Anse Boileau primary, Plaisance secondary grand winners of the Inter-school moutya dance competition   Keeping our cultural heritage flame burning   By Patrick Joubert |13 July 2022

The Anse Boileau primary and the Plaisance secondary schools are the grand winners of the inter-school ‘Moutya’ competition.

Organised by the National Council for Children (NCC) in collaboration with the Seychelles Institute of Culture, Heritage and the Arts, the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Family and the Ministry of Education, the competition was part of activities for the Children Festival launched by NCC for the month of June under the theme ‘Les zanfan reste zanfan’.

The final of the competition, which took place yesterday evening at the International Conference Centre (ICCS), was attended by President Wavel Ramkalawan; First Lady Linda Ramkalawan; the Minister for Youth, Sports and Family, Marie Céline Zialor; the Minister for Education, Justin Valentin; the permanent secretary for Culture, Cecile Kalebi; the chief executive of NCC, Yasmin Umarji; parents, teachers and other guests.

Second in the primary category went to La Misère school while Takamaka took the third prize.

In the secondary category, Anse Boileau and Ile Perseverance shools took second and third positions respectively.

The two first finishers had the honour of receiving their prizes from President Ramkalawan while First Lady Ramkalawan presented prizes to the runners-up. Minister Zialor presented the third finishers with their prizes.

All participants received a certificate of participation.   

“The prize represents the sacrifices and hard work that we put in our rehearsals with the help of our teachers.  We were filled with anxiety when we saw the performances of the other schools and we prayed until our team’s name was called up and we are very happy,” said the Anse Boileau primary school dancer, Lethysha Pooda.

As for the Plaisance secondary school dancer, Kaisha Philoe, the prize represents the long hours of hard work and efforts they put in their rehearsals.

“The competition was very tough taking into account that most of our competitors were dancing more a less the same song. That got us to panic a bit but as our dance moves were different from theirs, I think that’s what caught the judges’ attention for us to win the first prize,” she said.

There were five dance teams in each category for the final.  As there were only five secondary schools who registered for the competition, they went straight into the final. As for the primary schools they went through an elimination process which took place on June 25, 2022.

According to the chief executive of NCC, Yasmin Umarji, the aim of the competition was to impart the knowledge of the dance among the children and the youth including to get them to like and enjoy it too so that they get to carry on to promote it in the future.  

She explained that NCC decided on the competition taking into account that our ‘Moutya’, as our cultural heritage, has recently been added to the list of Unesco’s intangible heritage and it was no better way to involve our youngsters to keep it alive and going and to respect it as well.  

Mrs Umarji added that the competition was held in line with article 31 of the United Nations which recognises the right of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts.

She called on students to, apart from learning and enjoying the Moutya dance, to take their studies seriously as well.

A member of the organising committee, San Finesse, said that they will be looking for the possibility to hold another such competition in October during the Kreol Festival where this time the participating schools will have to beat their own drums and sing and dance to their own rhythm.

During the intervals, the audience was entertained by the Youth Band from the Seychelles National Youth Council (SNYC) including video performances by the Island Youth band from Praslin.

The accompanying photos show the winning teams as well as other highlights of the final.

Photos by Thomas Meriton