T&T: This is Carnival!

Got some more images, not the best quality of Peter Samuel's King of Carnival costumes.



Peter Samuel, 1982 King of Carnival; his Janusian costume, The Sacred and The Profane, was designed by band-leader Peter Minshall. On the one side, unutterable beauty; on the other side, unutterable ugliness. This is the ugly side, The Profane. I think The Profane presents a character with female breasts and male genitalia. It's a pity that both sides of the costume weren't depicted, and that the face masks aren't discernible.

This one is from Carnival 1995, and it's called The Spirit of Light. I wish the graphic were of a better quality, but I'm hoping that will come.




Nobody could dance a costume like Peter Samuel who understands mas as performance art. Ah, the sheer wonder of it when Peter crosses the stage for Dimanche Gras in a towering costume that looks like the slightest wind will blow him and it over. Then, Peter begins to dance the costume and demonstrate its utter flexibility as he moves it and himself across the stage. Dancing the costume involves not just maneuvering with its weight, but also moving one's own body in time with the music. The weight of the costume must be carried as if it's of no moment. Seeing Peter Samuel king costume, and what he does while wearing it, is worth the price of admission to Trinidad's Carnival.

Says Samuel:

For me, playing king has never been about winning titles or money ... but being given that stage to perform on. I am an artiste; I am a performer, and to me it was never important as to where the judges were located, or whether they were there at all. All I was interested in was putting on a show for the audience.