Last week was amazing at the Bliss Theater! NICH (The National Institute of Culture and History), which is the umbrella for the department I work for, ICA (the Institute of Creative Arts) sponsors an annual National Festival of the Arts for students and youth under the age of 29. Every school in the country has competitions for visual artists, musicians, playwrights and actors, poets, dancers, musicians, and even fashion designers and culinary artists. Gold, silver and bronze winners from each school move to the town, and ultimately district competitions. The winners from each District come to Belize City and perform on stage at the theater.
Monday was the Opening Ceremony, or Launch, as a kick off is called in Belize. The Minister of Ecuation spoke, and a great speech was given by an 11 year old boy whos face was on the poster promoting the Festival of Arts this year. I told his father that I think I was listening to the future Prime Minister of the country! The ceremony was followed by a parade through town - and guess what was the most popular song that the bands played, Bad Romance by Lady Gaga! All the kids who attended the opening ceremony were in the parade and they represented all the Districts in the country. There were clowns and stick walkers, garifuna drummers and dancers of all sorts. All the kids came out of school to watch the parade as it passed by. Then it was back to the House of Culture, a beautiful old colonial building on the water, for lunch for 500! followed by a concert after lunch featuring the winners from the district competitions and some local artists who are very popular. What a surprise as I saw these performers come out and realized several of them are the people I work with every day at the theater! Jackie Castillo even works in the same office with me! She quietly and efficiently gets her work done everyday, but there she was on stage belting out a beautiful song and engaging the kids in the audience to sing, dance and clap along with her. Then the rapper, Nello Park, who's songs I listen to, is introduced and it's my friend Kernelle, a fabulous graphic designer I work with at the Bliss!
On Tuesday, the kid's performances began and youth from the Stann Creek and Toldeo Districts rode in buses for up to 6 hours to get here. Their arts are influenced by the West African andCaribbean influences of the Garifuna culture and included drumming and native dancing. Wednesday was Orange Walk and Corozal Districts. They are in the northern part of the country that boarders Mexico. So their music, dancing and plays were influenced by the Spanish culture, with the girls in colorful costumes and flowers in their hair, and Vaqueros, or Mexican cowboys with the boys dressed in cowboy hats and bandanas. Thursday was Cayo District, in the western part of the country, boardering Guatemala. So they had a little different Spanish influence, and the Mayan influence. On Friday were the students from Belize District. Of course, Belize City is in this District, so we had some rap music about street violence, killing, and a number of plays dealing with domestic violence and police corruption. How sad that these are the omnipresent themes that influence their lives at this early age. But, just outside of the city are some very small and extremely strong Creole communities. Creole is home to punta dancing and Brukdown music, so the Belize District was also diversly represented. The Bliss has a great Facebook page and they have posted photos and video footage of the Festival so you might want to check it out at: Institute of Creative Arts.
So, over the course of the week, thousands of youths came through the doors. They had a wonderful time performing in front of the other students, friends and family who made the journey to see them on stage. Then they were all fed lunch before they got back on their buses for the long trip back that some had to make. But they all had a great experience and loved being on stage with sets and lights and microphones amplifying their performances. But I think I enjoyed it more than all of them! To see the excitement and joy in their faces was a thrill, and even when the performance was just a tad painful, the pleasure they got from performing outweighed the missed ques and off key singing. The future of this country lies in the youth and there is a lot of talent in the future in Belize!!