Plans for this year’s Community Indepen-DANCE Festival are well under way with some 25 groups registered for the competition so far, a figure which has been steadily increasing.

This is according to National Coordinator, Tyrone Trotman, who said following the success of the competition over the last two years, the Community Development Department (CDD) would not rest on its laurels but would be seeking to make the event “even bigger and better.”

To this end, the Department coordinated a series of workshops last weekend for festival participants and judges to further improve the service delivery of the event.    

There are also plans to go into the various communities across the island to encourage more persons to take part in the three year old festival.

“We will be mobilising all zonal leaders from the Community Development Department to get more persons, particularly the youth, involved in the Indepen-Dance competition. This year, we also want to place even more emphasis on the indigenous forms of dance and music…It is about using dance to build self-esteem and character among our youth.  Too many people complain about our youth without offering viable alternatives or activities for them at the Community Development Department are seeking to provide that alternative,” Mr. Trotman pointed out.

The outreach programme commences on Saturday, October 11, with whistle-stop tours in the north of the island, and this will continue the following Saturday, October 18, with visits to the east and south of the island, with the final event planned for Saturday, October 25, in the City.

The Indepen-DANCE Festival is coordinated by the CDD in collaboration with the Community Independence Celebrations Secretariat, the National Cultural Foundation and the Commission for Pan-African Affairs.

The preliminaries come off tomorrow, Friday, September 26; Saturday, September 27; Sunday, September 28; Friday, October 3; Saturday, October 4; and Sunday, October 5.

The semi-finals will be held on November 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12; while the finals are scheduled for December 6.

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