Philippine Cinema and Performing Arts (Folk Dances and Music)

[Matteo]

kaya ba merong 'bamboo shoots?'


sige na uwi muna ako.

babay everybodi

[manileño]

adios. lets see whats for dinner.. later

[kiretoce]

Originally Posted by Lili

Just when Kiretoce was talking about banging bamboos. Haha.

Hey now! My comment wasn't an innuendo at all! Get your minds out of the gutter people!

[sandrin]

the leyte dance interpretation was graceful

for me tinikling is more fun and festive than singkil or sakuting

[xXx carlos xXx]

mt personal favorite dance of all time.... couretesy of leyte dance theatre.... a colorful mindanao dance called, singkil...it is said to be one of the oldest dance in the philippines...







(seehng-KEEHL)
MIDI File (singkil.mid)
This dance takes its name from the bells worn on the ankles of the Muslim princess. Perhaps one of the oldest of truly Filipino dances, the Singkil recounts the epic legend of the "Darangan" of the Maranao people of Mindanao. This epic, written sometime in the 14th century, tells the fateful story of Princess Gandingan, who was caught in the middle of a forest during an earthquake caused by the diwatas, or fairies of the forest. The criscrossed bamboo poles represent the trees that were falling, which she gracefully avoids. Her slave loyally accompanies her throughout her ordeal. Finally, she is saved by the prince. Dancers skillfully manipulate apir, or fans which represent the winds that prove to be auspicious. Royal princesses to this day in the Sulu Archipelago are required to learn this most difficult and noble dance.

There are other versions of Singkil. Perhaps the version more widely performed by dance companies is the "Garden Singkil." The story goes that the princess goes into her garden, accompanied by her slave, and plays with the butterflies, which are represented by the fan dancers. The movements of the fans supposedly represent those of the butterflies, as opposed to the diwatas. In another popular version, the prince uses a scarf instead of a sword.

[manileño]

i never known the diff between this singkil and tinikling. anyone knows? they're both using bamboo poles...

[xXx carlos xXx]

yes.... both dances are using bamboo poles... but singkil is a mindanao dance and tinikling is a rural dance.... post number 25 singkil and this one is tinikling....






tih-NIHK-lihng)
Honored as the Philippine national dance, Tinikling is a favorite in the Visayan islands, especially on the island of Leyte. The dance imitates the movement of the tikling birds as they walk between grass stems, run over tree branches, or dodge bamboo traps set by rice farmers. Dancers imitate the tikling bird's legendary grace and speed by skillfully maneuvering between large bamboo poles.

[Askal82]

In tinikling, they only use a pair of bamboo. In singkil, they use two pairs of them forming an intersection and it used to be a part of the wedding tradition of the maranaw royal families. Here's the Video

[Askal82]

Singkil looks more Indonesian or Malaysian in origin though.

[xXx carlos xXx]

yes because it is a dance of the muslim tribe, maranao...

[xXx carlos xXx]

another version of of the singkil story....


Once long ago, a beautiful young princess named Gandingan (gahn-deeng-un), lived by the shore of Lake Lanao in the island of Mindanao. Her mother was a powerful healer and the second wife of the wise and brave ruler of the Maranao people.

Once a month, the princess accompanied her mother into the forest to gather medicinal plants, herbs, barks, flowers, and fruits. Before entering the forest, they had to ask for the blessings of the forest spirits by offering gifts of food and incense.

The princess looked forward to these forest excursions. She enjoyed learning all about the subtle characters of the various medicinal plants. Someday, like her mother, she too wanted to become a healer. Although the forest was an enchanting place, she was also aware of its dangers.

Five years passed since the princess’ first forest experience. She had grown into a beautiful young woman. She was excited and nervous at the same time, for this was the day she must lead the women into the forest. She must remember the proper sequence of the ritual or bear the displeasure of the forest spirits.

