Today’s A Journey through Aesthetic Realms will be presented in Spanish, with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Aulacese (Vietnamese), Chinese, English, French, German, Hungarian, Indonesian, Hungarian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Mongolian, Persian, Portuguese, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Thai.

Greetings enthusiastic viewers and welcome to A Journey through Aesthetics Realms on Supreme Master Television. Between June 16 and 19, 2010 the renowned National Folklore Ballet of the Dominican Republic staged a performance of “Creole Passion”

in four large Formosan (Taiwanese) cities. The event was organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Formosa (Taiwan) and the Embassy of the Dominican Republic. Like a fresh breeze in mid-summer, the magnificent dances led to a true love and appreciation for Caribbean culture across this beautiful island.

Supreme Master Television had the opportunity to interview key members of this colorful group touring Formosa (Taiwan) including a representative from the Dominican Republic’s Ministry of Culture, Bernarda Jorge who serves as the nation’s Vice Minister of Creativity and Popular Participation, ballet director Professor Josefina Miniño, principal male dancer Gregorio Rodriguez, and principal female dancer Wanda Camilo. Let us now hear them introduce their production.

This show is called Creole Passion which was played for almost three weekends in the (National Theater’s) main hall in the Dominican Republic and it was a sell-out.

The word creole describes best that very mixture that we are. And what we are is a creole country, a mulatto country, a Caribbean country.

Passion is the strongest feeling you can have. It could be a passion for dancing, a passion for singing. Where does this passion come from? From the culture of our country, the passion of our folklore.

I want to convey to them how great we are as a country, as a culture, as a nation, the great love and the great heart with which we do things. With this Dominican delegation, we believe it is very important to have come here to Formosa (Taiwan), because through it not only Formosa (Taiwan) will be able to see the Dominican culture, but also a part of what is the rich cultural treasure of the Caribbean.

Professor Miniño now discusses the specific dances performed in Creole Passion. The opening of the show, we make a portrait of what the explorer finds as an island and what inhabited it at that time, our Indians, our Taino race. Those Indians who were highly sublime, dreamers, believers, very devoted to God, very religious and very passive, and very peaceful. Afterwards we see how the Spanish man comes to settle in our land, and then the blacks came and we have a mixture of Dominican, Spanish and African.

Some of our dances are of European origin, of Spanish origin, others of Dominican origin and the African-Spanish influence. From the black people we have very beautiful dances that are very energetic.

We have the “Origin” ritual, which shows the origin of our island. We have “Mangulina,” we have a merger of three very different genres as “Carabineza,” “Dominican foot stamping” and “Machaco.” “Machaco” is a dance which is performed after a successful planting and then these black people go to celebrate that year’s great harvest. Then we also have songs like merengue which we have in different forms; here we bring it in its most traditional form.

We very much preserve our merengue as the representative dance of the Dominican Republic.

We also have dances and kettledrums; we also have Carnival dances. Our Carnival is very beautiful. It is the euphoria of the people who pour into the streets once a year, for everybody to get dressed in costumes in a way and let off steam. And each one of those masks and those clothes, they are made as everyone wants it to be or has decided to invent, what he has sought to create, and that is a day to live it, with the mask that he wants to wear, and the Dominican very much like their Carnival.

The Dominican Republic is a very special place and her wonderful people truly have a vibrant culture.

Dominican Republic occupies three quarters of the island “Hispaniola.” It is at the heart of the Caribbean.

In general, foreigners who go to the Dominican Republic, what they praise very much is the joy of the Dominicans; the warmth with which they welcome foreigners. Our people are very generous, our people are very devoted to the best causes, our people traditionally have stood by their principles, they have heroes, and they have great noble people.

My country is very humble, very hardworking, but everything it does, it does it with great passion.

We are very humanitarian, polite, and we are passionate about wanting to grow and reach higher every day. We also have our rhythm and that is what identifies us as a nation.

I see that the dances are very different, but one thing in common is that they are all very happy.

Oh yes, we enjoy in a very natural way, so we address everything with a smile, with celebration, with dancing. We are very festive, we are not overwhelmed either by need or natural disasters or anything. We are only strong believers in God and we believe that God made us to smile, dance and enjoy.

The Dominican culture is very rich; it has many manifestations in all the fields and all the areas. But the dancing and performing is where it has shone the most and is constantly enriched.

