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ASCC group selected for Solomons Arts Fest

The American Samoa Community College dance group has been selected to represent the territory, in the “performing arts” category for traditional song and dance, at the 11th Festival of the Pacific Arts hosted this year in the Solomon Islands under the theme “Culture in Harmony with Nature”.

The ASCC group will be part of the estimated 50 member delegation American Samoa is sending to the Festival, held from July 1-14, 2012.

Arts Council executive director Leala Pili told the Samoa News/Le Lali yesterday, all the groups (close to 30 schools, village and church youth groups and a private sector group) that participated in the annual Arts Council Flag Day performing arts this month were superb and the final decision to select the ASCC group was very difficult.

Pili had said earlier the group to represent American Samoa at the Festival would be selected from their flag day program.

She said the public at large was given the chance to select their favorite performing group and the Arts Council special committee coordinated everything resulting in this final decision with the ASCC group placing first, followed by the Fa’asao Marist High School performing group, StarKist Samoa's dance group came in third and the Malaeloa Methodist Church group placed fourth.

The male and female performers in the ASCC group gave excellent performances unlike other groups where the male performers were better than the females and vice versa, said Pili. For example, the StarKist group had the male performers doing an excellent job but the females were not up to par, she said.

She pointed out that Fa’asao Marist gave a great performance — males and females — but the big issue against them was that the majority of them are under the age of 18.

Pili said the next step is for the ASCC group to work with the Arts Council to fine-tune their dances and songs along with the dance routines.