Efforts to promote local culture in Papua are not only the responsibility of the community itself or the local government. However, anyone who is in and lives in Papua certainly has an obligation to jointly promote and preserve local culture so that it does not become extinct. One party that is actively promoting local Papuan culture is business actors in the hotel sector. Aimas Hotel & Convention Center as one of the hotels that has long been established in Papua also promotes one of the dances from Papua, namely the Yospan Dance by holding a competition at the company’s internal level which is attended by all hotel workers. This method has proven to be one of the effective local culture promotion activities and is worth considering by other parties to jointly promote one of the dances from Papua.
The Yospan Dance is a dance art that combines two dances, namely Yosim and Pancar. So the name Yospan comes from the acronym Yosim and Pancar where Yosim is a dance that is native to the northern coastal area of ​​Papua while Pancar is a dance that is native to Biak Numfor. The meaning shown by the Yospan Dance is the friendship that exists between young men and women in Papua. In addition, the dance is used to welcome newcomers and also to strengthen friendship and brotherhood between communities in Papua. The Yospan Dance is accompanied by music from the sounds of several traditional musical instruments from Papua such as tifa, juk or ukulele, acoustic bass, and also guitar. The clothes worn by the dancers are also traditional clothes from Papua.
Aimas Hotel & Convention Center is indeed interested in helping to promote Papuan culture. Before holding the Yospan Dance competition entitled GM Cup, the hotel management had set a rule that every Thursday the hotel staff must wear typical Papuan knick-knacks for a day while working. One of the knick-knacks shown every Thursday is the faces of the staff painted with motifs commonly used by indigenous people in Papua.
GM Cup, which is an internal Yospan Dance competition, is attended by all parts of the Aiman ​​Hotel & Convention Center. Starting from HRD, finance, engineering, front office, marketing, sales, food and beverage, and housekeeping are required to send representatives to perform the Yospan Dance. The event organizers hope that the Yospan Dance competition held can be in accordance with the meaning of the dance, which is about friendship between communities.
The hope of the dance competition held by the hotel in Papua is to remind the entire community that promoting culture and preserving culture is a shared responsibility that can be done by anyone without exception. In the future, the Aiman ​​Hotel & Convention Center also hopes that the dance competition they hold will not only be attended by internal parties of the company but can also be held on a larger scale and attended by the general public.
