Leyte Dance Theater awes audience in hometown

TACLOBAN CITY, Feb. 25 (PNA) - The Leyte Dance Theater (LDT) showcased its showstoppers on Friday night at the “Salida” (a vernacular word which means show or performance), the highlight of the National Arts Month celebration in this city.

Fresh from their successful performance last month at the Festival of Festivals sponsored by Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) and the Courseline Learning Center in Hyderabad, India, the LDT, in cooperation with the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) was tapped by the city government of Tacloban for a show at Astrodome.

In front of more than a thousand spectators, LDT performed their showstoppers Sarimanok and Singkil - two dances that showcase the great culture of Maguindanao.

According to its artistic director and choreographer Jess de Paz, in celebration of the National Arts Month, the group always makes it a point to celebrate the wonderful world of dance.

“That even with LDT's world class status, it has always bowed its head to where it comes from,” De Paz said.

The world-renowned choreographer, who studies at the Joffrey Ballet School in New York, described the performance as “richly visual, emotionally stirring, truly riveting, intense, flippant, pleasantly endearing and, artistically awesome in its totality.”

The dance group has produced top choreographers, which formed groups in Eastern Visayas and across the country. One of its noted LDT graduate is Douglas Nierras of the Powerdance.

The group, according to de Paz has passion to spread love and peace through cultural exchange and culture identity.

“LDT's humble beginning has never ceased to inspire, to share, to open up opportunities to the less fortunate dance enthusiasts who are not able to afford formal dance training,” de Paz said.

"Salida" presented the culture and the symbolic interpretation of Philippine traditions and ideologies, the life and aspirations of Filipinos in diverse cultural settings.

The goal of spreading passion for the art of dance shows that art has the ability to transcend boundaries and build bridges of understanding.

It also has the ability to inspire to rise above the mundane and strive to create a fertile ground from which peace and understanding among peoples can flourish!

The national government declared the month of February as National Arts Month. This year, the NCCA Sub-Committee on Arts has come up with a theme for the celebration: Malikhain, Mapagbago, Filipino.”

The theme underscores the creative power of the arts and its role as a catalyst for change. It also highlights arts as a reflection of the nation’s soul and from it our pride of being Filipino.

The Leyte Dance Theatre is composed of dancers coming from different places of Eastern Visayas who are either living or studying in Tacloban City.

Aside from representing the Philippines as Ambassador of Goodwill/Culture, it won the Grand Championship Award in Malaysia, 2009, during the International Folklore Festival Competition and garnered also the Best in Choreography, Best in Music and Best Male Dancer awards. (PNA)

RMA/SQM/VICKY C. ARNAIZ