Unknown to anyone, the powerful forest spirit Makalinug (Mah-kah-lee-noog), had fallen in love with Princess Gandingan and was waiting patiently for this very day. Makalinug could barely contain his excitement. He impatiently waited for the women to complete their ritual offerings. Not long after they entered the forest, Makalinug caused the women to get disoriented and they became separated from the princess.

Once Princess Gandingan was alone, he transformed himself into a handsome warrior. He told her of a special part of the forest where many medicinal plants abounded. He could take her there if she wished. She refused at first, but he persisted. She thought her mother would be pleased to find such a place, so she followed him. “Isn’t the forest enchanting?” He said. “Wouldn’t you like to stay her forever as my queen?” Princess Gandingan finally realized her situation. She refused him politely. He asked again. She refused him firmly. He pursued her and she repelled him. Makalinug became enraged! He was no longer the handsome warrior. In his anger he caused an earthquake. The earth opened and the trees began to fall around her. Makalinug knew that if the princess tripped on the fallen trees and fell into the open earth, she would be his forever.

Makalinug truly underestimated her courage. Princess Gandingan, without panic, courageously stepped over the fallen trees to the safety of the edge of the forest. Makalinug was left with his rage and a loud ringing in his ear from Princess Gandingan’s singkil anklets.

[ramvingar]

Originally Posted by Askal82

Singkil looks more Indonesian or Malaysian in origin though.

You have to remember that before the Spaniards arrived in the Phils, our culture was very similar or the same to those of Malaysia and Indonesia. After all, our ancestors were Indonesian and Malaysian migrants.

[ramvingar]

Both the Singkil and Tinikling receive standing ovations whenever they are performed abroad by the Bayanihan Dance Troupe (are they still around?). They've also won many awards in international cultural dance competitions.

I watched this old (1950's?) film before called "Krakatoa". There was a scene with some American sailors on board a ship and there were some Asian people dancing. One of the sailors approached the dancers and asked them what it was they were dancing. They replied by saying that it was the Tinikling from the Philippines.

[Lili]

Yes, I saw that film.

Even in an Elvis movie, there was a performance there that featured women dancing Tinikling. I can't remember if it was Viva Las Vegas.

[kiretoce]

Blue Hawaii perhaps? Anyway, I was channel surfing one day and landed on the local PBS channel and they were airing those old Lawrence Welk shows and in this episode I saw they were dancing the Tinikling, pretty funny seeing white people dancing it but they were really good at it! Glad to know that some foreigners appreciate our arts and culture.

[Animo]

European imperial ambitions spread to the Orient. Sanctioning this, the Roman Catholic Church played umpire to disputing nations by subdividing their playing fields. By that, the Philippines should not have been Spanish territory if not for Ferdinand Magellan chancing upon it in 1521 and by Miguel Lopez Legaspi's establishment of government in 1565. After them, the islands fell under Spanish suzerainty for more than three centuries.

Spain restructured the Filipino's lives in terms of politics, economics, religion and culture. This hispanization pervaded even the musical and choreographic practices of the people. Dances took on the tempo and temper of the European forms. For example, the noted Tinikling (which has had some Southeast Asian beginnings) and the Itik-itik (rustic and imitative like the other dances) acquired the tempo of the jota and the polka. Down to the research of Francisca Reyes Aquino, dances that did not have Western harmony were provided melodic accessibility, as in Pandanggo sa Ilaw and Subli.

Aside from modifying ritual, occupational and imitative dances, the Spaniards brought in their own dances. The most popular was the jota, later taking on numerous regional variations. Another was the fandango that was re-styled as pandanggo -- a dance that was once prescribed in Spain by Rome, it rivaled the jota in popularity. A step so common in many dances is the waltz, such as that found in the Cariñosa, Sayaw Santa Isabel, etc. In that way, the blase proliferated in dances for religious feasts, wedding and other social occasions. Still others were the paseo and the pateado (from zapateado).

