ADC

The year 2011 was a milestone for the AlunAlun Dance Circle.

Ligaya Fernando-Amilbangsa returned to Tawitawi on 25 September 2011 to receive the award as the “Most Outstanding Artist of Tawitawi” given by the Tawitawi Provincial Grovernment on 27 September 2011.

The occasion allowed Ligaya Amilbangsa to re-connect and share with the artists and the people belonging to various ethnic groups—the Samal, Badjaw, Jama Mapun and the Tausug– who gave her their confidence and trust in documenting their lifeways and various artistic expressions four decades ago. Through this journey, Ligaya Amilbangsa came full circle as an artist and as a cultural conservationist.

Flashback

October 08, 2011

By Ligaya Fernando-Amilbangsa

Barely a day after my arrival from a seminar in Bangkok, I was again on my way to the airport at the ungodly hour of 1:30 a.m. on Sunday, September 25, 2011.

Nannette, Neil (the cinematographer), and myself patiently waited and speculated as to the whereabouts of Maricor. She was nowhere in sight until the break of dawn when we boarded the flight to Zamboanga City.

Alas! We were a happy foursome on the connecting flight to Bongao, Tawitawi that same morning to catch up with the 10^th Agalagal Festival.

After the usual arrival preliminaries at the Sangasanga airport, our group immediately proceeded to Bongao where the street parade was already in progress. It was hard to believe that I was in the midst of such a display of pomp and color in the capital of Tawitawi; the ati-atihan percussive rhythm assailed my ears, instead of the familiar instrumental and vocal music I heard all over the place four decades ago.

Such was the contrast that seemingly transported me to an entirely different world in the past: the call to prayer at daybreak from a distant mosque; the tantalizing cadence of kulintangan music that wafted unexpectedly anytime from somewhere; the engaging lilt of lelleng sung passionately after sundown by a neighborhood boy with a captivating voice; the hypnotic sound of lugo earnestly intoned from afar; the lullaby hummed by a solicitous mother to pacify a baby in a makeshift cradle on a boat. The memory is too numerous to enumerate.

The garish colors, fabrics, and decorations of the costumes and props in the parade jolted me. What has the festival done to the community? And what has the community done to itself? I cringe at the destructive effects of such an expensive and frivolous activity to the cultural well-being of Tawitawi – identified as one of the poorest provinces in the country, but certainly very rich culturally and historically. What a pity that all these go to waste due to misdirection at all levels.

Are the schools asleep? Are the people sleeping? Are the government institutions snoring in a deep slumber? Is everyone oblivious, or simply ignorant of what is true, beautiful, real, and functional in their particular environment? The natives owe it to themselves to wake up fast enough to preserve and conserve and harness their cultural uniqueness to reap the economic benefits of tourism, but above all to assert their ethnic identity.

In the early morning of June 12, 2011 we AlunAlun Dance Circle members excitedly assembled for our first-ever visit to Batangas City.  We had no idea what to expect from the kind  invitation extended to us by the Batangas City Cultural Committee through its leading member, Atty. Tony Pastor, except that our performance would be the main event for their Independence Day celebration.

A bit of suspense had pervaded our rehearsals, though.  A few days before the date,  heavy rains pummeled Batangas City and brought floods.   It was typhoon season after all!  The planned venue, an open air ampitheatre in the city center, was unusable, and city officials were preoccupied with helping the evacuees.  But Tony Pastor and his group were determined to have a meaningful Independence Day program, so, troopers all, we were going on with show!

Into our hired van we piled in with our bagsful of costumes and simple props, Reggie’s portable kulintangan, and rolls of linoleum in case we needed to cover some rough surfaces.  The dancers were Ligaya, Nannette, Punch, Temay, Joy, Rama, Mannex, Gimo, and myself, plus six-year-old Roni  in only her second performance with the group, and, by a great stroke of luck, Peter Paul de Guzman, who is here for a few months from Los Angeles.

Upon our arrival, the first thing we did was check on the alternative venue, a huge covered court surrounded by various government offices.  Nini, our technical person, quickly touched based with the sounds people.  A local organization conducting a day of fun and games for families was requested to end their program early so that we could do our blocking.  We took stock of the bare cement stage, the absence of  dressing rooms, the cavernous structure…and prepared ourselves to make do.  We were confident we had rich cultural fare to offer the people of Batangas City, and we were happy to do it even in the humblest public facility.

