83 great years!

Sheila Barnett's contribution to the arts will not soon be forgotten

Paul-André Walker, Entertainment Editor

When Rex Nettleford passed, Jamaica and lovers of the arts in all forms, including his beloved dance, sighed. They sighed again last Saturday when co-founder of the National Dance Theatre (NDTC), Sheila Barnett, took her last breath.

She passed at 83 after battling a long illness, but not before she left her mark. A mark as long and important as Nettleford's.

In 1970 when Nettleford was helping to form The School of Dance, which grew into The Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, Barnett was right there with him.

Before that, when Nettleford was helping to form the NDTC, Barnett was again there. The line "wind beneath my wings" springs to mind.

Then ,of course, there were the many dancers who have Barnett to thank for bringing the art to their feet. Tony Wilson, noted for being one of the best dancers in the country for more than 30 years, is just one of them.

Barnett's contribution might very well be immeasurable and I won't try to weigh it here. Eighty-three years of excellence is just too much for one article.

Different spheres

There is her life as a dancer, as a choreographer, then as a teacher, a researcher and, inevitably, her life as an author.

In all those spheres, Barnett's work has been remarkable. Her dedication to her craft gives an example of what love must be like.

For more than 50 years, Barnett ensured that dance, not just in Jamaica, but throughout the Caribbean, received the kind of recognition it deserved. That legacy has carried on through the work of the NDTC, and those who follow the arts watch to see if that great institution will fall with the deaths of Barnett and Nettleford. I don't think it will.

But Nettleford wasn't the only great who would have benefitted from the undeniable input Barnett had.

There was also Ivy Baxter.

Baxter was the student of Hazel Johnston, an England-trained dancer, who wanted to break through the colour barrier that existed in the art form. Only light-skinned women danced in the mid-1900s in Jamaica. Johnston also wanted to fuse classical styles and Jamaican folk dances, but died before she could complete her work.

Baxter succeeded her, in no small part, due to the efforts of Barnett.

Barnett was a founding member of the Ivy Baxter Creative Dance Group.

Teaching dance as part of the group led Barnett into the arms of The Jamaica School of Dance where she became its first director.

Master of dance

Her ability as a dancer was never in question, and her position as principal dancer and choreographer with the NDTC speaks to this. If her position doesn't give that away, then maybe the 17 works she created from 1963 to 1989 might.

Then, there are those who have the benefit of studying dance at high school. That, again, had much to do with the contribution of Barnett.

She was a senior education officer at the Ministry of Education and did much to ensure dance became part of the school curriculum.

According to a release from the NDTC a day after her death, "She was a major resource person on Caribbean dance for ministries of education throughout the region, and an expert dance educator and lecturer at various educational institutions including Excelsior High School, St Joseph's Teachers' College and the University of the West Indies."

The release went on to explain that Barnett was also a senior adjudicator and advisor to the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission.

She was lauded for her contributions to the arts and to the country, receiving not just the Order of Distinction, but a Silver Musgrave Medal and a Centenary Medal from the Institute of Jamaica. So, again, the line comes to mind, "the wind beneath my wings."