From Cuba, the habanera with its syncopated interest and finding roots in many regions such as Pangasinan, Ilocos, Zambales, Capiz, etc. Outside of the direct Spanish territory came the Polish mazurka, the Czech polka, the Scottish schottische (renamed as escotis), and the French quadrille dances, like the rigaudon (turned into rigodon), pas de quatre (into pasakat) and lancers (into lanceros).

Intensively, the Filipinos combined several of these dances, so that the Polkabal and the Jotabal are noted examples. The Surtido is also one such invention, coming out in several regions.

With the brief presence of the British (owing to the Seven Years War, between 1762 and 1764) and their economic investments, there is such a dance as the Ba-Ingles. With the coming of the Americans, there was the Birginia, off the famous reel in America.

With the Catholic Church, ritual were Christianized as witnessed in the Bate (a waltz dance at Easter), the many pastores (shepherds dancing around at Christmas time), or the Sayaw sa Obando whiz is a waltz or pandanggo to plead for a wanted husband or child.

Spanish music-theater further popularized the European dances. The zarzuela (and the opera) had actresses who were also singers and dancers. Poet Flavio Zaragosa Cano praised the diva Patrocinio Carvajal (daughter of Patrocinio Tagaroma) as "Diosa del Baile." Other famous figures were Praxedes "Yeyeng" Fernandez (noted for her pandanggo and the condemned can-can in Pascual Bailon), Venancia Suzarra, Juana "Titay" Molina, Eulalia "Lalyang" Hernandez, Concepcion Cananea ("the songbird of Cebu") and to our time, Honorata "Atang" de la Rama.

A noted troupe of young dancers was formed by the Italian maestro Appiani. His Compania Infantil de Baile performed standard European dances in his choreographic mode.

Many of these dances would have been obscured with the influx of American influence at the turn of the Century. But with the pioneering research of Francisca Reyes Aquino and her followers, may of these dances were revived and documented. Starting at the University of the Philippines under the presidency of Jorge Bocobo, Aquino went out into the field and renewed the life of these dances through a folk dance group. This group was later followed by many others in the universities, such as Far Eastern University, University of the East, Philippine Women's University (Bayanihan Philippine Dance Company), Philippine Normal University (Baranggay Folk Dance Troupe), and in today's Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group, Leyte Kalipayan Dance Troupe, U.P. Filipiniana Dance Troupe, and so many others throughout the islands. From out of these schools and private groups (like Obusan's or the defunct Filipinescas Dance Company of National Artist Leonor Orosa Goquingco), these European dances, modified by the needs and style of the Filipinos, were further seen in the rest of Asia, Australia, Europe, Russia and the Americans.

Meanwhile, Aquino's volumes on these dances (and those of her followers) are still prime references for these troupes and in dance instruction in schools in the Philippines.

http://www.ncca.gov.ph/about_cultart...p?artcl_Id=116

[Animo]

In 1898, the United States colonized the Philippines. Contributory to the people's eventual surrender was an ongoing armed struggle against Spain.

Inevitably, the Americans' entry into the country brought with it their cosmopolitan and commercial culture. Their Black-influenced music and dances appealed to the terpsichorean bent of the Filipinos. Already schooled in the zarzuela, they found fascination in the vaudeville (later called the stage-show) which is a mix of the theatrical, minstrel and circus acts that attracted both the elite and the masses.

The cakewalk, buck-and-wing, skirt-dance, clog, tap and soft-shoe were performed in the zarzuela theaters, later with the cinema shows. Social dances also became part of the repertoire on stage, such as the Charleston, foxtrot, big apple, one-step, slow-drag, the Latin-influenced tango, rumba, samba, mambo and cha-cha.

John Cowper was called "dean of Philippine vaudeville," and with him came other American and European artists. Later the Filipinos took charge by organizing their own troupes, such as those of the Salvadors, the Roques, Sammy Rodriguez, Lamberto Avellana, Jose Climaco, Ramon Estrella, Jose Generoso and Fernando Poe. Bayani Casimiro and Nieves Manuel were call the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers of the Philippines. A noted Portuguese dancer-impresario from the Spanish times, Don Jose Zarah, carried on into the '60s at the Clover Theater.

