For the last three months, I have been a part of the Sokafit BodyMORPH programme, a three-month fitness programme that incorporates weight training, nutrition advice and twice-weekly Sokafit classes.
The programme is an offshoot of Sokafit, a fitness system created by media personality Lisa Wickham and her business partner Sheldon Felix.
As the name implies, the programme is fuelled by soca music but more than that, it takes elements of our Carnival culture and packages it into a fast-paced soca dance fitness class.  Yes, there is wining but there is also waving – in each class, participants are given bandanas to wave – and there are moves inspired by the Dame Lorraine Carnival character and sailor dance. The moves are also named after places in T&T such as the Buccoo Bounce, Bago Rock and the Sando.
With Sokafit officially registered in Australia, France, Canada and, most recently, South Africa, the programme is not just about exporting an indigenous fitness system but also exporting T&T culture to the world.

For the last three months, I have been a part of the Sokafit BodyMORPH programme, a three-month fitness programme that incorporates weight training, nutrition advice and twice-weekly Sokafit classes.
The programme is an offshoot of Sokafit, a fitness system created by media personality Lisa Wickham and her business partner Sheldon Felix.
As the name implies, the programme is fuelled by soca music but more than that, it takes elements of our Carnival culture and packages it into a fast-paced soca dance fitness class.  Yes, there is wining but there is also waving – in each class, participants are given bandanas to wave – and there are moves inspired by the Dame Lorraine Carnival character and sailor dance. The moves are also named after places in T&T such as the Buccoo Bounce, Bago Rock and the Sando.
With Sokafit officially registered in Australia, France, Canada and, most recently, South Africa, the programme is not just about exporting an indigenous fitness system but also exporting T&T culture to the world.
When we train the coaches we do a cultural aspect of the programme, we teach them about the culture of Trinidad and Tobago, the multi-ethnic influences on the music and how they are going to use the music to impact the choreography on the class,” said Wickham, just back from South Africa where she spent over six weeks training coaches. She was initially joined by Lashaun Prescott, head coach of Sokafit and founder of the Elle dance school.
Prescott was the one Wickham and Felix contracted to design the Sokafit programme after Felix came up with the idea to get into fitness as a way to diversify their business. The duo had worked together for years in entertainment, pioneering, among other things, the way music videos were shot and produced.
“We were looking to diversify from what we know which mainly entertainment and he wanted to do a TV show in fitness. I know in aerobics I would be in the back of the class wining and they would say no and I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t wine. I found other forms of fitness were too strict in the movements and not necessarily dance and I wondered why we couldn’t combine the two and do something that people at home could do. So initially it was conceptualised as a television show,” explained Wickham.
Describing Prescott as the epitome of dance and soca, Wickham said when she first produced the COTT Awards where she met the dancer. She watched as Prescott was introduced to Machel Montano and went on to dance for him with her group of dancers from Elle.
She said they approached Prescott with the idea but she had been accepted to go to New York University to do her Master’s in dance.

“We said we will wait on you. By the time she came back in 2012, I was doing Home Again and Girlfriends Getaway and the film business was booming.  In December 2015 I said we have to do Sokafit, if we don’t do it now someone else will. In January 2016 we shot the teaser with Lashaun. People loved it and TV6 said yes they are on board and once it hit the airwaves people were like how do we get this in our gym,” recalled Wickham.