What a beautiful lineage! After these messages, we’ll return to learn more about the National Folklore Ballet. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

This exchange has been very beneficial, and with this tour, we look to strengthen those ties of friendship, of cooperation that exists between the Dominican Republic and (Formosa) Taiwan.

Welcome back to A Journey through Aesthetic Realms on Supreme Master Television. The National Folklore Ballet travels the world sharing the magic of the traditional dance arts from the Dominican Republic.

Let’s learn more about the group from its director, Professor Josefina Miniño and others. The National Folklore Ballet features 45 artists from Dominican folklore, between dancers and ballerinas, four soloists, an ensemble of 12 musicians, two very special singers from the choir of the Ballet and one who is our star of Dominican folklore, Ileana Reinoso, also the soloists are Wanda Camilo, Gregorio Rodriguez and Luis Tejada.

A very young group, with lots of energy to perform in each of the genres that we have brought over here. We train every day, daily. The training is very hard, we all work together and in that way we can perfect our techniques even more. We have teachers that come from other countries to give us classes to train us and also to learn more from other cultures and the work is quite arduous.

All the hard work pays off when Professor Miniño sees the troupe bringing her country’s precious national art, spirit and hospitality to the world.

We have walked many countries around the world, displaying our dances, our singing, with the same passion with which I have come here, so that you know, that little island which is called the Dominican Republic and when you feel that you do not have a place to be, that is your island which will wait for you, always with its love, with affection and a smile.

The National Folklore Ballet has received numerous accolades for the splendor of its artistic productions.

In Mexico, we were award winners in a big festival which is called Cervantino, which is very prestigious and we have been award winners in big festivals, in many countries, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, and New York (USA).

What has been the response from the audiences who have had the pleasure of watching these dancers?

Happy. I was at this last event that we did, I went to a neighborhood, very far away, we had 4,000 very underprivileged children, but they were calm, listening, and looking. The dances and everything we did that night, we did in a euphoric way.

Later, we were in the towns, in universities also and it was very successful. They are like sponges. What you are giving to them, they absorb it, and so we have to give them good things, so that the country keeps with its traditions.

Both Gregorio Rodriguez and Wanda Camilo have been dancers for years and are true exemplary professionals.

I am a Dominican folk dancer. I have been with the National Folklore Ballet for 18 years. I am 35 years old. I am the principal male dancer and master of the National Folklore Ballet. Apart from that, in my country I have my own dance company.

I started dancing at the age of five. I like it because it is the most renowned dance institution in the Dominican Republic.

I am a member of the National Folklore Ballet which is the institution which represents our country at the highest cultural level. I am the principal female dancer; I have been part of this institution for 16 years. I have attended the school of Fine Arts since I was nine, from which I graduated in folk dance, in modern and popular dances too, and I stayed to become part of the ballet, because of the passion I felt for dancing. For me the experience has been very big, very fulfilling to be able to represent in different countries with different cultures what we as Dominican people have. We have also learned a lot from other cultures with which we have had the chance to share.

So what is the attraction of dance that you are so passionate about?

The beauty of dancing is to be able to express what you feel through movement and to make the people in front of you feel what you want to express, to be able to share with them what we truly are as a people, our roots, such as the traditions we have. It is a great satisfaction that every artist has.

Bravo National Folklore Ballet for your stirring performances! Our heartfelt thanks Vice Minister of Creativity and Popular Participation Bernarda Jorge, National Folklore Ballet director Professor Josefina Miniño, principal dancers Wanda Camilo and Gregorio Rodriguez and other members of the dance troupe for sharing the lovely heritage of the Dominican Republic and your friendship.

May your mission of bringing people around the globe closer together through art be blessed with continued success! Finally, we would like to extend our gratitude to the tour organizers, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Formosa (Taiwan) and the Embassy of the Dominican Republic. Esteemed viewers, please join us next Monday on A Journey through Aesthetic Realms for part two of our program on the National Folklore Ballet.

Thank you for being with us today on our show. Up next on Supreme Master Television is Vegetarianism: The Noble Way of Living, after Noteworthy News. May everyone across the world enjoy eternal peace and tranquility.

We’d like to thank the following organizations for allowing us to film the dance performances: *Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Formosa (Taiwan) * ICAA, IOV Taiwan *Embassy of the Dominican Republic

For more details on the National Folklore Ballet, please contact Ms. Josefina Miniño on