Arts |Street dancers coming to town next month

The president of the Macau Street Dance Culture and Art Promotion Association, Si Tou

Street dancers from the mainland, Hong Kong, Japan and Korea are coming to the city in July to celebrate the third edition of the Macau Street Dance Festival.
The festival is organized by the Macau Street Dance Culture and Art Promotion Association of Macau and also by the Dance Studio Macao. The festival is additionally supported by the Macau Foundation and by the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau (DSEJ). The organizers are offering workshops that will be given by both local and overseas experienced dancers.
“Six dancers are from outside of Macau, and 11 are from the city,” Popeye Hong, artistic director of the TDSM Dance Studio and one of the two workshop contributors said.
Aside from workshops in which students can learn street dance from people with multiple years of street dancing experience, an exhibition will also be prepared for July. The exhibition, focusing on street dance, will present videos and images on the history of street dance in Macau in July. A final performance will be brought to the public by the outstanding students, as well as by invited dancers.
According to Hong, most local dance lecturers of the festival have four to five years of experience in street dancing. Some work in local studios teaching dance, while others work as clerks who have an interest in street dance performances.
These teaching staff are “aged between 24 and 32 years old.” Moreover, Hong noted that, this year, the festival accepted its youngest participant, an 11-year-old child. “They participate in the festival for the entertainment and for the mastering of their dancing skills. Someone might even want follow this [street dance] direction in the future,” Hong said.
Regarding the development of the dancing field in Macau, Hong admitted that it is still lagging behind Hong Kong. Hong said “it is gradually developing, and the government is also supporting us.”
Si Tou Tat Hin, president of the Macau Street Dance Culture and Art Promotion Association told the Times that last year there were 150 and 200 participations of non-locals and of Macau dancers respectively, in workshops during the festival period. According to Si Tu, middle school and college students accounted for 60 percent of last year’s attendance, followed by university students (30 percent of the total). The festival attracted 700 to 800 people in total last year, including the audience and the students, according to Si Tu.