The Provincial Tourism and Culture Office (PTCO), under the leadership of Acting Chief Marichelle O. Costales, hosted the first-ever Festival Management and Choreography Training Workshop, a training seminar for organizers and choreographers from March 18 to March 21, 2025. Representatives from DepEd and from the 15 municipalities of Nueva Vizcaya were in attendance not only for the lecture portions of the event, but also for the practical festival dance choreography during the third and fourth days.
In the opening address given by PTCO Aide Aedam Elizaga, he announced the intention of the four-day workshop as hoping to instill the importance of ‘prioritizing community values in festival management.’ Tourism Officer Sharen Bonayon, representing Acting Chief Costales, extended her gratitude for their attendance and participation as partners in the conduct of the Grand Ammungan Festival 2025.
The guest speaker for the event was Sir John Christopher ‘Jaycee’ B. Mesana, a graduate of the University of the Philippines who has extensively traveled the country’s festivals as a researcher. The first two days focused on lectures that Mr. Mesana grounded in theory from various studies on the successes and execution of Philippine festivals such as Sinulog, Panagbenga, and Tandaya. He lectured extensively on the importance of attention to detail, display of culture, grassroots efforts to involve people as early as childhood, and the power of advertising and branding when speaking of culturally significant events such as festivals, and also pointed toward three observable problems in festival management which are: preservational difficulty, loss of cultural identity, and cultural appropriation. Festivals, according to Mr. Mesana, began from calamity and are for recovery. They give life and livelihood to the communities who participate in them.
The last two days were focused on dance and choreography training, throughout which he stressed the lesson of ‘Primum No Nocere’: First, Do No Harm. Choreographers, according to Mr. Mesana, carry with them social responsibility within festivals. “More than paid creative workers, choreographers are part of the success and aspirations of the festival.” After discussions of the fundamentals of dance choreography and current trends in festival dances, Mr. Mesana guided the more than sixty students and choreographers in attendance through learning and arranging two new dances, one of which was the Jota de Nueva Vizcaya, inspired by Spanish colonial dance traditions, and a showcase number that depicted the different specific moves and stances of each municipality in attendance.
The four-day program was concluded with a closing ceremony, during which both the Jota de Nueva Vizcaya and the municipality showcase were performed. It was attended by Acting PTCO Chief Marichelle O. Costales, SP Board Member Eunice Galima-Gambol, and Governor Atty. Jose V. Gambito. In her speech, BM Gambol praised and thanked the attendees for their wholehearted participation and anticipation of the upcoming GAF. In his own address, the governor followed in the same vein, but expressed his own appreciation and plans for the province. “Nueva Vizcaya is willing to take the risk for innovation. Let us keep remaking Nueva Vizcaya anew. Thank you for your enthusiasm for the innovation of the Ammungan festival. Thank you to our speaker, Mr. John Christopher B. Mesana, and Ma’am Marichelle Costales. Let us not just make (the festival) enjoyable. We will show them a new Ammungan Festival. We will make Nueva Vizcaya the best province.”
With the efforts of the Provincial Tourism and Culture Office, the governor’s visions of innovation may well come to fruition. The upcoming Grand Ammungan Festival 2025 may well bring new and innovative experiences for one and all, as the Festival Management and Choreography Training Workshop has armed them with new knowledge and responsibility to make the event not only better than past celebrations, but the best it could be. /igmb
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