Verna Walcott-White

Verna Walcott-White also known as Teacher Verna is an artistic director, consultant, a dance educator/instructor, and choreographer. Over the last few years, she has added actress to her resume.  

Verna began dancing from the age of three with the late Helen Taitt. In the early 70s, when the Guyana National School of Dance was founded by the renowned Haitian-American dancer/choreographer, Madam Lavinia Williams, Verna joined as a teenage student. A few years later, after the formation of the Guyana National School of Dance (GNSD), the Guyana National Dance Company (GNDC) was formed. The GNDC was directed by the Cuban dancer and choreographer, Professor Geraldo Lastra, who chose Verna amongst others to be the Company’s founding members. Although there were many other Cuban dance professors, she especially enjoyed working under Eduardo Riviera and Orestes Mejica. 

Just as important, Verna has enjoyed the luxury of being taught by many famous Guyanese dance gurus. Those individuals were the late Philip McClintock who was a versed Kathak dancer, trained in India; the late Robert Narine, the late Derek Reid, Michael Layten and Doris Harper Wills who currently lives in London. 

As a member of the GNDC, Verna was not only responsible for performing and choreographing for the Company, but also instructing at the GNSD. Her dance company membership allowed her to show her performance and choreographic versatility in various dance idioms spanning ballet, modern, jazz, Afro-Caribbean and Kathak. Hence, her passion for performing and choreographing have been showcased locally (in Guyana), and around the world during the GNDC’s international tours.  

International audiences have witnessed Verna’s performances across theaters and stages in countries such as Barbados, St. Lucia, Dominica, Suriname and Cuba. Beginning in the 70s, there were multiple tours to Cuba because of the cultural exchange program between Guyana and Cuba. Her wealth of experience was not only gained from her training received regionally, but also internationally at workshops in a couple countries. In 1990, she studied dance at the Jamaica School of Dance in Jamaica, West Indies, and in 1992, at Duke University in the USA.  

Verna migrated to the United States in 1992 and has worked as a dance instructor for several years at Once Upon A Time Dance Studio and Adele’s Creative Learning Center, both in Queens NY. A few years later, in 1999 she opened her own dance school, Impressions Dance Theatre (IDT), located in Queens, NY, a space for grooming young dancers. As the artistic director of IDT, she is able to mold the lives of the youth through dance education, many of whom have continued to dance throughout their college education and/or into adulthood.   

Throughout her dance career, which is her life, Verna has choreographed hundreds of dances depicting the different idioms such as ballet, modern, Tap, jazz, African/Afro Caribbean, Praise and Kathak. IDT has been featured on programs for elected officials, and organizations such as the Guyana Cultural Association of New York, Inc., Guyana Tri State Alliance, Ms. Guyana Airways Cooperation Pageant, Ms. Guyana Connecticut Scholarship Pageant, Barbados Alumni Association, Braata Productions, and many churches and community-related events. Verna has co-produced and directed the first Ms. Tropical Paradise Swimwear Pageant, for which she did the choreography.  

As mentioned earlier, Verna has acted and has appeared in Francis Quamina Farrier’s plays: Freedom Trail as Zoody in 2007; What You Don’t Know Can Kill You as Ms. Lorenzo in 2008;  and CLR James’ Minty Alley as Ella in 2011, all directed by the late, Maurice Braithwaite.

Verna’s work in the community has not gone unrecognized. From the early 2000s to 2019, she has received many awards that included citations and proclamations from esteemed politicians, and organizations. Some of those recognitions are from Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, Council Member Dr. Mathieu Eugene, Senator Leroy Comrie, Queens Borough Presidents, Helen Marshall and Melinda Katz, Assembly Member Andre Hevesi, the Guyana Cultural Association of NY, Inc., the Guyana Day Incorporated, the Crown Heights Brooklyn Lion’s Club, the Vissi Dance Theatre, and the Queens Time Ledger. 

For the past 20 years, Verna has been and is a dance consultant at a few schools in the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn. There, she teaches and choreographs dances, along with producing and directing performances and shows for significant events celebrating Black History Month, graduations, and Christmas.  

Verna continues to pay it forward by volunteering her service with the Health and Education Relief Organization for Cancer (HEROC) where she is a special event assistant. In addition, she is the co-chair of the Kweh Kweh committee and the co-chair of the Awards committee with the Guyana Cultural Association of NY, Inc.