The tipping point, she said, was when Maurisa Gibson Bailey, the only exercise physiologist and sports scientist in the country, requested a Sokafit class at the Mucurapo West School where she teaches.  
“We had a meeting with her to plan it and as a scientist, she said this is a proper fitness system. For instance, she said wining is called circumduction of the waist and if you repeat these moves over and over you will see the benefit to that part of the body.  She explained the benefits of each move and she agreed to come on board and with Lashaun, a group of Elle dancers, Sheldon and myself we sat on the floor in the studio week after week workshopping the moves, developing the criteria for coaches and developing the programme,” said Wickham.
To qualify as a coach, participants must learn the physiology and impact of Sokafit on the body and do a written exam as well as practical exams.
Sokafit’s growth from television was really as a result of them responding to the needs of the market.
After featuring the Mucurapo West School, other schools started calling and the founders embarked on an educational tour where children exercised and given lectures on fitness.  They did 23 schools in all including seven in Tobago.
Adopting the #onefitnation and #onefitworld slogans, Wickham and Felix decided that in an effort to help combat non-communicable diseases in the country, they could bring Sokafit to communities around the country through free community burns. From Plymouth and Roxborough in Tobago to Point Fortin and Matura, Sokafit held community burns all over T&T.
Classes began in various venues when members of the public came forward to train as coaches. The first coach outside of the Elle dancers was Tiffanie Dennison, whose father enquired about her training in Sokafit. Dennison was already a fitness coach in other systems and loved soca music.
Based in South, she today conducts Sokafit classes in San Fernando and Central Trinidad at six gyms.
“We had our first international coach from Australia, Jamie Trahanas. She comes every Carnival and she and Lashaun are friends. When Jamie saw Sokafit she wanted to be trained and certified and is now a super coach,” said Wickham.
Last year, they got an email from Tania Parissi, an Italian, who teaches Salsa and Zumba in Montreal, Canada.
“She was looking for a new form of fitness to introduce to her studio in Montreal and she came here not knowing anything or anyone, she trusted the process and now she just launched the Family Fit featuring Sokafit kids. Training with her was Jenny Pauline, who is the sexy, vivacious coach for the French Caribbean in Martinique and Guadeloupe. She has huge classes with up to 100 people.”
Stating that they plan to be all over, Wickham said she already had links in South Africa as she does a lot of film work there and in showing her business partner the Sokafit videos, she was encouraged to establish the system there.
“So Lashaun and I went across and we trained 22 coaches.  We expanded the curriculum there to include business studies and communication skills to be used as an empowerment tool in the townships,” she said.
Describing the cultural immersion of the programme, Wickham said in South Africa, they recreated the J’ouvert experience with powder and the paint, and then explained the significance of the tradition in the Carnival context.
Asked about the challenges in growing the Sokafit brand, Wickham said in T&T some dismiss it as just a wining thing.
“We take the benefits of soca dance for granted but this has been put into a fitness system to help people meet their fitness goals. Within the system is repetition, in a fete you not going to jump the same way all night to get the benefits,” she explained.
As a start-up, she said, finance is always an issue especially when it comes to legal fees and associated costs of setting up in different countries. She praised ExporTT for holding their hands through their international expansion.
She said from a human resources standpoint, they have been able to rely on satellite relationships with a team of videographers, photographers, coaches, graphic designers, doctors and nutritionists who all support Sokafit.
Wickham, who has kept herself relevant in business and media since she first appeared on Rikki Tikki at the age of six, knows all too well that innovation is key to survival and that has been applied to Sokafit. The BodyMORPH programme is an offshoot product to help people focus on their goals of losing weight and getting fit and includes blood work, body analysis and nutrition advice.
A recently launched product is the Chip2Burn which will be held in communities. Participants chip behind to soca music as they do on Carnival days before engaging in an intensive burn.
Asked about the future plans for Sokafit, Wickham was mum.
Source:  The Loop, March 30.


 
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National Security Officers Foundation of the Ministry of National Security Music Video

