TO HELP preserve the country’s cultural heritage, the National Commission for Culture and Arts (NCCA) and the National Committee on Dance, in coordination with the Cebu City Government and the Sinulog Foundation, celebrated the 2015 International Dance Day at the Cebu City Sports Center last Wednesday.
The International Dance Day was started in 1982 by the International Dance Council. It’s an annual event that takes place on April 29.
“Let this be a showing of talent, a manifestation of Cebu City, that we are not only buildings, we are not only infrastructures. What is guaranteed in Cebu City, there is heart in each and every person because we love culture and arts and we love dancing as we display all the forms of dances,” Mayor Michael Rama said.
Participants
The “Yugyugan para sa Kultura ng Bayan” showcased different dances performed by known local dance groups like Dance Jammers, Knapsack, Type 1, New Friends and Don Juan and school troupes from the University of Visayas, University of Cebu, University of San Jose-Recoletos, Cebu Normal University, University of Southern Philippines Foundation and the University of San Carlos, among others.
The NCCA 7 decided to make this year’s event different by having performances instead of holding a competition.
At 6 p.m. last Wednesday, a simultaneous dance rally took place in Cebu, Manila, Angono, Batangas, Pampanga and Iloilo.
Yugyugan para sa Kultura ng Bayan aims to promote awareness on what seems to be forgotten by the society today, the essence of cultural dancing, said Maria Lester Ybañez of the NCCA.
Ybañez said they plan to conduct cultural dance workshops in schools and barangays so the next generation is exposed to local dances. (Janessa Costillas & Aeryka Jurienne Dimaclid, CNU Communication interns)