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Major dance schools will visit Trinidad to hold auditions, scout for talent and offer opportunities for scholarships, as part of the COCO Dance Festival, which will be held from October 26 to 28. Florida State University (FSU) School of Dance will hold auditions for its MFA and MA Graduate Programmes on Saturday, October 27 from 10AM – 1PM at the Academy for the Performing Arts at NAPA, Port of Spain and will be offering scholarship and in-state tuition opportunities for outstanding local talent.
“FSU School of Dance is committed to curricular, staffing, and student diversity within the program, and as we made very intentional efforts to attract well rounded and quality candidates, we began to notice an increase in applicants from Latin American and the Caribbean,” said LaToya Davis-Craig, PhD, of the Specialized Faculty in Community Relations and Special Programs, School of Dance. International students successfully applying for, and making it to, one of our on-site auditions in Tallahassee, Florida can be encouraged by the opportunity of our first off-site audition ever and for it to be in connection with COCO.
The FSU auditions are free, but pre-registration is strongly recommended. For applications, registration, and more information visit their website. Also visiting Trinidad in search of talent will be the Joffrey Ballet School, whose auditions for their Summer Intensives 2019 and dance classes will be held on Sunday, October 28 at Queen’s Hall. Yusha-Marie Sorzano, Master Faculty Member at Joffrey’s in New York, said: “Joffrey is thrilled to collaborate with COCO again.
This relationship was born out of my desire to build a bridge to my T&T roots — to connect with young local talent and provide them with opportunities to train in the US mecca for dance, New York City. I was born in Port of Spain but immigrated to the States with my family when I was 8 years old. I didn’t actually start training in ballet and modern until I’d moved to the States, but what Trini doesn’t dance from birth?” “I approached the Joffrey Ballet School NYC with the idea of doing an audition in Trinidad in 2015.
Thankfully, the team agreed almost immediately, we at Joffrey are extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to work with COCO, as we share a similar mission, fostering education and engagement with the local and international community. This is now the 3rd year that we have worked with the festival, and we are honoured to be a part of this year’s 10th anniversary. An exciting time! I look forward to what is to come.”
