BAYANIHAN'S BEYOND FOLKLORE II
by Prof.Guillermo Gomez Rivera |
Brings out Bits of Filipino History |
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At the opening of
Bayanihan's Production Meeting of May 27
(2010), Executive Director Ms. Suzie
Benitez observed that a good number of
Filipinos don't seem to like Philippine
History, particularly those who are now
in the USA where the next Bayanihan
international tour is headed." Maybe
it's the way it is taught", she quipped.
We immediately agreed with her as a
History buff ourselves. And we added
that it is now time for Bayanihan to
really teach our people, and its world
audience, the true history of the
Philippines through dance and song.
After all, we added, behind every
Bayanihan song and dance, a bit of the
Filipino's national history, culture and
national identity is actually being
brought to the stage with all its
splendor. And, is this not what
Bayanihan, as the National Dance Company
of the Philippines that it is, precisely
supposed to do? This must be the reason
why Bayanihan is so unique and so
fascinating.
Philippine History,
for Filipinos in the USA in particular,
is still something that is
controversial. But then, some
controversy is always good, we smilingly
told Executive Director Ms. Suzie
Benitez, so that people there will talk
about Bayanihan and they will come to
see and immensely and proudly enjoy it
in the long run.
The Bayanihan
repertoire is usually of four suites.
(1) The Cordillera suite, (2) the Muslim
Suite, (3) the Maria Clara or Hispanic
Suite and the (4) Lowland Filipino
suite. And Beyond Folklore II will keep
a good part of this criteria but with
recent accretions.
Bayanihan's
Choreographer in Ferdinand "Bong"
Jose has, however, expanded this
criteria with the new material that has
come his way. He observed, for example,
the surprise of many an audience who saw
the Habanera Japonesa de Pacô, a
dance executed with fan and mask dating
back to Spanish times but of marked
Japanese influence. Most Filipinos only
remember the 1942-44 Japanese occupation
and simply don't know that during
Spanish times, Japanese Christians
immigrated to Manila, many of whom were
lepers that were confined in the old San
Lázaro Hospital at Dulung Bayan,
---which is today's Avenida Rizal.
Those who were clean settled in Pacô,
where up to now we find a Plaza de
Dilao. After several generations
some songs and dances were born out of
this Japanese-Spanish-Tagalog community.
One of them is the Habanera de
Dilao beautifully staged with fan in
one hand and mask in the other in a kind
of Maria Clara dress that is a mix of
Japanese, Spanish and Tagalog
influences.
There are then the
criollo and meztizo Spanish
dances and songs from then Spanish City
of Manila de Intramuros.
The old walled City was not only known
for its beautiful and ornate churches
but also for its schools for both boys
and girls. In all these schools Spanish
music, Spanish songs and dances were
naturally taught and performed by both
Spanish residents and their creole
progeny along with the Tagalog
Principalia and the Chinos Cristianos,
(the ones originally referred to as the
mestizos who came from the Sectores de
Mestizos or Parianes found in Manila and
in almost every provincial cabecera..)
The "Veladas Literario-Musicales"
staged in every school and college
auditorium, called Salon de Actos,
inside Intramuros naturally spawned
these Spanish dances as presently staged
by Bayanihan in its Mestizaje y
Criolleria suite.
EL CAÑI, among the
CRIOLLO dances recently staged by
Bayanihan, is one that calls the
particular attention of some viewers
who, with the vast majority of audiences
that applaud it wildly, also appreciate
but somehow question its provenance.
Some viewers associate this old and slow
paced CRIOLLO dance from Ermita,
Intramuros, Binondo, Quiapo and Santa
Cruz, with a still famous and fast
pasodoble called "España Cañi"
played in all ballroom dance
competitions and even PBA basketball
matches. But El Cañi is originally slow
and executed in the seductive Zambra
style as now aptly staged by
Bayanihan..
As of Chinese
influence, or the Meitizo Terciado
influence in Filipino dance and song,
Bayanihan has the El Collar de
Sampaguita to show. It is really a
song and dance in honor of a special
guest after which the performing ladies
give him the sampaguita garlands.
Mestizaje is not only a mix of Spanish
and the indigenous ( Indio ) or native.
