Making Mass!
Designer Renee Ratcliffe with the models in her designs. (Picture by Maurice Giles.)
By Damien Pinder | Mon, February 06, 2012 - 12:00 AM
Crop Over 2012 is still six months away, but Unique Productions Worldwide Ltd has not taken that time for granted, having recently launched Dragonfly Mass, its Crop Over band, at the lounge club Priva in St James.
Patrons took in every minute detail of band designer Renee Ratcliffe’s crafty and colourful work.
The sections that were displayed were Fireworks, which pays tribute to Alison Hinds’ (who was present at the launch) 2003 offering; Peace Sign, which pays tribute to Edwin Yearwood’s 1996 Road Monarch tune; Snakes In De Grass, a tribute to the late De Great Carew; Make Noise in tribute to Spice & Company’s song of the same name and their lead singer Alan Shepherd; Chutney Bacchanal in tribute to Trinidadian artiste Chris Garcia and his song; and last but not least, Chow Mein in tribute to the artiste’s 2009 hit Chinese Connection.
Ratcliffe mentioned that the costumes were chosen because she wanted them to be representative of the theme, Tunes And More Tunes, bringing back memories of songs that people from all walks of life in Barbados have connected with over the years.
The winner of the 2010 Festival Designer Of The Year Award said of her inspiration and the designing process: “I normally design everything the day after Crop Over [the previous year]. I get very inspired on the road, and I think about what would be a good band.
“But normally the day after Kadooment, my feet are sore and I’m tired, so I start to draw and write down all of my different ideas and then I elaborate by illustrating and designing the band.”
In essence Dragonfly will culminate on the road come Kadooment Day in what would in fact have been a year-long process.
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Barbados copy Trinidad with this crap.vulgar behavior ...how wonderful?
public drunkenness and vulgar displays.
wow what a great cultural idea!
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Comment LinkI do agree with Harry Callahan to a point. However, there is a difference between showcasing Barbadian culture and showcasing vulgarity. I will take the former anytime but frown on the latter anywhere.
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Comment LinkI hate when people say Barbados copy Trinidad….. In case you did not know Crop Over the is the celebration of the End of the Sugar Cane Season…. many years ago Cane cutters ... would celebrate the end of the crop season by dancing, singing & drinking to celebrate the end of long and fruitful season….. As the years as gone by, it has become more of an Elaborate festival with costume and so forth…. but to Say Barbados copy Trinidad just kinds of piss me off a little…
I don’t know why Trinidad has Carnival and maybe I need to look that up…. But Barbados celebration is for end of the Crop season hence the name CROP OVER and NOT Carnival….. and the ending of the Sugar Cane Crop is part of our Culture…
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Comment Link1/2 yard of cloth makes a costume now. That is innovation and creativity in the new age for ya. All I can say is that I wish everybody could enjoy themselves minus the vulgarity and violence.
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Comment LinkWhy do some people always feel the need to get distracted with all of this crap talk. Let us congratulate Ms. Radcliffe for her creativity and hard work in conceptualizing and designing these beautiful costumes. And if we don’t like these costumes then may her early work force other designers to get on the ball to show that they can do better. However, at the end of the day this is about our own and so lets us embrace and celebrate it.
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Comment Linkhell i remember when they was trying to make up bajan culture some motley man and some friends come up with copying Brazil and Trinidad and call it solka or some music that defies what music is.
Barbados has no culture because none of us are native to this island all imported from various places.
and in case we are not informed—————In the British West Indies, plantation slavery was instituted as early as 1627. In Barbados by the 1640s there were an estimated 25,000 slaves, of whom 21,700 Were White. [22] It is worth noting that while White Slaves Were Worked to Death in Barbados, there were Caribbean Indians brought from Guiana to help propagate native foodstuffs who were well‑treated and received as free persons by the wealthy planters. “...White Indentured Servants Were Employed and Treated, Incidentally, Exactly like Slaves…” [23]
so actually whites were here long before blacks.
and were the back bone on which you cock your feet up on now.
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