The AlunAlun Dance Circle marked its 15th year since the organization’s legal existence in 2000. Here are 15 things to remember and be thankful for about 2015.

Sunday Pangalay Sessions

For 15 years, ADC members and friends continued the practice of holding dance sessions every Sunday, through sultry or stormy weather. The weekly practice has become a tradition.

The Handog Center

On 20 and 21 March 2015, the Handog Center was inaugurated with film showings on the first day and performances on the second day. The Handog Center is another home of the AlunAlun Dance Circle based in Marikina City, with address at 9 JP Rizal corner MH del Pilar streets, Calumpang, Marikina City. The Handog Center is the present (2016) address and office of the AlunAlun Dance Circle. 

Pangalay Handbook

Early in 2015, we learned that the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) approved our proposal to make a Pangalay Handbook or manual to aid in the teaching of pangalay. Completed in 2015 by pangalay guru, Ligaya F. Amilbangsa, it will soon be published by the ADC. The book is finished and will be out in 2016!

Children Dancing Pangalay

In 2015, children took center stage as the narrators and dancers in a short film entitled Ang Kuwento ng mga Aninong Sumasayaw (A Tale of Dancing Shadows) written and directed by Nannette Matilac with animation by Ellen Ramos. Produced in 2015 with NCCA support, the short film will be launched in 2016. The child dancers/narrators are Cai Wadi, Hannah Wadi, and Roni Matilac. In a few years, these children will grow into lovely ladies dancing pangalay!

The National Mission Conference

On 20 May 2015, the ADC presented a series of traditional and innovative choreographies for the National Mission Conference with the theme “Gifted to Give.” The performance was held at the Divine Word Seminary in Tagaytay City. The appreciative audience was composed of local and international delegates from the church sector. In the accompanying photo, Nannette Matilac dances the tariray using bamboo clappers with the beautiful mat from Tawi-Tawi as background, held by masked dancers.

2015 Ramon Magsaysay Award

The well-deserved award for Ms. Ligaya Amilbangsa, ADC artistic director, is recognition of her quiet and continuous efforts in preserving intangible cultural heritage. This iconic photo is by Isa Lorenzo.

Pangalay for Teachers’ Development

Two events for teachers were sponsored by the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) for public school teachers. In July 2015, on the occasion of the Eidl Fitr, the film Ang Pagbabalik sa Tawi-Tawi was shown to an audience of public school teachers, highlighted by a dance performance by ADC dancers. Then on 18 September 2015, Ligaya Amilbangsa gave a lecture with dance demonstration as part of the “KKK: Kalikasan, Kalusugan, Kasaysayan – An Alternative National Seminar Conference for Teachers.”

42nd Kamahardikaan and Agal-Agal Festival

Tawi-Tawi was the original place where Ligaya Amilbangsa started her research on pangalay since the 1960s. The link to the province has grown even stronger in the 21st century. In September 2015, Ligaya Amilbangsa and Louanne Mae Calipayan graced the 42nd Kamahardikaan Festival as judges in the Agal-Agal Festival. (See separate article by Louanne Mae Calipayan.)

Marikina City’s Tribute to ADC Artistic Director

On 28 September 2015, Marikina City hosted a dinner-tribute for Ligaya Amilbangsa at the Marikina City Cultural Center aka Kapitan Moy heritage house. Ligaya was given the honor as one of the city’s most outstanding citizens. The AlunAlun Dance Circle presented a spunky pangalay choreography using music of the Beatles and Michael Jackson – two artists who were unknown to Ligaya because she was so immersed in Sulu culture for decades.

Pangalay at Quezon City’s Diamond Jubilee

On a sultry afternoon on 10 October 2015, the ADC presented a dazzling 20-minute open air performance. This was on the occasion of the 75 th Anniversary of the founding of Quezon City. The performance preceded the street dancing competition.

Museum Volunteers of the Philippines

On 14 October 2015, the ADC led by Ligaya Amilbangsa conducted a lecture with dance demonstration for the members of the Museum Volunteers of the Philippines (MVP) for their Philippine history course. The lecture demo was held at the amphitheater of the Ateneo Professional Schools, Rockwell Center, Makati City. The activity signaled the start of a fruitful relationship with the MVP in 2016.

