Marianville secondary school celebrates cultural show

MORE than 20 traditional dance groups took part in the eighth Marianville Secondary School cultural show in Bomana, outside Port Moresby, last Saturday.
Teacher in-charge of the show Antonia Hape said that the biannual event was a way for the all-girls school to celebrate PNG culture.
“Marianville used to have cultural shows with De La Salle (Secondary School), however, in 2004 the school decided to have a cultural show on its own. So in 2017 this is the eighth Marianville cultural show.
“And in almost all the cultural shows that we have had there are always about 20-plus groups that participate.
“All the cultural groups and the students in them are very patriotic about where they are from and this show is a celebration of our culture,” Hape said.
“The cultural show is a biannual event. When we don’t have it we do other fundraising activities like the Miss Marianville Quest and talent shows and we have also held musicals where the whole school is involved in not just acting but the whole production of it.”
The school is quite strict with males dancing with the girls at this cultural show.
“All the girls are encouraged to have their blood relatives only, meaning their brothers or their clansmen dance with them.
“For this cultural show we have a total of 22 cultural dance groups.
“Unfortunately, the biggest group from East Sepik was cancelled due to some disciplinary issues, not because of the cultural groups but because of one of the friends that joined the group.
“These shows that we are really strict with any slight mistake.”