THE Chamorro and Carolinian cultural dances is teetering on the edge of extinction and would eventually diminish if nothing will be done about it.
But everything is not too late, according to PDI assistant general manager Gordon Marciano.
“If our local dancers will be provided a place or venue to perform regularly, we may be able to keep the authentic cultural dances for the next generations,” Marciano said.
He said that its a sad thing to let go of cultural traditions like dancing.
“If this situation is left as it is, the cultural dances will be forgotten and we will have nothing to hand over to the future generations,” he said.
Marciano is one of the island’s local cultural dancers who started dancing at the early age of 11.
He said that nowadays, most of the hotels and other establishments have in-house dancers but these dancers perform Polynesian dances.
“These are different from the original Chamolinian and Carolinian cultural dances, the ones that we should preserve,” Marciano said.
Citing one incident, Marciano said that a tourist who came from Hawaii was dining at one of the hotel restaurants and witnessed a cultural dance presentation. He said that the tourist asked if there was any place which shows the CNMI’s original cultural dances because the performance he saw “was very much like the same performance he saw in Hawaii earlier.”
“If we don’t want our cultural dances to be gone and forgotten, it’s high time that we do something and pay attention to its preservation now,” he said.
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