Philippine dance
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ville entertainers. Buster and the Garcia sisters, Flor and Modesta formed a trio of tap and jazz dancers. Charita "Chuchi" Hernandez had a Spanish-American tap and ballet teacher named Carmen Macleod. Vaudeville and stage shows grew with the movies and movie musicals showed fine examples of tap danc- ing by Eleanor Powell who was billed as "the world's greatest tap dancer," Joan Crawford, Rita Hayworth, Anne Miller, Ray Bolger, Sammy Davis Jr, and the occasional or longtime teams: Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney, Vera Ellen and Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Connor. Locally, Nieves Manuel and Bayani Casimiro, known as the "Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire of the Philippines," teamed up. Comedian Casmot, later called Dandy, was a "tap dancing expert," while many other stage show dancers like Dolphy and Nikki Ross tapped at one time or another. Tap dance was formally taught by Roberta Cassell in the late 1940s. Among her students were Carlyn Manning and Rose Borromeo, who became serious teachers of the popular art. Julie Borromeo says she learned it mainly from her sister Rose Borromeo who also taught Bing Locsin, whose sister, Agnes, also became a noted tap dance teacher and modem dance choreographer. Agnes Locsin has used Filipino ethnic music and themes to interpret the tap technique. As tap dance was a folk expression it has affinities with some ethnic dancing. • B.E.S. Villaruz References: Adler 1987; Atwater 1971; Duggan 1987; Duncan 1961; Enriquez Aug 1978; Haskins 1988; Horosko Sept 1988; Hungerford 1939; Lloyd 1983; Pasquin 25 Dec 1981; Pastrana 20 Mar 1991; Sennet 1981; Sommer Dec 1988; Steams 1989. ASPECTS AUDIENCE, TIME, AND SPACE In the Philippines, dances have been performed in various combinations of time and space and for various audiences and occasions--from the ethnic village to the hispanic pueblo to the urban Westernized centers today. Philippine geography and climate have allowed rituals and dances to be performed in the open air, on hills or by streams and seas, as well as inside churches and houses. Ceremonies and dances mark social and religious functions, or the occasions for planting, fishing or hunting, or may be performed for the well- being and strength of the tribe. Ceremonies and social interaction often specify venues suited to the lifestyle of the group and/or the purpose or occasion of the ceremonies. The Badjao and Sarna! dance at sea on outrigger boats for special occas- sions such as weddings. This practice was probably the origin of the pangalay ha pattong, a dance that requires balancing on bamboo poles. The lunsay of the Jama Mapun is danced on a special floor placed on top of the original house floor. In this truly communal event, dan- cers coil or circle all day long, stopping only to eat, drink, or rest. The Maranao kalilang feast is launched with a procession of musicians, dancing women, and men on horseback before the datu and his lady. The kapanirong a ganding presentation follows, including the singkil dance and the playing of the kulintang and kagandang. Time and place are more regulated for ritual dances where the community prays for its own welfare and everyone's health, especially the children's. The Subanon build a buklog, a temporary high ceremonial platform, on which the community dances together. In the center of this capacious pliant stage is a pestle that is pounded into a mortar that resounds against jars dug into the ground. The communal event is also called buklog; it has sexual suggestions and mythical roots often mentioned in epics and tales. During the full moon, the Mamanua stage a prayer ceremony with dancing, led by a shaman and his assistants. It is addressed to Magbabaya, the supreme being, and the spirits of the dead. A gong, drum, and guitar accom- pany the proceedings. The Mandaya have the many- phased balilig ritual where the basall drum is beaten in lisag style for the women to dance to and in kassal style for the men-until the dancers are hypnotized. Clothes, jewelry, lime containers, and a bolo are offered to the abyan (befriended busaw or spirit) of the balyan and other spirits or diwatahan. In the sayaw part, the balyan (with her assistants) in a linagkaw (ceremo- nial skirt), with sallawtanan or dagmay (veil), kalasag 110
