Tumaka’t means family entertainment at the Bliss
Our friends north of the border are touring Belize with a spectacular show of contemporary dance. The show which hails from Merida in Mexico is called Tumaka’t and will involve dancing and pantomime. Belizean, Vania Duran, is the director of the show. News Five spoke to the Creative Industry Development Officer at the Institute of Creative Arts about the family show.
Jacklyn Castillo, Creative Industry Development Officer, ICA
Jacklyn Castillo,
“What is Tumaka’t? It’s an interesting word. It is basically a dance expressionist group that is coming from Merida under the direction of Vania Duran who is a local Belizean dance performer from Benque and she is also the sister of Ivan Duran. Basically the idea of Tumaka’t it’s like a pantomime kind of thing where they use dance expressions to play on the imagination of children and how to take that dance expression and put it on stage. They use different types of box pieces, different type of materials to just express that playful, cheerful child playing in a playground type of event. They are also going to be touring actually; today they are in Benque and Belmopan, tomorrow they are going to be in Orange Walk, on Friday they are going to be at Caye Caulker and on Saturday they are going to be in San Pedro. It’s for kids from ages six to you know how ever old you are—a kid at heart to enjoy just putting dance on stage and having a different cross cultural experience.”
Jose Sanchez
“You say it is cross cultural but it is not the traditional type of music you would expect.”
Jacklyn Castillo
“The music has a lot of I’d say Mestizo/Mayan influence because they are from Mérida. So it’s a little bit of a different type of music from what we are using here in Belize, but it definitely can tie into some of the cross cultural music that we have here with our own Maya Mestizo culture.”
Tumaka’t will be dancing in San Pedro, Orange Walk and in Belize City on Sunday with a three p.m. matinee and a main show at seven p.m. Feel free to call the Institute of Creative Arts for more information.