HABI

The ADC has always supported preservation and development of tangible and intangible cultural heritage, especially those of the indigenous peoples. On 25 October 2015, the ADC participated in the Likhang Habi bazaar that showcased traditional weaving and fabrics of the Philippines. A short repertoire of pangalay choreographies at the open theater of the Glorietta 2 Ayala Malls included an interpretation of Norma Liongoren’s poem by Ligaya Amilbangsa. Norma has always been a close friend of the ADC since its inception.

Ka-loob Benefit Show for the Lumad Youth

On 28 October 2015, the ADC performed for the benefit of the Lumad youth of Mindanao. Dubbed as Ka-Loob, the benefit concert to support the Lumad youth was held at the GT-Toyota Asian Center Auditorium. The live kulintangan accompaniment of ADC’s performance was rendered by the members of UP Tugma from the UP College of Music.

The Sama Dilaut Conference

In less than two months after the Agal-Agal Festival in 2015, Ligaya Amilbangsa and Louanne Calipayan were back to Tawi-Tawi, this time for the 1 st Sama Dilaut (Philippine Badjaw) International Conference held in Tawi-Tawi on 1-3 December 2015. Of course, Ligaya Amilbangsa’s participation was important. She was the first to document Sama Dilaut ritual dances in early 1970s, bringing them to the legitimate stage at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Ligaya delivered the paper entitled: “Negotiation and Accommodation of Igal as Aesthetic and Performative Ritual.” The first conference on the Badjaw in the province was held at MSU-Tawitawi College of Technology and Oceanography.

Friends in Media and from All Over the World

We thank our friends and co-advocates who work for the preservation of traditional cultural heritage. We thank the print, broadcast, and online media coverage in 2015 that helped in disseminating information about what the AlunAlun Dance Circle is doing to preserve pangalay (aka igal or pansak) and related arts of Southern Philippines.

Ramon Magsaysay Awards cites Filipino for art crusade in South

Citation for the 2015 Ramon Magsaysay Award

LIGAYA FERNANDO-AMILBANGSA

In a time that has seen nations violently torn apart by ethnic and religious wars, it is important to be reminded of the healing power of the arts in showing that while culture is what makes people of various ethnicities, religions, and nationalities distinct, it is also culture that connects them in the awareness of a shared humanity that is enriched by such differences.

This truth lies at the heart of the lifework of Ligaya Fernando-Amilbangsa. Born to a prominent Catholic family in Marikina, Metro Manila, Fernando-Amilbangsa had always loved dance and the arts. A turning point in her life came when she married a schoolmate and moved to his home in Sulu where, in the next three decades, she immersed herself in the rich cultural life of the Muslim South. In the midst of the region’s secessionist and insurgent conflicts, she turned her love for the arts into a vocation as cultural researcher, educator, artist and advocate of the indigenous arts of the southern Philippines, particularly the Sulu Archipelago.

Her signature involvement has been the study, conservation, practice and promotion of the dance style called pangalay (“gift offering,” or “temple of dance” in Sanskrit), a pre-Islamic dance tradition among the Samal, Badjao, Jama Mapun, and Tausug peoples of the provinces of Sulu and Tawi-Tawi. A highly intricate and expressive dance of many variations, traditionally performed in weddings and other festive events, pangalay has the richest movement vocabulary of all ethnic dances in the Philippines and is the country’s living link to the ancient, classical dance traditions elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

Fascinated by its beauty and recognizing its importance in the cultural heritage of the Sulu Archipelago and the entire Filipino nation, she was saddened to see that pangalay was becoming a marginalized tradition. Thus she committed her life to patiently documenting the dance and its allied expressions; teaching the dance using a method she personally developed, promoting it by choreographing and organizing performances, and making it known to the world through her lectures, performances, and writings on pangalay and the visual arts of the Sulu Archipelago.
Working mainly in an individual capacity and using her own personal resources, she inspired the formation of performing arts groups, networked with dance scholars and practitioners in Asia, and presented both traditional and innovative pangalay choreographies in and outside the country. Moving back to Metro Manila in 1999, she formed the AlunAlun Dance Circle (ADC) and lent her own home for a dance studio—to study, teach, and perform pangalay and other traditional dance forms. The group has since done hundreds of performances and workshops throughout the country.