(shield), and kuyab (fan), dances and goes into a trance under the sun. The beating of drums and the sacrificial pig please the spirits. The balyan and her abyan take up a dialogue called pagpanganito. At the end, the shaman stabs the pig to slow death, sucks its blood, bites into its flesh, and smears the sick with blood to protect them. The Mandaya usually prepare an outdoor altar called antall, made of various kinds of wood tied together with rattan and decorated with plants, herbs and lizard-like carvings called palla-os. Its center is painted with charcoal and red juice. To its north is a statue called inutaw-utaw representing the spirits. A ceremonial bamboo pole has an open egg at one end; juice, siklat (chewing condiments), and boiled rice are offered together with a little symbolic carved boat. There is also dancing under or inside the house. The Mandaya anito baylan, a ritual to heal the sick, is done beneath the house; a babaylan (or three dancers) brandishes her shield and ax (to which noise making shells have been attached) to the beating of a gimbal drum. Most ritual dances are done inside the house with the required altar and offerings. The pagdiwata of the Tagbanua in Palawan thanks Magindusa, the high- est of deities, after a rice harvest and ensures con- tinued good fortune. With the ceremonial swing and offerings of tabad (rice wine), rice cakes, jewelry, cloth, and other things, the male or female babaylan offici- ates during the last three days of the full moon and after three or five preparatory lima ceremonies so that the spirits can see and participate. The rhythm of the gimbal, agong (gong), smaller gongs, and babandil accompany the dancing, singing, smoking, betel nut chewing, drinking, and other ritual acts of the babaylan and his/her taga-iring (assistants). Dancing includes balancing on the head a bowl filled with rice, betel, or pepper and a lighted candle or a kris or a long-stemmed plant. The family assists as a sodality while the rest of the chosen community attends. The ceremony can last for half a day or more. The Agusanon-Manobo and Bukidnon ask the diwata to heal the sick or bless a child, harvest, or house, and to keep epidemics away. The babaylan in these regions employs similar paraphernalia, bamboo altar, and dress. Like the Mandaya, she asks the abyan to possess her, and goes into an ecstatic dance even as the people around beg her to grant their wishes. A pig or chicken (white, red, or otherwise, depending on the diwata addressed) is sacrificed, its blood smeared and drunk. In the past, the heart and liver of the human sacrifice were eaten, supposedly in behalf of the spir- its. These days, cooked food is offered with rice, li- quor, and water. If the ritual is for healing, it can last for days, depending on the patient or th~ patient's finances. The bagani (warriors) may be invited to dance. A supposedly Christian influence is sprinkling water (the same poured on the ground) on the assem- bly for protection. Manobo rituals may be considered public, such as those for healing, planting, harvesting, funerals, initiating a baylan, or warding off epidemics; or private, such as those for the child ceremony, for honoring ancestors, hunting, and fishing. Public rituals may be held indoors or outdoors. The Kalinga gabbok is held in thanksgiving three or four months after a child's birth. A medium leads the ceremony among relatives and friends with songs and sacrifices of chicken or pig. The say-am of the Isneg marks a headhunt, building a house, a harvest or the end of mourning. It starts in the afternoon and may go on for five uninterrupted days. Friends and relatives participate. The house is decorated, food pre- pared, a shaman engaged. The manganito first com- munes with the spirits. The shaman beats a drum and gongs and soon enters a trance. A dog is sacrificed. The tungtung is the climax, where a mat is laid with a flat stone, a red rooster tied in a corner of a room, and walday decor hung from the ceiling. The men and women dance around the mat and pound with bam- boo poles the boulder on which the shaman dances and chants. Other women shower grain on the danc- ers, while the rest sit in silence. Rituals are performed to ensure success in war and work, while dances imitative of animals, plants, + • . ~·
AUDIENCE occupations, and courtship mark other aspects of the life cycle. The Agusanon-Manobo go to the fields and imitate squirrels in the kinugsik-kugsik on large tree trunks. It is also a courtship dance with two males pursuing a female. The forest clearing is the setting for the planting cycle and courtship dances of the Bilaan and the Matigsalug, and the propitiatory dance to the diwata for a good harvest or fortune in the dugso among the Higaonon. The open field is the original locale for all dances that pertain to the rice cycle of planting, harvesting, winnowing, pounding, and the associated imitative dances of the tinikling, itik-itik, and pabo. The bird dances, such as the Manobo bina- nog, Mandaya kinabuwa, and Bilaan aral kafi-all imitating eagles-and the Aeta dances depicting pota- to and honey gathering, duel, and torture can be per- fanned only in the open. The occupation dance ma- nanguete, depicting tuba gathering and the mock war dance maglalatik, both associated with the coconut, entertain the folks outdoors. The Aeta talik paro im- itates shrimps by the river stones. The Bicol gold- panning dance pabirik originated along rivers. The cleansing ritual of the Bagobo pamalugu that finally includes the transformation of young men into bagani (warriors aiming for the strength of eagles) is also done by streams. Related to the ethnic customs, the saliban- da of Paete, Laguna, in which the image of the Santo Nino is bathed, is also done along rivers. The blue crabs imitated in sayaw sa lambay in Leyte, like the imitative fish dance tahing baila of Jolo, VILLAGE CIRCLE. Many wedding dances In the Bontoc province are performed In the village circle. Such Is the postweddlng dance pattong ol Sagada. Bontoc, ca 1960. (Francisco Reyes-Aqulno Collection) 111
