By Essiba Small
Dave Cooper is a big man (standing at 6 foot, five) with big plans, not just for himself but for this country, particularly the culture; specifically Carnival. Sceneographer (scenic designer), writer, artiste, artist, dancer, singer, wirebender… Cooper’s gifts are many. Arms wide opened, he embraces them all.
You may not have seen him, but you’ve surely seen his Ninja Rastaman byline and comics in the now defunct Vox, an Express magazine of the 1990s.
You may not have seen him on stage, but you surely would’ve seen his props behind several popular soca singers as they competed for the Soca Monarch title. Cooper spent ten years making and mounting the props until he decided it was time to walk away.
You know those all-inclusive fete decor that patrons talk about in the same conversation as the music and food? Yep, that’s Cooper too.
He was the man behind the decor for Private Ryan fetes here and in the US for five years, and for Carnival 2023 he provided decor for Sokahchella, Soca in Moka, the Silent Morning boatride and Sunny Side Up fete. The sets for the TTT-produced Twelve and Under and Hamara Desh, are also his handiwork.
Of all his Carnival work, Cooper said designing for Soca in Moka, a fete put on by his alma mater Trinity College, was a dream come true. “I finally got to touch the one fete I never got to decorate,” he wrote on his Instragam page that day. “And I feel complete.”
He dedicated the design to his mother Ann Cooper, who passed away in December of 2022, and credited her for taking him to the Grand Stand for Carnival as a young man, and to Sci Fi movies.
Feteing with the 96.1 WEFM team, for free, was one of the reasons Cooper got into fete decor as a young man still at school.
With the radio station located in the Express building, mere metres away from Cooper’s Vox cubicle, the then sixth former walked up to the station’s programme director Signal 2 Noise (Joel Morris) and told him about his work. Signal went on to hire Cooper and, as Cooper did the groundwork– getting known in the industry and getting to know people– he met Derrick Lewis of ISLANDpeople, who mentored him. Simon Aboud, from Sign Post, who had a degree in Fine Arts, gave him advice. He remains grateful for their part in his journey.
Four years ago, Cooper met Arlene Pitterson, an award-winning marketer and diversity expert from the US, who saw his work at the Private Ryan fete and apporoached him about it in 2019. Pitterson, who has worked with Fortune 100 companies including Pfizer, United Healthcare, Netflix, Goodreads, Unilever and Proctor & Gamble, told Cooper she wanted to take his career to a corporate level and worked with him on getting prepared. “She gave me advice on what I should do to grow my business and by and by, I asked her to find me clients in the US.”
Pitterson later became Cooper’s manager and helped him to secure deals with high profile clients, including Tiffany & Co, Aunt Jackie’s Curls and Coils and Coca-Cola.
While Carnival events were in full swing here at home, Cooper was at the Bishop Art Gallery in the Pfizer building in New York, working on his pieces for the soft drink giant.
The event, held on February 10 in Manhattan, featured the brand’s “boldest and edgiest” flavour – Coca-Cola Move, in collaboration with musical powerhouse and Grammy award winning artiste Rosalia. It was the kind of gig that would intimidate any designer, but not Cooper! As Pitterson reminded him, prior to starting the work: “I know you got this.”
Cooper’s main pieces were inspired by the colours of the Coca-Cola Move can, and featured pink and black butterfly-winged costumes that towered at 15 feet. Cooper also did pink and black art for the selfie wall at the event. His design for the Aunt Jackie team went over so well, they sent the piece back to him to have it framed so they could hang it in their Georgia, headquarters.
In 2009, Cooper started his Hybrid Theory company, which today is the parent company of his Dreaweavers Collective and Dreamwearers Collective Int’l, which he established for his foreign corporate clients.
One of five children born to a postman father and a biochemist mother, Cooper has a Master’s in Carnival Studies from the University of Trinidad and Tobago, and a Degree in Visual Arts from The University of the West Indies. He was a high school teacher for 16 years and does not subscribe to the conversation that artistes have to struggle to survive in their industry. He sees it as a gift, one that he wants parents to encourage their children to develop, once they recognise it.
“The only way to sustain development is to educate the children,” he said. “And as I always say, if I am not using the gift that God give me to multiply and bring fruit, then I am lying to my students.”
