Performer Mitchell Trott, aka Arijahknow Live Wires, will be holding a show on May 18 at City Hall to raise funds for his trip to Cuba in July to attend a Master Tap Dance Class.The show, ‘Heatbeat is the Rhythm’, will also be a tribute to entertainer June Caisey, his godmother and great aunt, and part proceeds will go to Tomorrow’s Voices, the autism charity.The multi-talented Mr Trott, who dances, sings, plays the saxophone, drums and acts, writes and produces, will also honour those who were a positive influence on his life musically.He will be part of a strong line-up of performers, which includes the Caisey family siblings Phiemma Caisey, Albert, Clinton and Taur (mom June is also performing) and other vocalists Star Child, Rivah, Culture, Ninja Cutty, Princess Black, Joy T Barnum and Aswad and Jewels, the founding members of Ital Foundation.“I will be backed by the DIA Band and will be performing nine pieces with my band,” said Mr Trott. “The band is exceptional. I’ll be tapping, singing, acting and playing my saxophone and drum all at different times throughout the show. ”Mr Trott’s trip to Havana has been initiated by MP Dale Butler who will accompany him on the seven-day trip from July 12.Tap dancing has been a passion of Mr Trott’s since he was a young boy watching his grandmother tapping her feet to music.“My grandmother, Lucille Trott, would always be walking through the house stepping her feet to a rhythm and I used to do it when she wasn’t around,” he said. “That’s what happens, children imitate what they see.“It was so intriguing, it just took me. Gregory Hines came out with the movie ‘Tap’ which was at the Liberty Theatre and the Co-op supermarket was still open then and I used to pack groceries at the Co-op.“I took my grocery packing money and went to watch ‘Tap’ ... well when I came out of that theatre I was a different person, I was running up the walls! I went to Jackson’s School of Performing Arts to buy some taps and I fixed them on my own shoes — they weren’t fixed properly — and I started to make my own sounds.”Mr Trott never forgot those in Bermuda who were also strong influences on his musical career, including teachers Suzette Harvey and Gloria McColly at Devonshire Academy.“I met Suzette Harvey in 1990. Obviously there was something inside of me and she was pulling it out. When I got to her school, United Dance Productions, I started to take a little modern dance.“Gloria McColly was the one who got me exposed to Motown. She saw something in me and had me doing all these school plays, Christmas plays, Easter plays, talent shows and all different kinds of plays were happening at Devonshire Academy.“Wendell (Shine) Hayward taught me e-flat and alto sax at Devonshire Academy and I was performing with a group title Sophisticated Jets at the age of 13. We performed at the Bermudiana Hotel and at different banquets and at the Premier’s Concert. We got a standing ovation at the Premier’s Concert.”Growing up on Curving Avenue and Friswell’s Hill, young Mitchell was a talented footballer like his father, Mitchell Allers, and like him went on to play for Boulevard. But music was in his blood from both sides of his family.“Music was always my passion but I started to play soccer because it was another passion of mine and I wanted a closer relationship with my father,” he explained. “We were already close but I got to see how he interprets the game. My father was a good footballer, I never saw him play but heard it from other players like Ralph (Gumbo) Bean, Oscar Samuels and Cyril (Dago) Steede.“I was always doing music from childhood, performing in primary school plays. John (Pickles) Spence is my grandfather and my first taste of entertaining in the public is through him and his Carnival Gombeys. Just last year I wrote a song called The Gombey Warrior and they played it in the World Cup qualifier when Bermuda played Trinidad. It was number one on 98.3 and Hott 107.5. I also had another song called Summertime with Joy T Barnum and it’s been doing very well, we were performing it live all last summer.“I am a performing artist and act as well and just finished performing in Nadanja and Ashanti Bailey’s show called ‘Don’t Talk to Me Like That’. They are Shine Hayward’s children and that’s how I got to meet them, through him. I’m a versatile artist and had two grandfathers who were doing music. My father’s father is Kenneth (Manga) Mills who was a singer and my other grandfather used to play the Gombeys and sing at the same time.”And just like others have inspired him, Mr Trott is happy to recognise and encourage other young talent coming through. One is a young dancer name Rakkai Scott, who is in school in England, said Mr Trott. “He studied at United Dance Productions under Suzette Harvey and even taught classes there, the same thing I did when I was there when she taught me and I was teaching younger people.“This young gentleman is an awesome dancer and is going to be doing big things. He does everything.”Also featured will be comedians Bootsie and Nadanja and Ashanti Bailey, poets Stefan Johnston and Spring Flower and rappers Kase and The Riddler. There will be cameo performances by Jah Simmons and King Somner as well a demonstration by martial arts instructor Kent Bean junior who is just 17, and a magic exhibition by ‘Mr Magic’. Tap dancer Abdul Simmons will also be performing. Veteran entertainer Gene Steede is the MC for the evening.The show, put on by Mr Trott’s company Ah! Who? Productions, starts at 8pm and doors will open at 7.30. Tickets are $35 for general admission and $65 for patrons which allows access backstage. Tickets are available at Kit and Caboodle, Rock Island Coffee and the Chewstick Foundation or by calling Mr Trott on 333-9459 or on e-mail originallivewires@hotmail.com