ASPECTS could only have originated by the seashore. The same can be said of the oasioas, which imitates fireflies but originally served to signal the fisherfolk to come ashore. The sala ti alat of Camiling, Zambales, has the dancing fisherfolk coming in with baskets after a fishing expedition. The Samar dance an labasero has fisherfolk vending their catch and walking home along the shore. Mudfish is caught with a handheld fish trap and a gas lamp on the fisher's hat in the dance pan- danggo sa bulig, commonly performed in Bulacan in relation to the fluvial festival, Pagoda sa Wawa. Much of the dancing in the Cordillera is done by inhabitants of communal houses in the open on hills and mountains. The Igorot feast of the canao has rela- tives and neighbors dancing around a bonfire to drive away evil spirits that may prey on the sick. Before a headhunt, supposedly propitious when the firetrees are in bloom or when a wrong must be avenged, the Kalinga watch for the ominous bird, idaw. A mandada- wak (priestess) invokes ancestral spirits. The successful hunters called minger finally enact the headhunt, the purification after the mortal combat, and the victorious dance takiling, where they are rewarded with crowns of lawi (a feathered headdress). The tengao in Benguet is a harvest festival with feasting, gong playing and dancing on hills aflame with bonfires. The Bontoc manerwap, which solicits rain, may last for days until the rain comes. The men go to the hills with baskets of chicks whose chirps supposedly address the spirits. The men dance around bonfires at night, and in the daytime wash their gongs and sacrifice a pig. The Bagobo feast before planting rice used to in- volve sacrificing a slave in the woods. Returning to the house of the master of the feast, the people placed branches on an altar, ate, drank, and danced. The master and his followers asked the demon Drago for a favor. A second "feast of women" gathered the people at the chief or master's house, where they drank sugarcane wine, made music, and danced until the next morning. The Sulod of Panay perform the padapun once a year, starting in the afternoon and ending the next morning. A pig, chicken (to be bled and dressed), rice cakes, bamboo twigs, areca nuts and fronds, banana- stalk plates, and an altar are all prepared earlier in the day inside the house by the main door. The babaylan dances to gongs and drums, addressing the ancestors, and goes into phases of a trance which the spectators observe with emotion. Spanish colonialism and its state religion changed the lives of Filipinos forever. Roman Catholicism be- came the dominant religion and the church the center of the people's social and spiritual life. The town plaza, surrounded by the church and town hall, witnessed 112 the start and end of processions; the old ritual dances were adapted to honor Christian saints, the way the komedya and sarswela performances did. During the Spanish colonial period and to the present in rural Christ- ian towns, dances have been performed as part of the celebration of events in the Catholic liturgical calendar or during the feasts of the town's patron saints. Today, the community continues to participate in the processions, holding tapers or bearing the andas (platform) of the images being honored or dancing and singing as a form of prayer or vow. Processions on the feasts of patron saints are held in the daytime or at night. The image of Maria Salome is fetched in the patio of Santa Isabel, Malolos after the Easter Sunday salubong and carried for a kilometer to her visita by dancing devotees. The celebration brought about the sayaw Santa Isabel. This custom of the dapit or fetch- ing religious images from houses and carrying them to church highlights Tagalog religious feasts. In Pakil, Laguna, people honor the Virgin Mary whose image was supposedly found in the lake in 1640. Since then, it has been fetched from the church every year, and brought to the shore and back, while people sang and danced the turumba. In Makati, Rizal, the songs and dances of the panatang sayaw are performed on 28 and 29 June by 13 young girls in honor of San Pedro, San Pablo, and the Virgen de la Rosa in front of the church. The Virgin Mary is as central to the salubong on Easter Sunday when she meets her risen son Jesus underneath the four-posted structure called galilea in or near the churchyard. Young women in pretty dres- ses and hats wave flags of all sizes and colors while dancing the bate under the galilea or a stage nearby. The Santo Nino is honored in the street dancing of the ati-atihan in Aklan, the sinulog in Cebu and Bohol, and the more recent dinagyang in Iloilo, all tied to church events. Ati-atihan dancers paint themselves