Kings & Queens Prelims

I received a late invitation to cover Kings & Queen’s preliminaries in the Savannah last evening. I accepted because it is one of my favourite parts of the Carnival, and a dream of mine to perform.

The show, however, always takes too long. But is one of those things where it is better to see in person than on TV. Though the audio is better, so you’ll get more details from the TV announcers, unless Gemma Jordan (my Carnival announcing icon) is speaking. Her voice is crystal clear.

I noticed some trends within the Queen’s. Crochet costumes seem to be a deliberate thing, so I may want to meet the designer to explore why that medium. Moko jumbies are here to stay, now we are seeing the mixing of characters so there were three moko jumbie Dame Lorraines, all who were really good at rolling their exaggerated bumpers, much to the crowd’s delight. There was one moko jumbie Blue Devil, and two moko jumbies with stilts for hands that allowed for really inventive choreography from the performer.

The veteran Shynel Brizan gave a subtle, graceful performance of Queen Adelaide Dison. It was as though she was en pointe throughout having transformed the stilts. She was the rare use of a none-soca music track that worked.

Special mention to the Fairyland costumes. Absolutely gorgeous, (sadly I didn’t take photos), but I want to see them on the road amongst the entire band. The two Queens and King were preceded by a performer who is clearly a trained dancer, and could teach movement classes.

The semi-finals will be held next Wednesday 26th, February in the QPS. You can see the results in this post and watch the entire presentation here.