THEIR STONG POWERFUL legs got them out of the blocks quickly as sprinters and gave them the edge on the track, but those legs now propel them to jump, spin and chassé as they travel the world dancing and teaching, which they have done for the last 11 years.
Twin sisters Kristina and Sadé Alleyne, born in London to Barbadian parents, are making great strides in the world of dance and recently visited Barbados for the first time, sharing with local dancers through three workshops at Dance Strides Barbados.
Having returned to their busy schedule in the United Kingdom, the 27-year-old sisters are expected to travel shortly to Holland, India, New Zealand, Portugal and Toronto, and their dance company Alleyne Dance is heavily booked for performances and workshops into 2017 and 2018.
While in Barbados the twins spoke to EASY magazine.
“We have been touring for a long time but it is the first time we can actually come to Barbados,” said Kristina. “We did it with our air miles,” she added, while noting that they had travelled extensively but were never fortunate to visit the family’s homeland.
“I think it is important that we share something, because even though we had never touched the soil, our family is from here, our history is here. Our granddad, our aunts, our uncles, our cousins, they all live in Barbados so we had always known inside where we were from, but we just had to see it,” Kristina said. While planning their ten-day trip to Barbados, the sisters decided they wanted to share some of their dance expertise with local dancers.
“We thought, we have to come here and we just emailed as many dance places as we could and Dance Strides wrote back to us and told us, yes, we can come and share,” Kristina said.
“I think it is really important that we are doing so well outside that we had to share and give something back, a bit of what we have seen in the world,” Sadé said.
From December 5 to 7 they held two master classes and one children’s class and plan to make many more trips to Barbados in the future.
“This is the first of many trips. We have so many ideas we want to develop to inspire the generation and give them a wider range of dance styles and create opportunities,” Sadé said.
Kristina added that there was a very high level of talent in Barbados.
“Barbados was the first class where we have ever had so many black students. Usually they are the minority. It really touched us when we came home to see we are teaching strong dancers,” Kristina said.
They have the firm belief that anyone can dance. They started out as athletes but made the switch at 16 years old, much to the displeasure of their parents. In dancing they began as hip-hop dancers, street dancers and would make up their own routines at home.
“We went to a carnival and saw a dance group on stage and thought that looked very cool. We are very active so we tried it; we liked it and did not have the technique so we went on to study,” Sadé said. They studied professionally at The Brit School and the Northern School of Contemporary Dance.
They said their coming of age, as it were, was when they performed at the opening ceremony of the London Olympic Games in 2012. “It was brilliant. 80 000 people in the stadium and it got broadcasted everywhere,” Sadé said.
“We have been knocked down, doors have been slammed in our faces but we kept going. We are lucky we have each other and it is so important to have that strong support system behind you and because we are sisters, more importantly twins, we know each other, sometimes a little too well. We know and trust each other and we will just never give up,” Kristina said.
While Sadé said they were definitely inspired by the strength of technique ballet, their creative experiences have been inspired and developed from working with the likes of Akram Khan (fusion of Kathak and contemporary dance), Retina Dance Company (release and contact work), Gregory Maqoma (Afro-fusion dance) and Henri Oguike (classical contemporary dance based on Forsythe and Cunningham techniques).