black with soot and sport fantastic costumes. The sinu- log, also called sinug, is danced in front of the church to assure good weather and ask for personal favors. In May, in Obando, Bulacan, women dance in a street procession that ends in the churchyard to cele- brate the feast of San Pascual Baylon, Santa Clara, and the Nuestra Senora de Salambao. The ritual is meant to obtain husbands for single women, and offspring for childless couples, as well as a good harvest. Plays with dances, such as the komedya which features elaborately choreographed skirmishes be- tween Christians and Moors called batalla, and the sarswela or musical plays on domestic themes which sometimes showed lively and fashionable dances, were often held outdoors in the church patio. At the turn of the century in Manila, both komedya and sar- swela were also performed in teatros or indoor theaters for paying audiences. At Christmas, many towns enact the pastores de belen (visit to Bethlehem) in song and dance on the streets and before houses. Carolers are called cumban- cheros in Leyte and daigon in Cebuano and Bongo- speaking regions. People dance and drink on tall, large water floats called pagoda during fluvial processions, as seen in the Peii.afrancia in Naga, and that of the Santa Cruz in Wawa, Bocaue, Bulacan. In urbanized centers during the American colonial period, social dancing was seen primarily in formal balls in Malacaii.ang or in grand hotels, mansions, clubs, and cabarets. Today, most social dancing is done in the discotheques and night clubs scattered all over Metro Manila and provincial cities. In the urban centers, much of the dancing is indoors t:.nd done at night to the newest hits performed by live bands or played by disc jockeys. Dancing is also seen in variety shows on TV and in the film musicals. In major cities, dance theater performances are usually held in formal, closed venues, and are seen by paying audiences during matinee or evening shows during the regular annual seasons of dance com- panies. The same closed venues are used for bodabil or stage shows. In less urbanized places, the school gymnasia, the all-purpose halls (usually inhospitable to staged ballets), and recital halls of all shapes and sizes may be the site of dance performances. Duma- guete enjoys the well-appointed Luce Auditorium of AUDIENCE CHURCH PATIO. Young girls perfonn the panatang sayaw In front of the old church of MakaH, Rlzal, 1991. (Renata S. Rasfrol/o, Cultural Center of the Philippines library Collecffon) Silliman University. In Manila, there are a variety of nonproscenium outdoor stages at Rizal Park, Fort San- tiago (Raha Sulayman), and Puerta Real in Intramuros, and Hinulugang Taktak in Antipolo. Metro Manila also has several theaters. Popular venues for performances during the pre-WWII years were the Manila Grand Opera House and the Manila Metropolitan Theater. Immediately after WWII, Trudl Dubsky-Zipper's Manila Ballet Moderne performed in the bombed ruins with the Manila Symphony Orches- tra, while Francisca Reyes-Aquino's Filipiniana group toured and performed in various places. The postwar years also saw the rise of Clover Theater, Far Eastern University (FEU) Auditorium, St Paul College Fleur de Lis Auditorium, and University of the East (UE) Thea- ter. In the 1960s, there were performances staged in memorial parks in Metro Manila. Various auditoriums and theaters have been established since then, among them: the Philamlife Auditorium; Araneta Coliseum; New Frontier Theater; University of the Philippines (UP) Abelardo Hall; Rizal Theater; Tanghalang Francis- co Balagtas (Folk Arts Theater), Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo, Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino, and Tangha- lang Huseng Batute of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP); Conching Sunico Hall and Tang- halang Dalubdulaan of the reconstructed Manila Met- ropolitan Theater; and Meralco Theater. Except for the Manila Grand Opera House, Clover Theater, and Rizal Theater which were all demolished to give way to commercial establishments, all the above continue to serve as venues for the performing arts. 113 ASPECTS
Dancers have used regular proscenium or thrust stages innovatively. Alice Reyes broke the fourth wall by allowing dancers to come from the auditorium to go onstage, as in her modern pieces, Company, 1970, and Tommy, 1972. In 1971, Basilio also broke the barrier by using the rising and descending orchestra pit as the grave in The Resurrection of Lazarus. From 1990, Enrico Labayen enlarged the spatial dimension with the use of ropes for his multigravitational produc- tions, although there were earlier occasions for dan- cers descending from the flies in El Gabriel's Olympiad, 1969; in Luminita Durnitrescu's The Sleeping Beauty, 1980; and Edna Vida's Peter Pan, 1983. But dance performances have also been staged in all kinds of unusual venues. Ballet Philippines per- formed in the CCP's main gallery, an event directed by Johnny Manahan, while Dance Theater Philippines (DTP) opened an art