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The multi-awarded Bayanihan Dance Company are grand champions at the World Folk Dance Festival in Spain.

The 27-person delegation, including seven musicians and 16 dancers were declared "absolute winner," or the grand champion of the 22nd World Folk Dance Festival besting delegations from 50 countries of Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas.

The entry of the 50-year-old Bayanihan was an eight-minute dance narrative called "The Voyage for Love and Peace," which told the tale of star-crossed lovers through several famous Philippine folk dances, including the singkil and the kuntao.

The Bayanihan troupe won the nod of the judges from Spain, Australia, Argentina, the Netherlands and Wales.

"We depicted the voyage for love and peace. We weaved the dances together with the story," said the company's executive director Suzie Benitez.

"We said we wanted to tell the story of the Philippines, we wanted them to see our culture, but we also wanted to win. And so when they called us the grand champion, we were all feeling so high, and so proud, and the sprinkling of Filipinos who were there were all crying with us," she said.

http://www.goodnewspilipinas.com/docs/art_and_culture/current/bayanihan_wfd07.html