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29.04.2017 Social News

Stakeholders urged to accord dancing the needed attention

By GNA
Stakeholders urged to accord dancing the needed attention
29.04.2017 LISTEN

Accra, April 29, GNA - The 2017 International Dance Day has been marked in Accra with a call on stakeholders to accord dancing the needed attention.

Nii-Tete Yartey, the Artistic Director of the National Dance Company, who made the call on Friday said: 'Art has been overlooked. Through it change comes, we have creative minds and dance can be used to explore our creativity.'

He said it was the mandate of the National Theatre to engage the country by using art, and the engagement with the inmates of the Senior Correctional Centre would help educate, effect societal change as well as educate the citizenry.

Mr Yartey noted that the opportunity to be an artist was available to those who were creative in the area of dance, adding: 'Art is always available and our doors are always opened to anyone who wants to be part of us,' he said.

The dance dubbed 'Bukom' and performed by the Ghana Dance Ensemble, which was meant to entertain the inmates of the Senior Correctional Centre, also depicted some of the negative social vices the youth engaged in, which were not good for them and the country's development in general.

It also provided a greater sense of belonging to the inmates and saw the dance ensemble entertaining officials and inmates with traditional music and dance.

Chief Superintendent of Prisons Victoria Adzewodah, the third in Command of the Senior Correctional Centre, thanked the group for choosing the institute and showcasing educational performances.

'The drama has really taught us a lot of things, seen ourselves in it and we know that next year you will be here.

'It is our hope that this will not be the end in partnering and reforming the boys,' she said.

Madam Adzewodah, who is also a counsellor, explained that the centre corrected inmates for them to be reformed, rehabilitated, and reintegrated back into society.

She observed that the institute had a school system of formal and informal training for the inmates.

International Dance Day, which is celebrated annually on April 29, was introduced in 1982 by the International Dance Council, a partner organisation of the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.

This year's Dance Day which has the theme: 'We, Dance Together,' is being used to celebrate United States dancer, choreographer and postmodern dance theorist Trisha Brown who died on March 18. GNA

By Elsie Appiah-Osei, GNA

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