exhibition at the Museum of Phi- lippine Art (MOPA) with a dance performance. Manila Metropolis Ballet used to take its portable stage to outdoor spaces, such as Fort San Antonio Abad and Nayong Pilipino, as well as to the ballroom of Manila Peninsula Hotel. The Makati Commercial Center's Glorieta stage (open and in-the-round) occasionally hosts dance performances. Lawn performances at UP Dili- man saw the full production of Wisnusubroto Sunardi's Ramayana. Studio performance space is often used by MODERN VENUE. Choreographer Basilio chose the altar of the Manila Cathedral as the venue tor his modem ballet piece, Misa Filipino, pertonned by Dance Theater 114 Philippines In 1992. (Dance Theater Philippines Collection) dance majors and the UP Dance Company for the studio-choreo series at the UPCollege of Music. In 1992 the same company performed Basilio's Misa Filipina (Filipino Mass) at the altar of the San- tuario de San Jose. The work was previously seen at the altars of the UP Protestant Chapel and the Manila Cathedral, performed by Dance Theatre Philippines. Other church performances include Shona Mactavish's The Lord's Prayer and Julie Borromeo's dances for Benjamin Britten's Noah's Flood, both at the Episcopa- lian Cathedral in Quezon City. Mactavish also staged liturgical dances at the Presbyterian sanctuary in Silli- man University. During the inauguration of the artists' village of the Asian Institute of Liturgy and Music in 1992, the liturgical dance Dugso was staged outdoors. Ballet Philippines also contributed Basilio's Doxology duet at the altar of Ellinwood Malate Church in 1970. • B.E.S. Villaruz References: Alejandro 1978; Amilbangsa 1983; Atayde 1982; Banas 1975; Bayanihan 1978; Buenaventura 1979; Demetrio 1975, 1991; De los Reyes 1987; Fajardo 1961; Filipino Rites and Rituals 1974; Fox 1982; Fuentes ae1d De Ia Cruz 1980; Imbing and Enriquez 1990; Jocano 1968, 1975; Lumbera and Gavino 1990; Miel 1979; Montillo-Burton 1985; Ochotorena 1981; Orosa-Goquingco 1980; Philippine Folk Dances and Songs 1966; Reyes-Aquino 1953-1975; Reyes-Tolentino 1927, 1946; Resma 1982; Roces 1980; Scott 1969, 1974; Sison-Friese 1980; Villaruz 1989; Xavier University Museum Guide 1986; Zulueta de Costa 7, 21 May and 4, 11, 18 Jun 1989. AWARDS AND GRANTS Dance awards are honorific or financial forms of recognition for excellence in dance and may be given for lifetime achievement or for annual or occasional competitions. Dance grants may be venue or financial help given to dance artists by an institution or indi- vidual to encourage excellence in dance. Before the 1960s, the education authorities hesitated to acknowledge the nonliterary, umecorded, ephemeral art of the dance. Then, there were only school field demonstra- tions, amateur town fiesta singing and dancing contests, and dance contests in schools, villages and carnivals, and later, on television. Francisca Reyes-Aquino was first hon- ored with a doctorate (honoris causa) by Boston University in 1949, 10 years before a Philippine institution, Far Eastern University (FEU), honored her. From 1960 to 1972, the Republic Cultural Heritage Awards represented the "high- est form of recognition from the Philippine government for achievement in the fields of science, arts and letters." No dancers were honored with the Republic Cultural Heritage Awards. In 1972, the National Artist Award was instituted with objectives similar to those of the Republic Cultural Heritage Awards. In the second year of the Awards, Francisca Reyes-Aquino was conferred the first award for dance for her pioneering work in the "unexampled revival of the folk dance," and for devoting four-and-a-half decades in te- dious collection and revival of folk songs and dances at a time when native culture was being overwhelmed by West- em culture. Two more choreographers/dance educators and researchers were conferred the honor: Leonor Orosa- Goquingco in 1976 for her 'brilliant pioneering efforts in the difficult art of choreography" and for "confronting the endless challenge of elevating Philippine dance to high creative art," and Lucrecia Reyes-Urtula of the Bayanihan in 1988 for her 30-year work which has "preserved and added a new dimension to the country's dance tradition, building for the country a rich reserve of international goodwill," and for reinterpreting "indigenous choreogra- phy of Philippine ethnic communities in the realm of theater." The Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan was estab- lished by Mayor Antonio J. Villegas in 1963. Given by the city of Manila, this award "recognizes and appreciates individuals/groups who have given their time, effort and talents for the revival, preservation, propagation and en- richmentofPhilippineartsandculture." Ashighlightofthe annual Araw ng Maynila (24 June) commemoration, 24 individuals and companies have been given with the award for dance from 1964 to 1992. They are Leonor Orosa- Goquingco, 1964; Philippine Folk Dance Society, 1966; Download 1.09 Mb. Share with your friends:
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