Bacolod delegation attending Andong Mask Dance Festival in South Korea

SOUTH KOREA. Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia, First Lady Elsa Leonardia, their daughter Loren Kara Leonardia, Councilor Em Ang, and Israel Salanga with Imaco president and Andong City Mayor Kweon Young-Sae (fifth from right), and Imaco secretary-general Yoon Byung-Jin (third from right) and representatives from Imaco member-countries at the 2018 Imaco International Symposium at Andong City, South Korea Saturday as part of the 2018 Andong Mask Dance Festival. (Contributed Photo)
SOUTH KOREA. Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia, First Lady Elsa Leonardia, their daughter Loren Kara Leonardia, Councilor Em Ang, and Israel Salanga with Imaco president and Andong City Mayor Kweon Young-Sae (fifth from right), and Imaco secretary-general Yoon Byung-Jin (third from right) and representatives from Imaco member-countries at the 2018 Imaco International Symposium at Andong City, South Korea Saturday as part of the 2018 Andong Mask Dance Festival. (Contributed Photo)



A DELEGATION of Bacolod city officials and MassKara dancers is now in South Korea to attend and perform at the ongoing Andong Mask Dance Festival, on invitation by organizers.

The delegation is composed of Mayor Evelio Leonardia, Councilor Em Ang, who chairs the Municipal Council committee on Tourism, and 10 MassKara dancers.

It is an all-expenses-paid trip for the official delegation, courtesy of the International Mask Arts and Culture Organization (Imaco), Leonardia said.

First Lady Elsa Leonardia, their daughter Loren Kara Leonardia, and Israel Salanga accompanied them, but the three shouldered their own expenses.

Imaco is a group of international festivals that use masks, with 131 individual and group organizations from 56 countries.

Imaco is based in Andong City (South Korea), a sister city of Bacolod. The sisterhood agreement was forged in September 2008, when Leonardia was on his third term as mayor of Bacolod.

Imaco president Kweon Young-Sae, who is also the current mayor of Andong City, said, “Andong Mask Dance Festival is a cultural icon for the Andong region, celebrating the traditions of Korean and international mask dancing.”

On their second day, September 29, officials of Andong City and Imaco tendered a traditional Korean dinner reception for Bacolod and other delegations.

At the dinner, Leonardia told the officials they are thankful to Imaco secretary-general Yoon Byung-Jin for opening the doors of Imaco to Bacolod.

Leonardia said their current trip to Andong is sentimental because prior to flying to South Korea, he just saw his photo with the former mayor of Andong City and the photo was dated September29, 2008.

The date of the traditional Korean dinner they are in now is September 29, 2018, or exactly 10 years after, he added.

From the time Bacolod and Andong became sister cities in 2008, they have enjoyed the diplomatic ties and experience, especially the 2017 Imaco International Conference in Vientiane, Lao PDR (Laos).

Leonardia said he had brought his wife Elsa and daughter Loren Kara at the 2018 Andong Mask Dance Festival because “where we are concerned, Imaco, Andong City, and South Korea are part of our family.”

Leonardia said Imaco has been a uniting factor that made all its members from different countries “one big, happy family.”

Crowd favorite

Ang, for her part, said the MassKara Festival dancers are a crowd favorite and the most photographed at the Andong Mask Dance Festival.

Even at the opening ceremony where various international performance groups were being introduced, she said the MassKara dancers “got the loudest applause and the audience crowded to snap photos with them onstage.”

Other mask-based festivals performing at Andong were from Latvia, Russia, Malaysia, China, Kazakhstan, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Taiwan, she said.

Symposium

Aside from witnessing the Andong Mask Dance Festival, the Bacolod delegation attended the 2018 Imaco International Symposium on September 29, also in Andong City.

The symposium had two topics: “The Ritual Features of East Asian Mask Plays” and “The Ritual Features of Korean Mask Plays.” (PR)

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