, while demonstrating mad skills by removing one side of the five-foot stilts, while in motion, and dancing with only one stilt, was an amazing feat for him and validates his belief “that I am the best.”

That daring act of being about 13-14 feet in the air, precariously balancing, put him ahead of his competitors.

He said before the competition, “I would be bringing the trophy home” – and knew he had to do something extraordinary to achieve this.

He has performed at Machel Mondays in the past, and alongside other artistes, but being one of two TT moko jumbies on stage at the iconic Apollo with top artistes at the calypso night, was beyond his wildest dreams.

“It was an amazing feeling to be part of that production. I have performed with calypsonians and soca artistes before, but seeing all of them on one stage, communicating backstage, the vast audience – that was mind-blowing.”

The experience was even more astonishing, he said, as he was told he was one of the first of two moko jumbies to perform at the Apollo.

Sylvan and Earl Ward were the two invited by the NCC to participate in three nights of calypso music, when infectious Caribbean rhythms were on full display.

He said on September 3, he performed at the Apollo with Machel Montano, Crazy, Olatunji, Kurt Allen, Lord Nelson and others. On September 6, he travelled to Canada to showcase his skills at the Toronto carnival.

“This is not my first carnival, though. I have been to Grenada and Miami carnivals and Brooklyn Labor Day.”

The San Fernando father of two said stilt-walking saved his life.

Growing up in what he termed “the ghetto,” in a single-mother household, his father was imprisoned when he was just three. He said his life could have gone downhill as he did not have the acumen for academics.

While he enjoyed sports, he was not passionate about them either. So when at age eight he discovered the Junior Bisnath Kaisokah School for the Arts, he latched on to that like a drowning man and honed his skills, encouraged by Bisnath, who embraced him as a son.

He recalled he often got into trouble with his mother, because he would leave chores undone to go stilt-walking, something he later corrected.

“Today, she is my biggest fan, because this has saved me from a life of crime. It has opened doors for me. Because of this I got a passport. I am now able to travel all over the world and put TT’s culture on the map.

“Some of my friends who invested in sports have not had the kind of successes I have had,” he said in an interview at the Kaisokah School on September 5.

While he is a designer and intends to produce a children’s Carnival band for 2025, stilt-walking is not a talent he intends giving up on.

“I will only stop when God is ready for me. While I am alive, even if I am using a walking stick or a wheelchair, Sir (Junior Bisnath) will design a pair of stilts for the wheelchair for me to continue stilt-walking.”

Already, his two sons who ae four and six, as well as five nephews, are mastering the art.

He is encouraging children who are facing challenges growing up in poverty, with little opportunity, that stilt-walking could turn their lives around.

“It is a place when you have a certain state of mind, when you are down, for you to get up. There is no better way to get up than on a pair of stilts. When you head is in the clouds, when you listen to music which energises you, take a dance, take a walk and free your mind, you could change that mentality.