For Fernando-Amilbangsa, traditional dances like pangalay are not museum pieces but something to be nurtured as a living tradition that grows as societies change. Thus she has innovated with pangalay performances done to modern music, conveying contemporary themes like women’s rights and environmental conservation. Yet she has always stressed that art must stay rooted in the basic values that humanize—beauty, grace, a disciplined spirituality, and harmony with nature and fellow humans. “Without looking to the past,” she says, “something really new cannot be created.”

In electing Ligaya Fernando-Amilbangsa to receive the 2015 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the board of trustees recognizes her single-minded crusade in preserving the endangered artistic heritage of southern Philippines, and in creatively propagating a dance form that celebrates and deepens the sense of shared cultural identity among Asians.

This link will redirect to the original Philippine Daily Inquirer article.

The AlunAlun Dance Circle and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts present Pangalay ng Bayan: Sayaw at Laro ng Lahi at the ValerianoE.FugosoElementary  School  Quadrangle, Manila Boys’ Town Complex, Parang, Marikina City on 15 December 2014 , 10 a.m.

The 30-minute recital featuring new dances will recreate selected Philippine Games in pangalay dance style, like habulan, taguan, bahay-bahayan, and others. The dances will showcase the pangalay dance style which is now part of the K-12 program of DepEd. The recital is the culminating activity of the ongoing pangalay dance training among the young wards of the Girls’ Home Unit and Boys’ Home Unit of Manila Boys’ Town Complex.

Pangalay at Larong Pilipino
Karapatan ng mga bata ang maglaro sa mga ligtas, malawak, at natural na kapaligiran. Ang mga Pilipino ay may mga katutubong laro na nanganganib nang mawala dahil sa paglaganap ng TV, ng cellphone, ng mga computer game, at ng Internet. Pahalagahan at alalahanin natin ang mga laro ng ating lahi dahil maraming itinuturo ang mga larong ito sa paghubog ng ugali, isip, diwa, at damdamin ng mga kabataan.

August 2014 is a lucky and busy month.

On 4 August 2014, the 10th Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival exhibited under its Pinoy Pride Philippine Documentaries the film Ang Pagbabalik sa Tawi-Tawi  (Return to Tawi-Tawi), Monday, 12:45 pm at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP)  Little Theater.

The guests of honor who graced the affair were Dr Bienvenido Lumbera and Dr Ramon Santos, National Artists; Hon. Ruby M. Sahali, Representative of the Lone District of Tawi-Tawi province; Dr. Nina Lim-Yuson, President and CEO of Museo Pambata; Carmen D. Padilla, President of International Organization of Folk Art (IOV), Mr Bayani Fernando, President of BF Group of Companies and former MMDA Chair; Ma. Lourdes C. Fernando, multi-awarded former Mayor of Marikina City.  Basilio Esteban Villaruz, art critic and UP Prof Emeritus in Dance at the College of Music, was not able to make it but sent his best wishes and congratulations.

Many among the audience were natives of Tawi-Tawi and Sulu provinces. Some flew in from the Sulu Archipelago just to attend the meaningful film showing, like Cong. Ruby Sahali, Dr. Filemon Romero, and Prof. Johnny Lee with his two daughters. Romero and Lee were founding members of the Tambuli Cultural Troupe in 1974. The two performed in the Cultural Center of the Philippines in 1974. Therefore, after 40 years, this reunion at the CCP for the film “Ang Pagbabalik sa Tawi-Tawi” was really a coming into full circle, a completion, a milestone.

The 71-minute film culminated in a performance by the AlunAlun Dance Circle. Mannex Siapno performed the tawti while the closing credits rolled on the big screen. Child dancer Hannah Wadi danced beautifully, hands adorned with her cute janggay (metal claws). Accompanying Hannah were Mariel Francisco and Pacita Gavino who both performed the bula’bula or dance with bamboo clappers. Nannette Matilac did a solo pangalay dance. The finale of the performance was Ligaya Amilbangsa who showed her beautiful lines in the linggisan or bird dance, which is one of the original chore0graphy of Ligaya Amilbangsa based on field research that is essayed in the documentary film. The film showing is just the beginning of a series of film exhibitions of the documentary film all over the country and abroad.

