Indonesian Students Win Folk Dance Festival In Spain

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - Indonesian students from Junior High School (SMP) Labschool Cibubur have won the Folk Dance Festival of Fiestalonia Milenio 2016 in Lloret de Mar, Catalonia, Spain, a press statement received by Antara said here on Monday.

"The Danadyaksa Budaya Dance team's victory in the folk dance festival in Spain proves that the international community highly appreciates the national culture of Indonesia," Coordinating Minister for Maritime and Resources, Rizal Ramli, said.

On the other hand, the students' dance team also proved that many young people still love the Indonesian culture, including traditional dances, he added.

The success of the dance group, comprising 31 junior high school students of Labschool, was in line with the government's program to attract 20 million foreign tourists by 2019.

"These students (the Danadyaksa Budaya dance team) deserve to be called Young Cultural Ambassadors of Indonesia. They are credited with helping promote the diverse national culture abroad," Rizal Ramli said.

Kayla, a member of the dance team, said the dance group's achievement was a result of the hard work put in by the whole team, including teachers, and support from the parents.

"I am happy to be part of the team of these cultural ambassadors who promoted Indonesia's culture abroad," she said.

The leader of the dance group, Cantika Reviera, said there were two main categories, namely dance and choir, at the event.

Twenty countries participated in the festival, including Israel, Spain, Armenia, Uzbekistan and Egypt.

Having practiced for two and a half months, the Indonesian student team participated in the dance category of 8-16 years old. They won in the special choreography  category and also defeated ten other countries that competed in dance category.(WDY)