Gombey Festival Honouree, October 6, 2018
Such is his faith in Christ that Leon “Sparky” Place could well be dubbed the “praying Gombey”. He prays before he dances and, oftentimes, he prays silently during a performance.
At once a keeper of tradition and an innovator who has placed an indelible stamp on Bermuda’s Gombey culture, Leon had more than 60 years under his belt as a student, practitioner, mentor, and artist. Admired as an undisputed master of the gombey arts, Sparky continued to dance with his beloved Places Gombey troupe on special occasions long after his retirement from Gombey dance.
Born on October 12, 1946, to Reginald and Mabel Place, Leon was recruited into Places Gombey troupe at the tender age of ten, along with this brothers Dennis and Reginald Jr.
He had little choice in the matter – father, known as “Scranny”, was the group’s founder/captain and gombey was a family affair. But like many children of his generation he had already been captivated by groups such as Wilson’s which, along with Norford’s and a few others, were dominant at the time.
Reginald had been a member of Norford’s group – headed by none other than Charles Ebenezer Norford the founding father of Bermuda Gombey – before he decided to start his own troupe.
The new group would soon be joined by young up and comers such as Tyrone Alexander “Funk” Nesbitt and, later Terry Jerome “Termite” Simmons and by the end of the 1970s had made several international appearances, representing Bermuda in Colombia, Connecticut, Boston and Jamaica for that island’s independence celebrations.
After attending Prospect Primary, Central School and Victor Scott, family circumstances meant that Leon has to leave school and enter the workforce at 13 to help support his eight siblings. He landed entry level jobs with two soda factories in succession, but eventually ended up in construction and became a skilled mason.
Through it all, he remained a member of Places Gombey and in the late 1970s succeeded his brother Dennis as captain of the troupe. For Leon, the role was an opportunity to instill discipline in the young members. “I believe children have to be of good deportment – at home and at school. And if they weren’t they could not dance, ” he says.
Leon “Sparky” Place proved to be an exceptionally creative dancer – contributing more than 10 original steps to the repertoire. But perhaps his most enduring contribution to the art is as a master suit designer when he started using wool in the fringes of the regalia, an innovation credited to enhancing the dynamism of the dancer’s movement.
Note: Mr. Place passed in 2024.
