12 taking part in expo

Education

By SCHOLAR KASSAS
TWELVE University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) students will be representing the country at the Dubai World Expo in February next year.
UPNG theatre arts coordinator Kenneth Pasiu said the university was trying to turn around the negative perception towards the artists and performers in the country.
He said artists and performers had a part to play in developing the nation and this was a good example of how their skills and abilities could be put to use in promoting the country.
Pasiu said the 12 students were a combination of six theatre arts and six music students.
He said the students had received some help in the form of choreography from former creative arts students.
Meanwhile, assistant choreographer Sophie Naime said most of the movements and dances used by students were creations from previous years.
“Students chose the movements and we polished it up and made it stronger for the competition, by adding different elements of theatre in the performance,” she said.
Naime said they incorporated elements from all regions into their song and dance performances.
She said the costumes were contemporised and sketched out from the various traditional attires and theatrically worn.
Naime insisted that having a degree in performing arts was useful in a developing and globalised world where there was a need to have an identity and to promote it.
She said performing arts was about creating as it was about performing because one of the main objectives was to deliver messages and inspire through this medium.
Naime said they had hoped the next performance of these students overseas would be an inspiration to the children who were coming up and would lift the reputation of the university and be good ambassadors of PNG in Dubai.
She said the theatre arts department was thankful to the university administration for allowing students to use the Ullie Beier building after the academic year closes to prepare for the competition.
The PNG Contemporary Cultural Music Dance Troupe Competition was hosted by the PNG Tourism Promotion Authority, in partnership with the National Cultural Commission.