The following is an excerpt taken from an article published in the Trinidad Guardian and gives a bit of the story of these talented men.  (Pink Panther featured in photo) 
Yes, indeed Sangre Grande has produced some fine talent, not only well know locally but internationally as well.  And they were featured in a special show on April 29th which was titled Calypso Icons of Grande.
The icons featured were Scrunter ((Irwin Reyes Johnson); Johnny King (Johnson King); Poser (Sylvester Lockhart); and, Pink Panther, (Eric Taylor)  and  Baron (Timothy Watkins Jnr).
Scrunter is a much beloved name in the calypso world and has been performing for over 40 years. He won the national calypso crown in 1982 with the hits Lick-e-Ting and the classic The Will. Many will no doubt remember, that famous appearance on stage at the Dimanche Gras show, by the late Lord Kitchener (Aldwyn Roberts), when he handed him the will, as the song said “ah just get the will from Lord Kitchener.”
Scrunter’s hits are almost too numerous to mention and include the classic Woman on De Bass, Take De Number, Sing In She Party, Oil in De Coil, among others There is also his many hits in the parang soca genre.
Johnny King, though born in Tobago, has made his home in Sangre Grande for many years.
The now retired policeman, first entered the calypso arena in 1980. He is known for his insightful, thoughtful lyrics with classics like Nature’s Plan, Appreciation, Darling and the mega-hit Wet Meh Down. King has been a finalist many times in the national calypso monarch competition and is well known for his performances at home and abroad,
Veteran and icon Poser, was born in Sangre Grande, in the village of Matura. He won the Sangre Grande calypso monarch crown for five consecutive years before deciding to come into Port-of-Spain to try
​The result is, he became one of the greats himself with hits like Ah Tell She, which won him the 1979 Road March title, Town Man, Party Tonight and Bus Conductor. A true culture lover who also played pan in his youth, Poser is a seasoned performer, both at home and abroad.
Pink Panther, renowned for his well-tailored pink suits, after the cartoon character of the same name, has a funny story to tell about how he got his start at the Kalypso Revue tent where he has been a staple for many years.
He remembers that he was invited there to try out by his brother calypsonian Scrunter as they were both Grande boys, however, tent manager, now deceased Jazzy Pantin, did not like his song We Ketching We Tail and turned him down. It was the founder of the tent Lord Kitchener, who took him under his wing after chatting with him and realising he’d composed his song and beat Scrunter with it in the Grande competition.
Pink Panther says not only did Kitch become a mentor and friend, but also, so did Kitch’s lifelong friend, Pretender. He recalls many Sunday sessions, honing the craft of calypso at Kitch’s home, Rainorama, in Diego Martin. He also credits National Calypso Monarch Chalkdust (Hollis Liverpool), with being another of his mentors. Panther is known for his satirical social and political commentary Dey Laughing In De Ghetto and is always a favourite with the crowd in the calypso monarch competition.

Trinidad and Tobago’s Mango Festival celebrates the king of fruits
The dual-island Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago is known for its superb cuisine and spectacular street food, but on certain days in July, the nation of foodies will pay homage to the king of tropical fruit.
Sweet, juicy and versatile, delicious mangoes of every size and type will be the focus of Trinidad and Tobago’s fourth annual Mango Festival.
Featuring a mango market, mango products, grafting demonstrations, exhibitions, children’s activities, games, mango-eating competitions, and other entertainment, Trinidad and Tobago’s Mango Festival offers mangophiles every imaginable mango-made delight, from soaps and preserves to candles and gift paper.
A highlight of the festival is the mango market where a variety of the locally-grown fruit, including the sinfully sweet Julie, considered the queen of mangoes, which was developed in Trinidad, and other varieties with whimsical names such as Rose, Hog, Calabash, Douxdoux, La Brea Gyul, Turpentine, and Graham – a seedling of the Julie mango – can be purchased.
Preceding the festival will be the island’s second Mango Conference on July 4, which is also being hosted under the auspices of the Network of Rural Women Producers (NRWP) of Trinidad and Tobago.
Highlighting the contribution of rural communities and agri-entrepreneurs to national economic development, Trinidad and Tobago’s Mango Festival also promotes economic opportunities through the sustainable use of the mango, and educates participants on the many benefits of the much-loved fruit.
Known as the “king of fruit” throughout the world, mangoes were brought to the West Indies by Portuguese traders. In some cultures, the mango tree is a symbol of love, and the fruit is known to be bursting with flavor as well as protective nutrients including vitamin C and beta carotene.
In Trinidad and Tobago, mango trees are planted as part of re-forestation programs due to their extensive root systems that hold the soil and prevent erosion. The fruits are also a good source of food for birds and other animals.
Courtesy of Jus trini tings