Maraya Performing Arts is making a neighborhood within the South Bay by applications of dance, music and theatre for all ages and skills.

This Sunday, the nonprofit group will host a winter arts competition of multidisciplinary performances. Among the forged of 80 folks, from ages 3 to 78, are members of the Filipino American Women’s Club of San Diego County.

They are a bunch of a dozen ladies who’ve been rehearsing in a storage on the Chula Vista dwelling of one of many members.

“I am proud that I am a Filipino and I can show our culture through dances,” mentioned Regina Garma, the group’s president. “Filipinos are resilient and we want the world to know we exist.”

The group will probably be a part of Maraya Performing Art’s unique dance theatre manufacturing titled “Bayanihan,” a tribute to folks dances from the Philippines.

The all-day occasion will even embody youngsters with particular wants from the group’s arts academy.

“As we are becoming stronger, so is our younger generation. I want them to be more united and stay focused on what they can do to support the South Bay,” Agarma mentioned.

Anjanette Maraya-Ramey is the founder and CEO of the humanities group. She is a first-generation Filipina-American, a South Bay native, and a leukemia survivor.

She mentioned she is alive at present due to remedies that required the generosity of blood donations.

According to the San Diego Blood Banks 2021 Impact Report, “The best blood type matches are often found between people who share blood type and ethnic origins. ”

During the Sunday competition, viewers members will even give you the chance to donate blood. The hope is that many extra Filipinx Americans and San Diegans of different ethnic backgrounds will donate.

“Ethnic origin is a big factor in saving lives. We want to use the arts to bring people together and then educate them and give them the opportunity to save lives,” Maraya-Ramey mentioned.

The Maraya Winter Arts Festival and Blood Drive will probably be held on the Wilson Middle School Performing Arts Center in City Heights on Sunday, Dec. 17, from 11 a.m. to five p.m.