Belize National dance Company star has cancer

Rosita Baltazar

The Belize National Dance Company returned from a successful tour in Europe last Wednesday to some bad news. Assistant Artistic Director, Dancer, Choreographer and Board Member, Rosita Baltazar didn’t complete the tour due to medical problems and the company has since learned that she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Baltazar is well known as a dancer and teacher for over twenty-five years and currently works with the junior students of BNDC as well as several primary schools. So on Saturday night, the Belize Dance Company is asking her friends, fans, students and the general public to head out to the Bliss and support a benefit concert that is being held to assist Baltazar with medical expenses.  Althea Sealy spoke to News Five about the fundraising effort.

Althea Sealy

Althea Sealy, Artistic Director, Belize Dance Company

“My assistant, Miss Rosita Baltazar, was diagnosed with breast cancer while we were on tour in Spain and France. Unfortunately we had to leave her behind; she is with her family in London and we were told the cost of what it will cost to get her chemo and surgery and it’s extremely a lot. So we are starting off with a dance concert at the Bliss on the twenty-second of September. It’s fifteen dollars on the lower tier and ten dollars upstairs on the second tier. It will be on the twenty-second and it starts at eight o’clock. If anybody needs tickets or would like to support this event, you all can just come out and offer whatever you have to offer and if there’s anybody else out there that would like to provide more in supporting this event, they could always contact me at 624-7469.”

Delahnie Bain

“You mentioned that you all are starting off with this dancing concert, do you expect that the dance company will be holding more fundraisers to assist Miss Baltazar in the future?”

Althea Sealy

“Of course, it’s like a hundred thousand. That’s like preparing two times for the show that we went in Europe. So we’re not sure if we’re going to be able to come up with that amount, but at least we’re going to try as much as we could. So when we finish with this, the dancers are going to do other small bookings and see more or less and we’ll go through as far as we could.”

Delahnie Bain

“Since she has been working with you all for so long, how important is for you as the dance company to be there for her to support her through this?”

Althea Sealy

“It’s very important, you wouldn’t know the amount of dancers right now that really feel—when we shared this news. As a matter of fact, we got the message when we got back home. Before, we didn’t know what it was we just knew that she went on medical terms. So the news was shocking to us likewise and all the dancers are sending their love and everybody that had passed through her and that’s a lot of kids that did pass through her.”

The benefit concert is also an opportunity for Belizeans to see the show that the Company performed in Europe, which is entitled “Belize – Diverse Cultures and Rhythms.”