The oldest active Gombey troupe on the island is celebrating its 65th anniversary this year and plans to mark it with an electrifying performance at the Bermuda Day Parade tomorrow.

Place’s Gombeys, formed on Boxing Day, 1957 by the late Reginald Place, will be joined by his son Leon Place, 75, the last surviving member of the original troupe, who plans to dance on the day.

Mr Place said: “It feels great to reach this milestone. I will be dancing on Bermuda Day and the whole crew will be down there – this year it will be 66 years I have been dancing.”

Asked if he still had the same energy he had when he was young, he said with a laugh, “No Sir”.

To help celebrate the anniversary, the troupe also plans to host a family picnic on Sunday which will be attended by “the Place family and the whole Gombey family”.

Some members of the troupe met with The Royal Gazette at the Place homestead on Town Hill Road, Flatts, to reflect on an exciting and eventful 65 years.

Leon Place added: ”I was ten years old when it started and I helped bring it together. My father danced for the Norford Group and then decided he wanted to start his own.

“The original group included my daddy, myself, my brothers Gregory Place and Reginald Place Jr.

“His ‘Chief’ was a fellow called Joe Rhoda, Bob Woods was there from the beginning, then there was the ‘Leading Indian’, he was real tall guy and we called him ‘Slowy’ Johnson. And there was Henry Spencer. I am the only one left.

“We were the best on the island – you would get a lot of people who wanted to join, but we only accepted those with the potential – the body movements, the foot movements and fitness level.”

Many in the interview insisted that Place’s Gombeys remain the top troupe in Bermuda. Dennis Parsons, the drummer of 30 years, said: “We are the originals. Groups now come and try to emulate us.”

André Place, former captain, added: “We will always be the best. The contests in the Eighties – Place’s Gombeys won every trophy – every shield up for grabs.”

Part of that success, they say, is down to the immense energy they put into their performances.

“It feels good, it feels great,” Leon Place beams. “You have to see the doctor a couple of days after.”

Kent Henry, Place’s Gombeys’ president, said a regular dance may last up to half an hour but when the group travels “on the road” during holidays like New Year’s Day and Boxing Day, they will be going for hours.

“We can go from 10am and keep going until 9pm with just a few breaks. It takes a lot of hard work,” he said. “I have a step counter, last New Year’s Day we did 24 miles.”

André Place, who said his foundation in dancing led him to become a triathlete, added: “We don’t jump in cars to get to the next neighbourhood – we march to the next neighbourhood unless we have a long way to go, like Dockyard where we may go on the ferry.”

Kevi Rankin, the troupe’s captain, said: “As a captain, I have learnt if you have a lot of energy, your dancers will try to match you or even overtake you. I especially love the fast dance masquerade. To dance Gombey is to dance with a free spirit.”

Mr Parsons said: “You forget about the pain, the heat and the sweat, and you just keep going. One time I beat until I was numb.”

Top notch costumes also keep Place’s Gombeys ahead of the game, André Place added. “No one does embroidery work like the Place family, my grandmother Mabel Place made the prettiest costumes.

“The intricacy of the chain stitch, you try to keep to the cultural aspects of what Gombeys are about in the cape designs. We grew vegetables as slaves, the Indians’ hatchets and bow and arrows, the ancestral symbols.”

Among the most memorable performances for the group included one in Jamaica. Leon Place recalled: “We had the stage going up and down – that night the music was so sweet. It made you bounce.”

While there are fewer opportunities these days for the troupe to travel as they did when greater funding allowed them to represent Bermuda tourism overseas, they are not short of work locally.

There are about 30 members today – some as young as four years of age, and they can expect to do about 30 to 40 performances in an average year.

All agree that “Gombey is a lifestyle” and one that needs to be kept alive.

Mr Henry said: “There is a lot that can be gained from it – there is teamwork, organisation, camaraderie and we train you to become a leader – you have to be disciplined.

“It is an opportunity for males to learn from older males and pass it on to younger ones coming up. That helps us to mould young males into decent young men.”