{"id":86394,"date":"2013-02-25T11:04:15","date_gmt":"2013-02-25T15:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/?p=86394"},"modified":"2019-04-14T12:07:17","modified_gmt":"2019-04-14T16:07:17","slug":"calypso-review-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/news\/calypso-review-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"Calypso Review 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Jackson\"
Ian Jackson making his contribution at Calypso Review 2013<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The suggestions flowed in abundance but the nagging question at the end of the 2013 calypso review held recently was, how much of what was suggested would be implemented?<\/p>\n

“Let’s put it that way” said calypso writer and one-time calypsonian, Ian Jackson, “I would be pleasantly surprised if many of the ideas are implemented”<\/p>\n

But if others shared that view, it didn’t prevent them from presenting their opinions on what needs to be fixed in Dominican calypso and how to fix it.<\/p>\n

The following are some of the suggestions put forward:<\/p>\n

– a pre-elimination before the eliminations in order to reduce the extraordinarily large of number of calypsonians and ease up on the work of the judges during the eliminations.<\/p>\n

– that voice quality should be removed from the judging criteria because “it gives an unfair advantage to those calypsonians who have naturally good voices”. Instead it was suggested that melody could be included as a sub-criterion of music and emphasis should be placed on rendition.<\/p>\n

– that the judging pool should be increased and more attention should be placed on improving the competence of judges.It was also felt that scores for each calypsonian should be taken from the judges after that claypsonian has performed so as to prevent comparisons with other calypsonians.<\/p>\n

– that calypsonians should be allowed to sing their songs on the road and those performances should not be considered in determining the road march.<\/p>\n

– that greater financial assistance to calypsonians by the private sector is needed to facilitate their presentations which, despite not carrying many points, are an important aspect of the show as far as spectacle and crowd appeal are concerned.<\/p>\n

– that the criteria used for the senior monarch and junior monarch shows should be standardized so as to eliminate the crowd response criterion now being used in the junior monarch show.<\/p>\n

– that too much credence is being given to ‘heavy’ social commentary in terms of calypso lyrics at the expense of the lighter side of carnival, the bachanal and the fun. An example given was Shadow Flow’s Rom and De Party which is was felt should have been in this year’s final.<\/p>\n

– that the Dominica Calypso Association should begin to do something in earnest about marketing Dominica’s calypso overseas and capitalize on the achievement of six-time monarch, Dice.<\/p>\n

There were several other ideas coming out of the sometimes animated presentations. Some of them such as calls to put\u00a0the calypso final on a Sunday and to segment the judging like the Queen Show did not receive much support from the audience. The notion put forward by a calypso judge that the DCA president and executive should not compete, met with a similar reaction after DCA president Ras Kelly made a persuasive argument against that suggestion.<\/p>\n

In the end, one suggestion aimed at ensuring that Calypso Review 2013 \u00a0did not go the route of previous reviews and become just another talk shop, called for the formation of subcommittees to translate words into action.<\/p>\n

Photos by Zaimis Olmos.<\/p>\n