On 2 August 2014, the AlunAlun Dance Circle performed in two separate venues at the Museo Pambata and at the SM the Block Atrium for the 2014 Eid’l Fitr Festival.

The Eid’l Fitr Exhibit at the Museo Pambata opened with a performance and interaction with children. It was a fun afternoon with children. Another session is set on 9 August 2014.

Levi Azarcon and Mannex Siapno demonstrate pangalay postures and gestures while boys enthusiastically imitate them.

On 8 March 2014, on the occasion of International Women’s Day, the ADC in cooperation with DocuCinema Media Collective and the Angel C.Palanca Peace Program Foundation (FEU) exhibited to over 500 students and academicians the full-length documentary, “Ang Pagbabalik sa Tawi-Tawi” (Return to Tawi-Tawi). It is about how Ligaya Amilbangsa, since 1969,  researched and documented pangalay which is also known as igal or paunjalay.The film showing was held at the Mini Auditorium, Technology Building, FEU Manila

On 4 March 2014, Ligaya Amilbangsa, Nannette Matilac and Temay Padero with the participation of Ruby Varona performed at the Marble Hall of the Museum of the Filipino People, during the book launch of “OF WAR AND PEACE: Lantakas and Bells in Search of Foundries in the Philippines”. Dr. Abe Sakili played the pangalay beat as the ADC members danced. The members of the audience waved colourful paper flowers (handmade by Ligaya Amilbangsa) as part of the ritual. Ruby Varona performed the Sikado, a Philippine martial art followed by Igal Kabkab (fan dance), an original choreography by Ligaya Amilbangsa.

Earlier, on 24 and 26 February 2014, “Ang Pagbabalik sa Tawi-Tawi” was also shown at the UP Diliman. The UP Islamic Studies presented the film as a way to celebrate the National Arts Month of February 2014. Pagbabalik sa Tawi-Tawi is co-produced by LotusBlaze Projects/DocuCinema Media Collective and ADC.

The UP Anthropology Department celebrated its centennial in Feb 2014 through pangalay dance and the exhibition of the documentary films “Sayaw sa Alon” and “Pagbabalik sa Tawi-Tawi”. The project is in cooperation with CSSP Folklore Studies Program. In between the film showings, pangalay workshops were conducted by Louanne May Calipayan.

[The Year of the Horse was a big kickstart!  Here is the blog of ADC General Secretary and Board Member  Mariel N. Francisco] 

31 January 2014: DANCING WITH THE LUNAR NEW YEAR

BY Mariel N. Francisco

Our hosts apologized in advance for the scaled-down audience because Jan. 31, Chinese New Year, turned out to be a holiday. It was too late to change the date of the Cultural Night of the inaugural conference of the Philippine Association for the Study of Culture, History and Religion, as invitations had been issued way back in October 2013. Students who were expected to make up the audience had taken off for the three-day weekend, leaving the lovely Plaza San Jose of Holy Angel University in Angeles City sparsely filled.

But to us, AlunAlun Dance Circle, our audience, big or small, deserved our best. Nannette, Temay, Gimo, Rama and I rehearsed our presentation and prepared for our trip with a sense of mission, but also of fun. It was after-all a balik-HAU for us, for we had performed in its state-of-the-art theater a few years ago in celebration of Arts Month. This time we were invited by one of the PASCHR convenors, Dr. Grace Odal Devora of UP Manila. The conference, she said, aimed to create a new network of academicians around the country and in the Asian region. Familiar with pangalay, she knew it would be a perfect fit for the conference theme: “Culture, History, Religion and Maritime Links Among the Islands of the Philippines and Beyond.” Fittingly too, the conference was co-sponsored by HAU’s Center for Kapampangan Studies. Although the Capampangan heartland is landlocked, the very name of the province bespeaks its beginnings on the shores (pampang) of the mighty Pampanga River. Our Artistic Director, Ligaya Amilbangsa, saw the relevance of pangalay to all this with her usual insight and enthusiasm. Indeed no dance could be more appropriate to demonstrate our pre-colonial culture flourishing in coastal settlements, than pangalay. Its undulating arm movements evoke the waves of the sea or fronds of seaweeds and palm trees, its flowing quality the sense of the ocean’s infinity, its mincing steps the limited space of the lepa or houseboat. The program we prepared aimed to “educate and entertain” by highlighting all these aspects which defined our indigenous identity and our close affinity with our Asian neighbors. Significantly, the conference posthumously honored the Pampango writer, diplomat, artist and bon vivant Emilio “(Abe”) Aguilar Cruz as “Prophetic Artist” for having foreseen way back in the 1970’s the coming-of-age of Southeast Asian identity.

