The 9th International Dance Workshop and Festival, set in Iloilo from April 29 to May 2 this year, has been called off due to the highly contagious coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA)-National Committee on Dance rescheduled the event to October 26-29, 2020.
The decision was made after a series of consultations with different organizations and government agencies both locally and internationally.
“It is with a heavy heart that we made this decision, considering the excitement for this grandest international dance festival has truly gone high,” Dr. Shirley Halili-Cruz, NCCA-National Committee on Dance, said.
The postponement aims to ensure the safety and protection of the health of everyone who will take part in the event.
Cruz said at least 200 delegates from New Zealand, Nepal, Mexico, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Cambodia, Turkey, England, Japan, Vietnam, India, Sri-Lanka, and Singapore are expected to join the event.
“As such, we recognized the high level of risk that we are taking should we insist on holding the event this April. The continuing rise of COVID-19 scare is causing us and our international participants and resource persons a great degree of hesitation in pursuing the conduct of the Dance Xchange 2020 as scheduled.”
Nevertheless, the NCCA-National Committee on Dance thanked and recognized all the efforts and the logistical arrangement already undertaken, as part of the preparations for the event, by its partners such as the Iloilo Dinagyang Foundation Inc. (IDFI), province of Iloilo, Iloilo City, municipality of Pototan and all other local government units, Department of Tourism, Department of Education and all its other partners.
“We are convinced that it is for the best interest of everyone to postpone the event to a much later date in the hope that by that time COVID-19 scare would have been resolved,” said Cruz.
The October 26-29, 2020 new schedule of the event is in time with the semestral break of the tertiary and basic education institutions. Also, it will connect the Dance Xchange 2020 to the NCCA National Dance Competition scheduled on October 24-25, 2020 also in Iloilo City.
Photo by Marichu Tellano