With improved transportation, the Philippines became part of the big international circuit. Filipinos increasingly experienced the ballet. In 1901, the Lilliputians graced the Zorilla with "ballet girls". The Japanese Infantile Company brought a "Japanese ballet" to Teatro Oriental. In 1902, the Baroufski Imperial Russian Circus advertised 25 "ballet beauties" in a "mammoth production."

In 1915 and 1916, Paul Nijinsky danced at the Manila Hotel with costumes attributed to Leon Bakst, Diaghilev's designer. In 1922 Anna Pavlova graced the Manila Grand Opera House, prodding local girls to study ballet. Among these was Anita Kane (later teacher of Felicitas "Tita" Radaic and Ester Rimpos) who trained with Katrina Makarova, a Russian refugee. Others were Mara Selheim, Carmen McLeod and, and the most important, Madame Lubov "Luva" Adameit.

Supposedly a dancer of Pavlova and coming in 1927, Adameit trained the first noted choreographers of Manila: National Artist Leonor Orosa Goquingco, Remedios "Totoy" de Oteyza, Rosalia Merino Santos, etc. It was she who planted the germ of native inspiration with her Cariñosa and Planting Rice on pointes.

In 1939 Kane staged Mariang Makiling with composer Ramon Tapales. She later followed this with more Philippine-inspired ballets together with the ballet classics. In 1941 Orosa Goquingco staged Trend: Return to Native, seminal of her other Filipino ballets. In 1961, she topped these with Filipinescas: Philippine Life, Legend and Lore in Dance that toured the globe. Much later, Merino Santos turned to modern dance, founded the Far Eastern University Modern Experimental Dance Troupe, and directed the FEU Folk Dance Group that stirred up Europe as much as the Bayanihan did in the '50s. Oteyza choreographed abstract ballets allied to musical forms of Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Frank, Rachmaninoff, Rimsky-Korsakov, Ravel and the Filipino Rodolfo Cornejo.

Modern dance began in the vaudeville circuit. At the Zorilla, Ada Delroy Danced The Fire of Life that seemed inspired by Loie Fuller, an American like Isadora Duncan who found fame in Europe. In 1926, the Denishawn company of Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn danced at the MGOH in its two-year Oriental tour. In 1932, Austrian Kaethe Hauser introduced ausdrukstanz. Her noted pupil was Manolo Rosado, a flamenco dancer, labeled as the "poet of dance" in America. In 1937, another Austrian in Trudl Dubsky (a member of Gertrude Bodenwieser's troupe) joined her groom, conductor Herbert Zipper, in Manila. She founded Manila Ballet Moderne where many Filipinos apprenticed themselves. She choreographed in the Western idiom, and performed at the Manila Metropolitan Theater. Later she directed operas including Carmen in Tagalog.

Manila was heavily devastated during the World War II. The Zippers wanted to build a new arts center by raising funds in the United States. This was not to be. But into the '60s, they periodically visited to stage ballets, operas and concerts of the Manila Symphony Orchestra (MSO), the first Western ensemble in Asia. The MSO accompanied many dance performances and its support society defrayed a few expenses.

The American influence continued into the years long after the country's independence from USA in 1946.

http://www.ncca.gov.ph/about_cultart...p?artcl_Id=117

[charitorae]

Do you guys know about Pilipino Culture Nights, or also commonly referred to as PCNs? An annual production of dance, song, and script, conveying some sort of contemporary Pilipino or Pilipino-American theme. Very big out here in CA.

[ramvingar]

^never heard of it Char. But I've been to the Philippine Convention held in July

[Culiat]

Originally Posted by charitorae

Do you guys know about Pilipino Culture Nights, or also commonly referred to as PCNs? An annual production of dance, song, and script, conveying some sort of contemporary Pilipino or Pilipino-American theme. Very big out here in CA.

Yup, I have a relative (or maybe relatives) who are part of some PCN of a school here in CA, I almost became part of it, but our school stopped doin it.