By Tanya Batson, Staff ReporterST. JAGO presented an afternoon of music, drama and dance at the Institute of Jamaica last Thursday at another of the Institute's lunch hour concerts. Several of the students showed that they were multi-talented by performing in both the choir and speech items.
One of these students was Georgia Bailey. Bailey treated the audience to a slew of poems, four of which were done back to back. These four were No Likkle Twang, Drugs, Sammy and Ungrateful Pickney. Her performances of all four were consistently energetic, which spoke of a lot of experience and professionalism. She also performed Joan Andrea Hutchinson's Workaholic sepa-rately.
Bailey also performed with the choir as well as in a quartet. The quartet did a slight adaptation of some of Jamaica's most famous folk songs, in what could be seen as a tribute to 'Liza'. They gave a somewhat dramatized presentation of Moutamassi Liza and other such songs. Additionally, they changed Ellena to Liza in order to make Ellena an 'ar Mumma Go a Bush fit into the set. The renditions were quite humorous when added to the dramatizations.
The choir performed in two sets, although the second set was stronger than the first. They preformed One Little Candle, You'll Never Walk Alone, His Name So Sweet, Rocking Jerusalem and We Shall Not Give Up the Fight. This repertoire demonstrated quite a range of musical styles. Whereas One Little Candle and You'll Never Walk Alone are classical gospel pieces, His Name So Sweet and Rocking Jerusalem are spirituals. For further variety, We Shall Not Give Up the Fight is a South African praise song.
Another student who demonstrated that she could wear more than one hat was Thereaconn Brown. Along with demonstrating her musical abilities in the quartet, which also featured the voices of Bailey and Mervia Montique (while Nicholas Seivwright provided dramatic back-up), she also performed the dub poem Ghetto Cry. Ghetto Cry, which was constantly puntuated by several 'cho's, spoke of the frustrations of the poor. The poem clearly demonstrated that nothing speaks of frustration more clearly than a well-placed 'cho!' It looked at economic and sociological inequalities in society. It was an effective poem even though Brown's accent got in the way of a more authentic delivery.
She may have worn a single hat, but Shenae Wright, who contributed the dance Blessed, added to the variety of the evening. He solo performance, an inspirational and devotional piece, managed to avoid monotony despite the small space in which she had to work. Devotional dances often seem uninspired because there almost seems to be a belief that such dances can only used a pre-approved 10 moves. However, Blessed managed to avoid almost all of these.
St. Jago also included a recorder quartet in their offering. The students on recorder were Jheanelle Hemmings, Sheree Dalhouse, Kenesha Henry and Deon Earle. The group's co-ordinator Orville Manning also added his voice to the afternoon.
