Profiles: Heroes, Role Models and Pioneers of Trinidad and Tobago - by Nasser Khan

42 Culture and the Arts; Folklore AUBREY C. ADAMS (1919-2007) A ubrey Adams received his training in theater arts at Columbia University, New York, and studied creative arts in Germany and France. As a choreographer, he was one of Trinidad & Tobago’s leading directors/producers of musical plays, pageants, and Carnival shows from the 1960s through the 1990s. He served as artistic director of the Trinidad Folk Performing Company, and chairman of the The Little Carib Theatre. He was the first Caribbean producer to have his work presented at the Royal Festival Hall in London, England. He served as cultural advisor to the Government of Trinidad and Tobago and the United Nations and in his later years served as Chairman Emeritus of the Little Carib Theatre. The Trinidad Folk Performing Company was famous for its “Dance the Bele” and “Ambakaila,” the theme ofAdams’production that exposed the culture of the country to the world. Adams took the production to 33 major cities in the USA and Canada, the Royal Festival Hall in London and to Broadway in NewYork. The production featured folk, limbo, and Arawak/Carib ritual dancing, calypso and steelband music. In 1980 at the invitation of the UN, the Trinidad Folk Performing Company performed at the Human Rights Concert at the UN General Assembly Hall in New York in front of 150 country representatives. Also in 1980 the show went to the White House during the Jimmy Carter administration and was the main feature in the Annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. He organised gala cultural events for the government on state occasions. One was especially done for the late Indian Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, entitled “Namastay”. He was the first president of the National Dance Association, a member of the first Carnival Development Committee (CDC) and produced its first Dimanche Gras show in 1958 and its first Children’s Carnival. In 1974 he was made a UNCultural Consultant and lectured on the art forms of T&T at seminars in India and attendedWorld Cultural Seminars in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. He also participated in cultural seminars in 1999 and 2000 in Cuba. In 1999 he was honoured