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Assimilation of cultural arts
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Posted on Dec 07 2006
There’s the claim that the NMI must show its face in the glamour industry as explained by Saipan Chamber of Commerce Charles Cepeda. It is good observation but one that would take a lot of work and instructions from the NMI Community.
I was a musician for nearly quarter of a century. The various groups I’ve joined throughout the years played and backed up dance troupes from without the NMI. We also backed up local groups who provided entertainment for hotel guests and tourists. Proficiency made it look easy, but we spent hours on weekdays and weekends honing our skills and the music that we played.
Local dance groups have come and gone. There’s the lack of understanding that professional entertainment doesn’t end when you had one drink too many after a certain performance. If you’re contracted to perform six days a week for three hours, the hotel expects nothing less than your meeting your end of the deal. There’s obviously the lack of discipline to transcend the island culture of que cera cera.
In my stint as the governor’s representative to the South Pacific Community, I was particularly pleased at the performance of the various groups from the Cook Islands. Each troupe came out displaying their professional music and dance. The Cook Islands has about 700 groups performing all over the world between Europe, Japan, Asia, US mainland, New Zealand and Australia. Their success is rooted in the teaching of traditional music and dances beginning at the pre-school level all the way through high school.
Students who go off island have ably joined their countrymen abroad singing and dancing to pay for tuition and other expenses. This success story can be emulated in the NMI. The only missing link is the resolve to institute the teaching of local music and dances at each level in our schools. It’s an excellent approach that would eventually provide the opportunity for our children to be assimilated into the tourism industry Marianas-wide. Any takers? I have done it professionally. It is an opportunity where our children can strengthen and refine traditional local music and dances professionally and move forward doing what they can do best in perpetuity.
[B]John S. DelRosario, Jr.[/B] [I]Koblerville[/I]