We had our first inkling of the kind of Batangueno hospitality that was in store for us, when Tony Pastor  warmly ushered us into the elegant Pastor-Acosta ancestral home.  Built in the 1900’s by Tony’s parents, and devotedly and superbly preserved by Tony, its every exquisite detail thrilled us city folks, so thirsty for connections with our authentic Pinoy soul. Kapiyas, mesa altars, four-poster beds, santos, family portraits, lacy curtains and gilt-framed mirrors completed this scene of provincial urbanidad.  Proudly standing as centerpiece in the airy living room was a gleaming Bosendorfer piano that was Tony Pastor’s prized possession and dearest toy.

Lunch was served!  “A simple Batangueno lunch,” Tony Pastor modestly described it, prepared and served by a bevy of staff, obviously well-trained for frequent gatherings, the Pastor-Acosta home being in effect a mini-cultural center.  A stand-out was the pork adobo, Pastor family style, which was shorn of fat and tinted with achuete.  But lest you think you are saved from cholesterol, the skin and fat have been cut up into cubes and cooked to crispy goodness into homemade chicharon.  Yummm!

Soon we had to tear ourselves away from the leche flan and rest a bit before getting ready for the show.  We thought we would have enough time for a technical rehearsal (some of us missing the tamales that were served for merienda), but we realized we would only be able to do re-blocking on stage.  Several numbers had to be re-oriented to a proscenium-type set-up instead of  in-the-round. Ligaya and Nanette figured out adjustments to cater to the audience’s line of sight which our studio rehearsals could not take into consideration.

I marvelled at everybody’s gung-ho spirit and flawless teamwork. Each one found a place somewhere at the back of the stage to park his or her stuff for speedy costume and props changes.  The younger ones helped the senior dancers remember which was which.  No one was fazed by the limitations of the situation, the humid atmosphere and the vicious mosquitoes buzzing about.  The Cultural Committee thoughtfully pointed out to us a comfort room inside one of the air-conditioned offices that we could run to for our basic needs.

People started trickling in and soon all the 500 or so seats were taken.  It was satisfying to see that our audience were the ordinary townsfolk,  aside from the handful of  VIP’s that were seated up front.  A sense of expectation filled the air, quieting to a hush as the master of ceremonies introduced us. We felt the usual nervousness even as little Roni made her self-confident entrance for  “Ano ang Pangalay?”.

As each number was met with warm applause, we became more relaxed, but the fast pace of the program, with necessary costume or prop changes, was still challenging.  From behind the stage I occasionally peeped to check  how receptive the  audience was, and I saw Tony Pastor seated in front, his whole body alert and attentive to all the goings on.  He was visibly delighted, and especially amused with the surprise number Ligaya had prepared for him– a playful choreography depicting luksong tinik and tug-of-war to the music of Sonata in C Major by Mozart, as rendered by Tony in a CD recording he had given me.

This, and other energetic numbers like tawti were possible because for the first time we had four strong male dancers in the group.  ” Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa”, a dramatic tableau choreographed by Ligaya to Bonifacio’s poem (powerfully sung in the Inang Laya CD by Becky Abraham), also maximized the presence of the four “boys” symbolizing the various sectors that make up Philippine society.

Given the good sequencing and diversity of numbers, the audience was one with us, from the poignant melody of “Ugoy ng Duyan” as danced by Nannette, to the vibrant folk tune of “Sa Kabukiran,”  and finally the rock hit song “Bonggahan”.  Ligaya’s boogie moves to Sampaguita’s popular classic never fails to evoke the fun-lover in every Pinoy, bringing the program to a rousing close.

Our open forum, a standard feature of our presentations, as usual brought several good questions to the fore, giving us our wished-for opportunity to enlighten more people about pangalay.  And coming from the revered tradition of Batangas’ own subli, our audience was not at all shy about trying out pangalay movements when invited to do so.

Back at the Pastor-Acosta home, we had our reward of another sumptuous dinner prepared byTony’s kitchen staff.  Over dinner we had a lively exchange of cultural views with members of the Batangas City Cultural Committee and other culturally-minded citizens of Batangas City. After dinner jamming began with piano playing and singing by our host, with a live reprise of Sonata in C major, the better to show some of the playful moves.  We also discovered some similarities between subli and pangalay–two sacred dances, coming from different ancient  spiritual traditions, each finding expression in the Filipino psyche.