As has been our practice, we introduced our 15-minute presentation with “What is Pangalay?” showcasing the rich movement vocabulary of pangalay with all its finger, hand, and arm gestures, footwork, and body stances. Even as I was doing the annotation I observed that everyone was paying close attention to the demonstration. Warm applause burst out in the middle of the menfolk’s energetic and vivid rendition of fishermen diving and spearing catfish in “Tauti”. Nannette’s creative blocking of her solo number on the steps leading to the stage further increased rapport with the small but captivated audience. Aside from our own performance we had a chance to appreciate the song and dance numbers of the HAU Performing Arts Group coordinated by Raymond Petersen. True to Pampanguenos’ reputation as artists, the numbers were impressive in every aspect, from the elegant costumes to the colorful props. A memorable number was the dance featuring discrete parts of a Pampanga parol, which were assembled in striking visual arrangements at various points throughout the dance.

The much-anticipated dinner was served at the Museo ning Angeles just across the street from the HAU campus. A homey vintage structure (1920) which used to be the town municipio, it has been restored and turned into a Culinarium to showcase the culinary culture which Pampanga is famous for. Windows thrown wide open brought in a cool breeze and showed the imposing Holy Rosary Parish Church festively lighted up against the night sky. But aside from the seductive spread of chicken asadong matua (marinated in calamansi and soy sauce, and simmered in onions and tomatoes), the dory with black beans and ginger, and double servings of refreshing pako salad, we were most thrilled to hear feedback on our performance.

Upon being introduced to the ebullient conference keynote speaker, Dr. Amarjiva Lochan, President of the South and Southeast Asian Association for the Study of Culture and Religion based in India, we harkened to his comments expectantly. “When you started dancing, the audience immediately fell into a hush!” he recalled with amazement. He said he was mesmerized, delighting in the similarities he recognized with dances in certain regions of India. “You ought to do a three-month immersion there,” he said tantalizingly, and promised to link us up with the right people. He also encouraged us to create original water sounds (a swimming pool will do, he assured us) and record them ourselves instead of using ready-made ones from other cultures.

Gratifying too, were the appreciative remarks of the conference chairman Dr. Esmeralda Sanchez of the UST Institute of Religion. After the usual picture-taking, and more picture-taking, we lingered in the congenial ambience before piling back into our vehicle. We had hardly entered the NLEX when everyone fell soundly asleep, our hearts full with satisfying cultural fare, confident that our well-received dance offering signaled a good year of dancing ahead.

“Ang Pagbabalik sa Tawitawi” documents Ligaya Amilbangsa’s return to the Sulu Archipelago after more than 30 years, to re-connect and to share with the people whose arts and culture she helped to preserve. The film centers on how Amilbangsa researched and documented pangalay, also known as igal and paunjalay in the Sulu Archipelgao.

Exhibitions in February and March 2014:

24 February 2014 2:00 p.m. at UP Institute of  Islamic Studies, sponsored by UP IIS and ADC

26 February 2014 2:30 p.m. at PH 207, Palma Hall UP Diliman, sponsored by UP Anthropology Department, CSSP Folklore Studies and ADC

8 March 2014  10:30 a.m.  9th Fl, Technology Building, Far Eastern University, Manila sponsored by Angel C. Palanca Peace Project on the occasion of International Women’s Day

The film showings will be followed by dance demonstrations and lecture-discussions.