The Kahayag Dance Company Philippines Inc. was recently chosen to represent the Philippines in the 28th Shanghai Tourism Festival, China’s grandest international dance festival on Sept. 8-13.
After 10 years, the Chinese government opened the festival to a Philippine delegation, inviting Kahayag as the first Philippine performing group as sole representative.
Yajing Xue, president of World Association of Performing Arts for China and East Asia, stated that among the 80 international groups that applied for the festival, Kahayag Dance Company was selected by the Grand Official Festival committee, together with 24 other international groups.
“Kahayag’s participation will be a testament that truly, the bilateral relationship between China and the Philippines is made stronger,” said Engel Zerna, Kahayag Dance Company artistic director.
According to Shanghai Tourism Festival organizing committee representative Bob Ding, leaders from different provinces of the state, and officers from different foreign consulates in Shanghai will welcome the delegates on the evening of the opening parade.
Kahayag will be one of the 25 groups performing during the opening parade, along with a projection of 11 million Chinese citizens and foreign tourists witnessing the festival.
The festival, according to Ding, is said to have left a brilliant and happy memory on domestic and foreign tourists who attended and engaged in the previous festival activities.
Apart from the invitation to Shanghai, Kahayag received eight invitations to international festivals in other countries like Lithuania, Poland, Greece, Turkey, South Korea, Russia, and the Czech Republic.
Zerna said that Kahayag considers the invitations an honor and testament that the dance company has made its mark in the international dance community.
As a community-based group, Kahayag, however, can only choose to attend one festival each year due to a lack of a stable funding support.
“The Shanghai Tourism Festival this year entails a lesser budget compared to the invitations we received from Europe,” Zerna said.
The Kahayag Dance Company is currently looking for bigger sponsors who could send a delegation of 60 performing artists and production staff to participate in the Festival in Shanghai.
Although food, accommodation, and local transportation are normally shouldered by the festival organizers, country visas and domestic/international airfares, and other logistical and production costs are raised by the dance company. (Dylzaree Recentes)
