ANGELO JEDIDIAH

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Dance is often described as an art form that transcends boundaries and transforms lives. For Zidane Roopnarine, it did just that—leading him all the way to Beijing, China.

Roopnarine always knew he had a deep love for dance, but it wasn’t taken seriously until his interactions with a teacher at Vishnu Boys’ Hindu College. Despite having no formal dance training, he competed in various competitions, showcasing his natural talent.

Speaking with Guardian Media from Beijing, it was during his secondary school years that he knew what career path he had to pursue.

“With the wisdom my drama teacher imparted on me, I was like, I want to do something that is meaningful and that I am going to enjoy for the rest of my life,” Roopnarine said.

After some research, he decided to pursue a Bachelor in Fine Arts degree with a specialisation in dance at the University of Trinidad and Tobago’s Academy for the Performing Arts.

But upon graduating, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, he explored what more he could undertake to further develop his skills and propel the arts. This led him to submit his application for a scholarship offered by the Dai Ailian Foundation here in T&T. The foundation is named in honour of Chinese-Trinidadian renowned dancer and ballerina Dai Ailian, known universally as the ‘mother of Chinese modern dance’.

Born in Couva, Madame Dai went on to found the prestigious Beijing Dance Academy. Through the foundation, local students with a passion for studying the art form are given the opportunity to receive funding.

Roopnarine said that he was not confident at first applying for the scholarship but kept faith that if it was meant for him, it would come his way.

As you would expect, Roopnarine was granted this scholarship, but travelling to a distant country like China was a daunting experience.

“My family couldn’t process me leaving and going to China, which is like halfway across the world, right? And not speaking the language, looking at funding, you know, all of these different things. And I’m like, It’s going to work itself out.”

Though hesitant, Roopnarine’s family rallied around the aspiring dancer for this new chapter.

Despite an exhausting three-day journey, he knew he had to adapt quickly to the fast-paced environment.

Since September 2024, Roopnarine said his experience in Beijing has been life-changing. Other than the 12-hour time difference, he still had many adjustments to make to fully adjust to his new environment, such as cashless payments or utilising the metro for public transportation.

As expected, communication was a challenge, as his Mandarin-speaking teachers and instructors knew very little English.

Along with his Mandarin lessons, which he continues to take with another Trinbagonian student, he has also developed the habit of interpreting verbal cues to keep up in his classes.

“Sometimes the teachers may not know how to correct you or may not know how to speak, you just navigate that. Also, this may not be the right thing to say or do, but I like to make people laugh and be a clown. And the teachers love it and give me the needed attention based on that,” Roopnarine laughingly said.

Another shock was the discipline and dedication devoted to preserving the cultural arts.

The academy acts as a boarding school, where a great number of the students, as young as the age of ten, live full-time on campus and pursue their formal school education along with formal dance training. This, he said, is a testament to how much China ensures the preservation of their culture.

“The dancers here started at such a young age, and by age 20, they are already looking like professionals. Whereas for me, I started at age 17, unprofessionally. But for me, even being in the same class as them, it is still valuable to me. My leg isn’t at the highest degree, but I work with what I have.”

While Roopnarine has learned various Chinese art forms and classical dance, he remains a proud ambassador of soca music and dance, which he says has been warmly received at the dance academy.

“Music gives a sense of freedom and happiness. So when I was able to expose that reality to my Chinese colleagues and friends, you could see a whole new side of them that they had never uncovered before.|

“The people of China love to ultimately be kind and nice. Some of them would buy me Chinese snacks. Some of them will buy me food, and I’m like, ‘No, no, no.’ But they will be like, ‘Yes, yes,’” Roopnarine said.

When asked which food he misses most from home, Roopnarine’s response was entirely understandable.

“I could use ah double right now. Ah good roti. Ah good pelau!”

Source: Trinidad Guardian, March 23, 2025.

​Carisa Lee, guardian 20250221
Astrophysicist and Science Communicator, who is also an Assistant Professor at Princeton, Alexandra Amon, is encouraging aspiring scientists from the Caribbean to follow their dreams.
“I am very proud to have started on the tiny islands of Trinidad and Tobago,” she said on her website.
The T&T national is among this year’s 126 recipients of the prestigious Sloan Research Fellowships which is a two-year $75,000 fellowship that is awarded annually to early-career researchers whose creativity, innovation, and research accomplishments make them stand out as the next generation of leaders.
Amon, was one out of 24 recipients under the category of physics to be selected. Other categories include Mathematics, Earth System Science, Economics and Neuroscience.
On her website, Amon and her group focuses on the ground-breaking Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time, which will image more than 1 billion galaxies.
The Princeton University website said the Observatory located on a mountaintop in Chile, is nearly complete and will capture the cosmos in exquisite detail. Using the largest camera ever built, Rubin will repeatedly scan the sky for 10 years and create an ultra-wide, ultra-high-definition time-lapse record of the universe.
“We use galaxies to map the large-scale structure and confront questions about the composition and evolution of our universe,” she said.
Amon stated that their ultimate goal is to understand the nature of dark matter and dark energy.
Before Princeton, Amon was a Kavli Fellow at Stanford in Professor Wechsler’s group where she devoted three years to the Dark Energy Survey Year three cosmology analysis.
The 2025 fellows came from 51 institutions across the United States of America and Canada and is one of the most coveted awards for young researchers.
Many have gone on to become influential scientists in their fields.
​ (Source: Newshound, Feb 22, 2025)