Dance Xchange: The 2nd International Dance Workshop and Festival with the theme “Cultural Connectivity through Dance” on April 14–20 in Roxas City

The National Committee on Dance of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts has been spearheading the celebration of the International Dance Day with the holding of the Annual National Dance Congress and Festival to materialize Pres. Proclamation No. 154, declaring the last week of April as “National Dance Week”. With the great success of the 2008 National Dance Congress and International Dance Day, the National Committee on Dance under the leadership of Shirley Halili-Cruz endeavored into organizing the Dance Xchange: The Philippine International Dance Workshop and Festival.

Following the successful 1st International Dance Workshop and Festival in 2009, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) – National Committee on Dance is once again organizing the Dance Xchange: The 2nd International Dance Workshop and Festival with the theme “Cultural Connectivity through Dance” on April 14 – 20 in Roxas City, Capiz, Philippines.

The Dance Xchange aims to:
1) strengthen international dance network,
2) showcase the unique dances of each country to facilitate cultural understanding,
3) provide venue for interaction and facilitate learning among dancers, directors, dance teachers, choreographers,
4) encourage the creation of new works, and
5) provide a platform for local and foreign choreographers and dancers to stage their new works. Dance Xchange will showcase the unique dances of each country as tool for cultural understanding.

The theme of Dance Xchange: The 2nd International Dance Workshop and Festival supports the International Dance Day message delivered by Julio Bocca:

Dance is discipline, work, teaching, communication. With it we save on words that perhaps others would not understand and, instead, we establish a universal language familiar to everyone. It gives us pleasure, it makes us free and it comforts us from the impossibility we humans have to fly like birds, bringing us closer to heaven, to the sacred, to the infinite.

It is a sublime art, different each time, so much like making love that at the end of each performance it leaves our heart beating very hard and looking forward to the next time.

Indeed, the Dance Xchange is a fitting event to realize the inspiring message of Julio Bocca and the aspiration of all dance artists – that of giving deeper value and high esteem for the art of Dance.


SCHEDULE OF ACTIVITIES

April 14 - arrival of foreign dance troupe
- performance in Manila/ Tour in Manila

April 15 - opening of Dance Xchange in Roxas City, Capiz

April 15-18 forum and workshops
- performances in Roxas City and in the near by municipalities
closing of dance xchange

April 19 - performances in Boracay, Antique and Iloilo

April 20 - return to Manila

April 21 - fly out of Manila (foreign delegates)

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