Metamorphosis dancer receives KAK scholarship
Accompanied by a female dancer, Juan Pablo Alba Dennis sails through the air. Photos courtesy: Metamorphosis Dance Company
He is not yet 20 and already an accomplished actor, singer and dancer. For Juan Pablo Alba-Dennis, life, as full as his name, has only just begun. He is a member of the popular Metamorphosis Dance Company, which comprises senior talented students of the well-established Caribbean School of Dancing. Metamorphosis is now in rehearsals for its season performances, scheduled for May 5-8, at Queen’s Hall.
The nephew of experienced and celebrated dancer and son of the soil, Paul Dennis, who graduated from the prestigious Juilliard&nbs p;School and then went on to dance with the Limón Dance Company of New York, Juan Pablo hopes to follow a similar path. This young and talented performer was recently awarded the Kathleen Armstrong Kilgour (KAK) Dance Scholarship for commitment and dedication to dance practice.
The KAK Dance Scholarship is an award which honours the mother of professor/author/actor/dancer and Trinidadian Dr Joanne Kilgour-Dowdy, the late Kathleen Armstrong Kilgour. The scholarship is awarded annually. Recipients are selected by the Artistic Director of the Metamorphosis Dance Company on the advice of the senior teaching staff at the Caribbean School of Dancing.
Recipients must be enrolled at the Caribbean School of Dancing and training at the Intermediate level in two dance techniques, be a member of the Metamorphosis Dance Company and show potential to go onto professional dance training. This Juan Pablo has certainly shown as he has achieved “distinction,” (the highest grade), from the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) in Intermediate Ballet. In the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD) Advanced 2 Tap exam he gained 95 per cent.
Dennis is also a member of the Lydian Singers. Besides dancing and, choreographing for the annual Metamorphosis season presentations, he had excelled in the Fame Talent Show, Moulin Rouge, and recently danced at the state funeral for Sir Ellis Clarke. He is a prefect (for Culture) at St Mary’s College.
Publications
PURCHASE THESE PUBLICATIONS ON AMAZON
In the Public Eye
Joanne Kilgour Dowdy's photo autobiography takes us through a rich and moving forty year personal life journey. We are made privy to her inner most thoughts growing up as a privileged child in Trinidad, her then meteoric rise to fame as a young thespian in her homeland, and her later struggle with her identity as a black immigrant in the United States.
In each photograph of Joanne from childhood through adulthood we see the challenging eyes of an individual who is wise beyond her years, determined and frankly rebellious.
This book affords the reader an opportunity to look through the lens that reveals the soul of a teacher, and whose seemingly disparate experiences, form the foundation for everything she does. [It is] an insightlyful portrait of what it means to be a woman of colour in today's society.
Professor D. Prioleau
SUNY: Brockport
