Contingent in Dubai to teach students Filipino culture

Tuesday, Oct 08, 2013

Dubai: A contingent from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) from the Philippines is flying to Dubai next week to conduct an intensive cultural workshop with more than 30 Filipino students to reconnect them with their ancestral roots.

The workshop, the first to be held in Dubai and the northern emirates, will engage 32 students from four Filipino schools in Dubai and Sharjah. It will be held in collaboration with the Philippine Consulate-General in Dubai, spearheaded by Lu Cimafranca, wife of the Philippine Consul General.

“This workshop is significant because this is a good opportunity, especially for Filipino students born and brought up here and are not aware of their roots,” Cimafranca told Gulf News.

“They often do not know about our country, our culture, our identity. We are all transients in the UAE. At the end of the day, we will all go home to the Philippines. It would be difficult for these children to turn out strangers in their own homeland,” she added.

Cimafranca said the workshop will have three main topics — drama, music, and dance — to be taught by internationally acclaimed Filipino artists.

The drama class will be arranged by award-winning theatre and music director Lutgardo Labad who is also the head of NCCA and a member of the Philippine Educational Theatre Association. The music workshop will be led by the musical director of the internationally acclaimed Loboc Children’s Choir, Alma Taldo. Raymund Marcaida, a Filipino indigenous dance artist, trainer and expert in Asian movements such as Balinese, Javanese, ballet and jazz, will handle the dance workshop.

Teachers’ training

The training won’t be for students alone, but also be available for teachers. The plan, the organisers said, is for teachers to be able to train other students in the future.

“These workshops are really necessary. Filipino students born and brought up here often have questions about Filipino culture. If this is not corrected, this could result in them feeling alienated in their own country,” Jenny Gonzales, from one of the participating schools, told Gulf News.

The workshops will run from October 13 to 19 at the consulate in Al Qusais followed by a recital on October 24.

By Janice Ponce ?de Leon Staff Reporter