MAPIA SAMAN Dancers

“All the academics were talking about it!”

- Assoc. Prof. Pieter Aquilia

“Excellent! Excellent!”

- Dr. Stephen McIlwaine

MAPIA (Mahasiswa PSB Academy Indonesia) SAMAN dancers performed their biggest gig on 14 November 2009 for the Singapore graduation of University of Newcastle (UoN), Australia. The show took place in Singapore Chinese Orchestra auditorium. It was the only performance to honour the bachelor and master graduates, as well as, the Honorary Doctorate awards by the university. More than 1,000 international guests attended the ceremony which was divided into two sessions.

As the Head of Culture, Elisabeth Melinda was extremely happy to bring her team to go this far.

“This performance really gives us a great experience, since there are so many precious things that we have learned from this event, we are looking forward to perform in other occasions.” Melinda said.

The performance was the biggest gig after the group’s debut at PSB Academy International Day ceremony earlier this year. Since then, the MAPIA SAMAN group has been invited to perform for many occasions by the campus. It is another milestone from the first International students’ group at PSB Academy.

One of the dancers Thaza Ainul Falah said, “It was hard work paid off, especially because we don’t have much time to prepare for this time; but, we got through it. It is our contribution to preserve the Indonesian culture.”