With regrets we had to start off for Manila–but not before promising to return for the subli festival on July 25.  And that is another story.

(Photo and video documentation of the performance by Milo and Cynch Paz)

FEU Auditorium, Manila 3:00 PM on 23 June 2011

The AlunAlun Dance Circle, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts in cooperation with the Far Eastern University proudly present “Konsiyerto ng Pangalay, Tula, Salinawit at Musika,” an exciting concert that aims to fuse different art forms with the participation of various artists.  The concert will be on 23 June 2011, 3:00 PM at the FEU Auditorium, Morayta Street, Manila.

The concert will feature the pangalay choreographies of Ligaya F. Amilbangsa with the AlunAlun Dance Circle. These innovative pieces will showcase the versatility of the pangalay dance style in interpreting various types of music ranging from traditional, folk, Western classical and pop.  For the first time, Filipino adaptation of songs by Jose F. Lacaba, with rendition by pop vocalist Cookie Chua, will be choreographed utilizing the pangalay movement vocabulary.  The concert will also demonstrate the versatility of the pangalay dance style in presenting poetry by contemporary women writers Marra Pl. Lanot and Benilda Santos. The dramatic interpretation of poetry through dance also includes the nationalistic poems of Dr. Jose Rizal and Andres Bonifacio.

“Konsiyerto ng Pangalay, Tula, Salinawit at Musika” marks the opening of FEU’s Cultural Calendar for school year 2011-2012 which aims to acknowledge the many FEU graduates who have chosen careers in the arts and have been enriching Filipino culture and heritage. Ligaya F. Amilbangsa is one of FEU’s outstanding alumnae who has devoted her life to studying and teaching the pangalay, the traditional dance style of the Sulu Archipelago which has the richest movement vocabulary among all Philippine dance forms.  The performance is free and open to the public.

PROGRAM

KONSIYERTO NG Pangalay, TULA, salinAWIT at musika

FEU Auditorium

23 June 2011

3:00 PM  to 4:30 PM

PART 1

Scene 1: What is Pangalay?

A brief annotative introduction to an endangered generic dance style

indigenous to the Sulu Archipelago, Southern Philippines

Scene 2: Traditional Pangalay Variations

A medley of kulintangan music and variations of pangalay dances:

Igal Kabkab: Pangalay choreographed with a kabkab or fan

Tawti: An exciting occupational dance that vividly portrays

a fisherman catching tawti or catfish

Linggisan: Janggay or metal claws amplify gestures portraying images of

a bird in flight, searching for  food, or simply enjoying the gift of life and freedom

PART 2

Scene 3: Pangalay at Musika

Canon in D Major by Johann Pachelbel

Piano Sonata in C by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Basta’t Mahal Kita rendition by Sylvia la Torre

Pamaypay ng Maynila rendition by Sylvia la Torre

Interlude:

Ligaya Amilbangsa presents Ukkil book to FEU.

PART 3

Pangalay, Tula at Salinawit

Scene 4: Pangalay at Tula

“Pang-alay” by Benilda Santos

Selection from “Witch’s Dance” by Marra Pl. Lanot

“Sa Kabataang Pilipino” by Jose Rizal

“Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa” by Andres Bonifacio

Scene 5: Pangalay at Salinawit

“Ilog at Buwan” (“Moon River”) composed by Henry Mancini

“Mahinang Samba”  (“One Note Samba”) composed by Antonio Carlos Jobim

“Kay Ganda ng Mundo”  (“What a Wonderful World”)  composed by George Weiss and Bob Thiele

(Salinawit by Jose F. Lacaba)

PART 4: Open Forum and Jamming

By Elizabeth Lolarga, VERA Files
For Yahoo! Southeast Asia

The rediscovered dance form, pangalay, which translates to “a gift offering,” is now being performed to songs interpreted by Josh Groban, Jacqui Magno, the inimitable Sylvia la Torre, among others.

The ancient pangalay involves the use of downcast eyes, fluid arm movements, flexing of hands, bent knees and deceptively easy-looking, mincing footsteps.

Purists may balk at why pangalay, as choreographed and danced by members of Ligaya Amilbangsa’s AlunAlun Dance Circle (ADC), is not sustained by the percussive beat alone of the kulintang.

One of ADC’s missions is to show that the basic movement of pangalay can adapt to pop music hits like Ennio Morricone’s composition “You’re Still You” or a mambo take-off from Mozart’s “Symphony No. 40.”

