WHEN CHERISH CAVE celebrates her birthday Tuesday it will be with hopes and aspirations of great things in store for her.
The 20-something-year-old will be completing her final year as a Spanish major at the University of the West Indies and hopes to put it to good use.
“I would really like to use my skills to interpret and also teach. I want to travel, first stop Spain. I want to experience the food, the culture . . .,” she said. Cherise took off a year from UWI, finding a job at Carlton Supermarkets to help out financially with her studies.
At first, she wanted to be an engineer but changed her mind in fourth form at Queen’s College.
“I was consistently good at languages, and I can do basic French. I was taught Spanish from when I was at St Paul’s Primary, she told EASY magazine during the interview at her taekwondo studio, Barbados Taekwondo Titans on Tudor Street.
when I was 15 years old. My uncle is one of the instructors and he told me to come and train. I was skeptical at first but I realize it was a different form of self-expression. People see it as a fighting sport but it is really a discipline involved.”
Cherise said it was also another way of channeling her teenage energy into positive things three to four times a week. She said she also had positive role models in her “big brothers” in the taekwondo team.
“The females in the [dojo] were sporadic and being a girl in a male-dominated environment wasn’t easy. Some roughhousing was rougher than others but my dad was all for it as he saw it as learning self-defence. My mum was scared when I had to compete,” she said, laughing.
While admitting that with school and work she has slacked off from the sport [master Chetwin Gilkes snickers in the background, prompting a laugh from Cherise], she admits it is also because she of her other love – dancing.
“I was always a spectator as my younger brother is a member of ACE dance club. I would have brought him to practices and Latin and ballroom competitions. I used to watch in awe and convinced myself to give it a try. So three years ago I signed up for classes.”
Because of her age and the ranking system of wins and places, she is in the adult beginners section with new partner Nicholas Harris.
“I do more Latin than ballroom. I love the cha-cha because it is cheeky and you get to create a different persona when you are dancing. I think of a character and I act out that character when I am dancing. On the flip side the samba gives me so much trouble as the movements don’t come naturally to me.”
She said she hadn’t done a whole lot of competitions due to different factors but she tries to enter as many as possible. She treasures a first place win in a recent competition in Trinidad.
She prefers to watch the ballroom than to perform it, “I have yet to grasp all the fundamentals. Ballroom is precise movements. It is not as playful as Latin.”
And speaking of Latin, the dresses are something else.
“Oh yes,” she said. “The flavour has to be seen in the costumes too. I, though, am on the conservative side. I collaborate with Euronica Burgess and I will Google costumes as it also depends on the competition.
“I will sometimes take pieces from about three costumes and put together to give my own flair.”
Cherise also sings but not competitively, preferring to do church and concerts.
It is back to UWI next month and Cherise will still have a heavy load.
She promises to pick back up taekwondo more seriously.
“When I was doing it and dancing at the same time I found that it was much easier to dance. So since this is my last year at UWI, I will try harder. Plus I will keep working but this time part-time as I need to get my finances in order if I am to pursue overseas travels and probably studies.”
