![Image: Silver Shadow dancers paying tribute to the late dance icon, Virginia Alexander, earlier this year. [PHOTO: Stan Bishop]](https://thevoiceslu.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Silver-Shadow-dancers-paying-tribute.jpg)
THE Saint Lucia Archaeological and Historical Society has been invited by the Lawonnbèlè Cultural Association of Martinique to participate in and represent St. Lucia with a National Bèlè Group at its annual International DjoubaBèlè Folk Dance and Music Festival. This Festival will take place from Thursday, 7 June to Monday, 11 June 2018.
This inaugural event will feature folk dance and cultural music groups from Trinidad and Tobago, Martinique and St. Lucia – countries that possess the specific knowledge of and practice the indigenous forms of Bèlè.
The Festival includes a conference, at which presentations on various means of preserving this rich cultural heritage will be made.
In addition, the Festival provides an avenue for the participating countries to showcase some of their cultural attributes in dance and song through indigenous chants and instruments. Although, emphasis will be placed on promoting and enhancing the dance art forms, there will also be special foci on linkages between our folklore and our cultural identity, the Kwéyòl Language, tourism and its importance in fostering Caribbean unity.