MONTEGO BAY, St James — Veteran artistic director, dancer, and choreographer, Randolph Charles, is calling on leaders of the Caribbean Communities (Caricom), to use the International Council of Organizations of Folklore Festivals and Folk Arts (CIOFF) as a platform to showcase the artistic talents of the region, internationally.

The former president of the Jamaica Federation of Artists and Musicians, who is currently the Caribbean’s artistic director of CIOFF, noted that in 2018 he led a group of Caricom entertainers to participate in a CIOFF festival, hosted in the Philippines.

“I want to have Caribbean groups jointly going around the world, through CIOFF international. In other words, I want to use CIOFF international as a vehicle to advertise the arts of Caricom.  

Also, if a country advertises the arts of Caricom, the Government also gets involved because the product of the country will inevitably be advertised,” Charles argued.

 According to Charles, each year more than 250 folklore festivals organised by CIOFF, which is an official partner of UNESCO, are hosted in more than 250 countries worldwide, attracting some 50,000 artists and fans.

The Trinidadian native, who relocated to Jamaica in 1968, is still revelling in the success of the visit to the Philippines where he was honoured by the country.

“I went to the Philippines with the invitation of the Philippines Government and I brought CARICOM entertainers. I took entertainers from almost all the countries representing Caricom. I brought the Caricom flags and all that. For the first time in that part of the country, the Caricom flag was ever flown.

The Philippines military was marching with the flag and playing the Caricom anthem, the first time they hearing about Caricom and they marched in Cabadbaran City with the flag and played the anthem. For eight days the Caricom anthem was played all over the Philippines and in the media,” he said.

He noted that because of his passion for the region, he reached out to some Caribbean countries ahead of his visit to the Philippines.

“My big project right now is Caricom, I am promoting Caricom to the world,” said Charles, who spends most of his time in Canada and Jamaica.   

His next mission is to organise a group of entertainers from the region for the CIOFF festival to be held in Russia next year.

Charles, who has nothing but high praises for Sandals International, reflected that during his early days he was a limbo dancer on the hotel circuit.

He also performed at the hotels with a group called Calypso Heat Wave before branching out to form Cabaret de Caribe.