Imekhaï Edmond, Martiniquan, born from Dominican parentage, has excelled in the sport of ice skating-dance category.
Edmond whose mother is from the village of St. Joseph was introduced to the sport after migrating from Martinique to France.
Looking for extra curricular activities, she enrolled in the trial year and ‘showed potential’, according her coach. When she approached her mom and asked whether she could ‘graduate’ to competition level, her mom agreed and preparations began for her first ever competition. In her first competition, ‘Compétition Interrégional Catégorie Préliminaire’, the then eight year old placed 2nd overall out of ten competitors, and 1st in her region. She danced to Trinidadian Benjai’s ‘Soca music give me powers’.
According to her, it was a bit difficult to do this dance on the ice, because of how moving Caribbean music is, but, “My mom showed me some moves and my coach smoothed it out”, she said while receiving her silver trophy. She wore a ‘Sensay’ skirt which allowed her to represent Dominica’s carnival in her own way. Her coach was quite impressed with her performance and allowed her to skip many levels and the now twelve year old has found herself skating among fourteen and fifteen year olds.
On December 9th and 10th 2023, Imekhaï participated in the « Tournoi Inter Régional 1 Centre Nord » in the town of Viry-Châtillon in Paris, France. This competition was a bit different as there were boys included in Imekhaï’s category of seventeen (17) competitors. There were two presentations for this category, the ‘Danse Imposée’ composed of a song selected by the coach and the ‘Danse Libre’, which was selected by the skater. Imekhaï chose to pay tribute to the legendary Tina Turner as she danced to the song ‘Proud Mary’ which contributed to her victory.
Her father, (also from St. Joseph) is one of her biggest fan, although he doesn’t know much about the sport. He would always encourage her to continue working hard. Her mother says that parents should continue to support their children, thus helping them to build their self-esteem and make right decisions. She adds that even if parents have no knowledge of whatever their children are interested in, they can research about it to gain the necessary information. It hits differently when you can hold a meaningful conversation with your child about his or her interests. She also thinks that parents need to celebrate their children more often.
Imekhaï would like to express her profound gratitude to the people who have been encouraging her in one way or the other.
She is contemplating skating to Bouyon and Calypso, to pay homage to her Caribbean heritage.