At a performance of new choreographic works at the UP Dance Studio in Diliman, Quezon City, the ADC showed how versatile pangalay could be—how it could be danced to indigenous and Western music. This proved its openness to possibilities while its form is still conserved.

In the old days, pangalay was a ritual dance or form of prayer seen at weddings, birthdays or whenever special guests visit. Sometimes, it was danced to drive malevolent spirits away.

Prof. Steve Villaruz said in his introduction it is a pity pangalay is not seen often, has been neglected or almost forgotten as it is too far south of the archipelago. He traced the public’s ignorance to perhaps “a bias against fellow Asians” since pangalay has movements similar to other classical styles of Asian dances in Indonesia, Cambodia, and Thailand.

ADC dancer-managing director Nanette Matilac demonstrated pangalay‘s link to Asian theater and martial art forms like the Noh, tai chi and aikido where “breathing is the key to hours of dancing.”

Emcee CB Garrucho, also an ADC member, recalled the moment when she and others first saw Amilbangsa dance and felt as though they were “hit between the eyes.” The dancing had such an impact on their souls that they sought out the dancer-scholar. They learned that pangalay is almost dying with three-fourths of the country unaware of it. As the group grew, the ADC was formed to keep it alive with dance classes held each Sunday at 35 Sampaguita St., Lopezville Subdivision, Masinag, Antipolo City.

Amilbangsa said: “Pangalay has to be danced constantly, or else it dies. It is a piece of our identity that speaks beautifully of us as a people. It’s our living link to our Asian heritage.”

While doing research in the Sulu archipelago, she once saw a hunched, raggedly dressed woman by the road. The minute the kulintang was struck and began its hypnotic beat, the woman transformed into a queenly figure as she went through the pangalay steps.

Amilbangsa encouraged more dance students to try the movements, which she likened to “motion in stillness, stillness in motion.”

“It’s very relaxed and quiet,” she said. “It’s in your bones. Hindi niyo lang ginagamit (You just don’t use it).”

The male and female dancers were garbed in all-black outfits and soft ballet slippers, all the more to outline and define their movements against a stark backdrop of shrouded dance mirrors. There were accents of flowers behind the ears, twinkling earrings and sashes for the ladies, head gear and sometimes janggay (metal claws) for the men.

Pangalay‘s striking feature is its capacity to accommodate a vast age range. There was a girl, Gemely C. Amar, not quite out of her teens, dancers in their prime like Raymund Marcaida, women in their 50s and 60s. And then there’s Amilbangsa herself whose supple low bend on a single knee while dancing behind a mask to “Mambozart” by the Klazz Brothers and Cuba Percussion belied her age of 67.

ADC must also be commended for its eclectic choice of music. It gives a respectful bow to National Artists Nicanor Abelardo (“Bituing Marikit”) and Levi Celerio (“Basta’t Mahal Kita”), to Nitoy Gonzales’ haunting “Usahay,” which Matilac choreographed and danced, turning herself just by suggestive movements into a young woman once more, holding close through her daydreams her secret love. Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumble Bee” punctuated Matilac’s busy bee eluding capture by hunter Kevin Lumbao, an aikido player.

Constancio de Guzman’s “Ang Tangi Kong Pag-ibig,” sung by Marco Sison, had Francisco and Marcaida moving in mirror image like a mature couple attuned to each other’s reflexes that each movement is almost predictable.

The ardor is again suggested as pangalay speaks in “emotional metaphors,” Amilbangsa said. An outstretched hand, for example, could be a salutation of welcome or joy.

For 2011, ADC is lining up performances in schools, especially during the arts month in February. Matilac said they want to show pangalay to the youth to give a practical expression of being Filipino as against, on one hand, Christianized/Hispanized folk dances and on the other, Western dances from ballet to jazz to hip-hop.

During the open forum at UP, a student who had learned pangalay under Matilac said she was happy to discover it after training in ballet and jazz. She said it made her feel more Filipino.

“Hinding-hindi ko po ito bibitiwan (I won’t ever let go of this),” she said.

***
VERA Files is put out by veteran journalists taking a deeper look at current issues. Vera is Latin for “true.”

Source:
http://verafiles.org/features/pangalay-neglected-dance-form-experiences-exciting-revival/
http://ph.yfittopostblog.com/2010/12/26/neglected-dance-form-experiences-exciting-revival/