The Belize National Dance Company (BNDC) will participate in an international folkloric dance festival in Europe in July and August 2012. The “Festival Du Sud” brings together about 1,200 dancers and musicians from 45 companies worldwide. This year, twelve (12) folk ensembles were chosen to share and showcase their traditional dances with audiences in France and Spain during these summer months.
BNDC plans to present an even blend of music and dances from four Belizean ethnic groups –
The Maya, the Creole, the Garifuna and the Mestizo – which will be performed by our well trained dance troupe and a live musical band. Performances will include stage shows, street parades and folk animations at public parks, local businesses and schools. Belize is expected to prepare and perform 90-minute presentations, which can vary depending on the size and number of folk contingents performing in each location at any given time.
Twenty-five dancers and musicians were carefully selected from all over the country for Belize’s contingent to this festival. Each of them has at least five (5) years of experience performing locally and internationally. Aside from members of the National Dance Company, dancers were selected from other dance companies to ensure a broader representation of our local artists.
They include Emilie Gomez from the San Pedro Dance Company; Roxana Bradley from
BNDC’s Dance Centre and originally from San Pedro; Alexis Rivero from Corozal Community
College Dance Company; and Troy Longworth, Expressive Arts Teacher/Dancer based in
Independence, Stann Creek.
The dancers and musicians chosen are fully prepared to meet the requirements of the tour as a serious artists and ambassadors for Belize. With this selection, we are confident that the above-mentioned cultures will be showcased in all their visual splendor while maintaining authenticity and quality of sound, movement and artistic expression.
Belize’s 25-member contingent will travel with full support from the Ministry of Culture &
Tourism to represent Belize and is scheduled to leave Belize July 2nd, 2012 and return September 12th, 2012.
About Festival du Sud:
Festivals du sud reunite, every summer, during the months of July and August, roughly about twenty folkloric groups and national ballets of all continents around the world. These ballets are under the responsibility of Festivals du sud, and participate mainly in the principal French and Spanish festivals of arts and popular traditions.
The organization Festivals du sud elaborates every year a program of the folkloric groups, coming from all continents, so that the set of the groups is welcomed without discontinuity by the different festivals, from the arrival in Europe to the departure of Europe, according to a negotiated suitability with the concerned artists.
Led solely without lucrative goal by constituted teams of volunteers, this organization wants to be extremely professional and respectful of the ballets that it receives in France and in Spain. The organization Festivals du sud seduces especially by the quality of the groups that it gathers, the sincerity of the meetings, and the festival spirit that it generates.
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Photo Caption of Above Photo:
Introducing the Dancers who will represent Belize at the International Folkloric “Festival du Sud” this summer in Europe.
L-R (1st row): Crysel Gabourel, Shadi Gillett, Roxana Bradley
L-R (2nd row): Denese Enriquez, Ameera Marin, Emilie Gomez (San Pedro Dance Company)
L-R (3rd row): Sherett Perotte, Rosita Baltazar, Ernestine Carballo (musician), Eleanor Gillett, Stevannie Duncan
L-R (4th row): Wilford Williams, Jason Wade, Alexis Rivero (Corozal Community Dance Company) & Troy Longsworth
