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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/

By Raymund ‘Rama’ Marcaida

A meaningful cultural exposure and immersion in Indonesia 23 years ago left an indelible impression on me. It gave me the impetus to appreciate Asian indigenous dance cultures at the time when I was training mostly on western type of dances. For this gift, I would be forever grateful to the people of Indonesia.

My first encounter with Indonesian dance culture happened in 1986 when I was fortunate to have been chosen as the Philippine representative to the Cultural Exchange Program of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). For six months, I was in Yogyakarta in the island of Java, studying and sweating it out at the Padepokan Seni Bagong Kussudiardja, learning diverse variety of Indonesian traditional dances, classical, as well as “Kreasi Baru”, New Creation dances and ‘Tari Gaya Bali’, Balinese dances.

My interest with Balinese dances was further sustained when I was granted a year-long dance scholarship at the Sekolah Tinggi Seni Indonesia (STSI), the Indonesian Art College in Denpasar Bali under the Darmasiswa Program of the Government of Indonesia in 1991-1992.

Flash forward, 17 years: I performed a Balinese dance called “Tari Baris” at the Philippine-Indonesian Friendship Day celebration in November 2009, marking the 60^th year of cordial diplomatic ties between the two Southeast Asian countries. It felt like I had gone full circle with my Indonesian odyssey, made more meaningful since I also performed the Pangalay with the AlunAlun Dance Circle, of which I have been a member since 2007.

Performing for the audience comprised of Indonesian diplomats, expatriates and Filipinos gave me a natural high, especially when I realized that, after all these years, my mind and muscles have retained the nuances of Balinese dance movements and postures. This was affirmed when, during one of our rehearsals, one of the Indonesians commented that I was moving like a Balinese. In retrospect, perhaps it was this exposure to Balinese dances that led me to Pangalay—the Philippine dance that truly has an affinity with Balinese and other Indonesian dances. The earlier Asian encounter prepared me for the opportunity when I would finally be introduced to the ancient Philippine indigenous dance. Indonesian dances were my introduction to ethnic pride. Pangalay made ethnic pride tangibly real to me as a Filipino! The two cultures will dance in my soul for a long, long time.

I was so fulfilled during that special November evening in 2009, when I was able to share, especially to the Indonesians, the Pangalay dance form of which I have been blessed to know, learn and perform.

‘Mari kita menari sama-sama!’ ‘Magsayaw tayo!’   Let’s dance!