Festival highlights need for Belizean dancers

The second International Dance Festival may be over, but the work required to bring Belize’s level of dancing on par with global standards continues. According to local experts, the event has shown the Belizean society what the world of dance can offer our youths. Marion Ali has more.

Marion Ali, Reporting

Dancers and their choreographers of the second International Dance Belize Festival spent today discussing their trade. The topic was education and culture. According to Artistic Director of the Belize Dance Company, Althea Sealy, the forum provides exposure to Belizean dancers.

Althea Sealy, Artistic Director, Belize Dance Company

“Each country gets an opportunity to share with us how they get to the level that they’re at and the struggles that they’ve been through, so we could see the similarity between us. For instance Zimbabwe, they have the opposite problem to what we have. We found out that we have problems getting male dancers, and they having problems getting female dancers.”

But while the men are missing in action, in Belize, even the women come few and far between.

Althea Sealy

“It’s from way back, you send your child to school to be a lawyer, a doctor, accountant, but never but never think about letting her be a dancer or a choreographer. I think that’s what we’re lack of, we need the education likewise to be dancers and choreographers, but we need to get our CXC’s, that whole line up, the same way you educate a person to be a lawyer, that’s the same way you educate them to be a dancer and a choreographer, and that’s what we are totally lack of.”

Marion Ali for News 5.

The stage performances for the second International Dance Festival ended on Sunday night with presentations by the Contemporary Dance Company from Oaxaca Mexico, Jamaica’s Edna Manley’s School of Dance and the Vista Dance School from Belize.