Bermuda's only female Gombey troupe will be dancing all over their male counterparts this coming year. The Alisa Kani Girl Gombeys, a collective of fifteen women whose families are traditionally involved in the male-dominated performing art, are going strong after a decade and recruiting ladies as young as five to carry on the unique tradition.

Captain Algina Warner, daughter of Allen Warner of venerable troupe Warner Gombeys, first got involved by chance in 1996, when a member of her father's troupe dropped out of a performance at short notice. After much negotiation, Algina was allowed to fill the space.

"I was so eager to do it, but my father didn't want me to hurt myself," she laughingly recalls.

The Warner family's long history with the art began with Ms. Warner's paternal grandmother, who was one of Bermuda's first female Gombeys, and her St. Kittian grandfather.

Father Allen Warner has been a Gombey for forty years, and Ms. Warner's own mother formed the Alisa Kani troupe in 1997, originally known as Lady Di's Gombey Girls.

Carrying on the tradition is Ms. Warner's daughter Destami, five, who dances with the Alisa Kani Girl Gombeys, and her two sons, who perform with their grandfather's troupe.

While the Girl Gombeys are always seeking to recruit female drummers, the cavalcade of applicant members all abandon their drumming ambitions for dancing once they see the ladies perform. Their growing membership ranges in age from five to thirty-seven.

Ms. Warner asserts that women are often naturals at the tradition, training to the same standard of men, and often impossible to identify under their bright full-length costumes (with the aid of correct undergarments).

"Alisa means 'dance' and Kani means 'energy', so it's really Dance and Energy Gombey Girls. It's energetic, it's freedom, and people don't always know we're girls when we perform. They think girls just can't do it, but we show them that we can," Ms. Warner said, adding that her girls need to be dedicated and hardworking with a willingness to learn and a good attitude.

Former Tourism Director Gary Phillips, commentator for this summer's Gombey festival held at City Hall and a walking repository of island folklore, spoke of the quality of a Gombey's use as a vehicle of the tradition as unconditional upon the dancer's gender.

"The Gombeys in Bermuda are unlike any other folkloric dance in the region. The Bermuda Gombeys have always been completely covered so that you are unable to identify the persons involved; so for me, whether the person behind the mask is male or female is not that important.

"The question is, are they proper tradition-bearers, are they proper interpreters of the art form?

"I have come to know over the years a number of females behind the costumes, but only after the fact. They are good tradition-bearers if they are respectful of the tradition.

"The thing about the Gombeys is that it is a very serious and disciplined art form, and I know that it's not something that parents just simply send their children to. It's not ballet class.

"The involvement of the entire family in the whole ritual is extremely important to the preservation of the culture. Most captains of troupes monitor very closely the performance of their students in relationship to their school work, for example, and if they are not doing well in school they may not get to dance. It's a totally integrated social enterprise, a way of life.

"I think for any person, male or female, to dance with the Gombeys, you can be sure that they come from a very disciplined environment and that they are taught from day one that this is not just an exercise, this is an awesome responsibility.

"It's not something that you can read about in a book, it's something that you have to eat, breathe and live, and embody it with your family, and understand the history, what it all means.

"Male or female, if the person behind the mask is going to be a good tradition-bearer they have to be disciplined, and discipline never hurt anybody. We all need to be disciplined in one way or another."

Ms. Warner knows just how to manage the pressure of her troupe's responsibility to posterity. This Christmas season the ladies will be taking a break from performing and beginning preparations for the Bermuda Day festivities.

"Right now I'm going to be in plain clothes, helping my dad out with his troupe for the holidays. I personally think that's too much work for the girls...I can take it, but I wouldn't put that strain on them. We are now in the process of getting ready for May 24th, making sure everyone's suit is up to date, and anything that needs fixing gets fixed now."

The team currently depends on male drummers, but Ms. Warner hope this will change, looking forward to the day they can call themselves a truly all-female troupe. Until then they will continue building on the tradition, bringing their singular feminine energy and signature moves to the vocabulary of our indigenous art form.