There is the Mestizaje Terciado
which is a mix of Spanish, Native Indio
Katutubo and Chinese.
These Intramuros
and Extramuros dances and
songs naturally look different from the
rural and lowland folk dances of these
Islands because they are more profoundly
Hispanic in both their movement and
projection. Mother Spain and the old
Mexico of the Galleon Trade can be
perceived in most of them. But then,
these are dances that also enrich the
broad Bayanihan dance repertoire
that encompasses what is truly Filipino
in song, dance and dress. And when
translated to the stage by its
multi-awarded choreographer in
Ferdinand "Bong" Jose plus
the music expertly supplied by Melito
Vale Cruz along with the costumes
produced by Isabel Santos ( Tita Bills
), the National Dance Company,
Bayanihan, cant help but win in
almost every world or international folk
dance competition as proved by so many
of its plaques, medals, banners and
trophies.
All other Filipino
Dance Groups have to learn from
Bayanihan because it simply came
first and continues to be first. And
Bayanihan is also there to share its
treasures with them and the world. With
these abundant and original Filipino
repertoire, Bayanihan will really
go beyond folklore and keep on growing
and advancing as it accumulates more and
more forgotten dances from an Hispanic
City like Intramuros which so many other
researches cannot reach. There are so
many other dance and song materials from
places and regions from these wonderful
7,100 Islas del poniente that
have been hidden by time and the ravages
of past wars and the present foreign
colonialism.
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WHY BAYANIHAN GOES BEYOND FOLKLORE by Señor
Guillermo Gomez Rivera |
Filipino dance and music researcher,
historian and Bayanihan Consultant for
Spanish dances |
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Bayanihan, the national Dance
Company, looks back at its triumphs as
it moves onward with each new
presentation. From Folkdance translated
into the modern stage,
Bayanihan carefully advances into
Folklore, and beyond, with Filipino
History and national identity as its
guide. After all
Bayanihan literally means
patriotism or
love of country, its root word
being
bayani (hero), - a kind of hero that
renders personal service to his
community which during Spanish times was
known as
polo and, or,
falla. In this regard, we dare say that each one of those involved
in
Bayanihan are literally national
heroes and artist who reiterate through
dance, music, percussion, dress and
action what is Filipino.
Bayanihan’s
Executive
Director, Ms. Suzie Moya Benitez, a
seasoned
Bayanihan dancer herself, has aptly
called
Beyond Folklore this new presentation because it celebrates the
Company’s triumphant New York debut some
50 years ago as it surges beyond
folkdance when, through choreographer
Ferdinand “Bong” José, Music Director
Melito Vale Cruz and Costume Director
Isabel Santos, forays into the Ilocano
Zarzuela, into an E dance suite aside
from an entirely new Intramuros dance
suite that stages Filipino- Hispanic
dances accurately titled, by the
mentioned Executive Director herself, as
“Bailes
de la
Calle Anda”. These
Hispanic dance genre, which is as
indigenous to the Philippines as the
Singkil is to Mindanao, was frequently
performed in the Grand Hotel La
Mallorca, which then proudly stood by
Calle Anda of olls Intramuros in the
early 1900s.
Choeographer Ferdinand
“Bong” José reveals himself as the great
dance alchemyist that he is when he so
skillfully restages these Intramuros
Hispanic dances the Bayanihan way.
Isabel Santos will now display her
clásica modista skills with the
timely revival of the cola serpentine as
worn in Intramuros and in all the
grandes salones de baile of these
Islands
from Apari down to Zamboanga and Joló.
Lastly, the
Bayanihan rondalla under the direction of Melito Vale Cruz has aptly
met the challenge of playing with
Flamenco style touches, the old
Zapateado de Intramuros evocative of
Granda’s old Sacromonte.
We are particularly
glad that Music Director Melito Vale
Cruz will have Bayanihan’s lovely
soprano, and the usual male choir, sing
the old Intramuros song in both Spanish
and Tagalog. It is a lovely hymn to the
original
Manila
as sang by National Artist for
literature Nick Joaquin. Its words speak
for tjemselves. Al oir el tañer de unas
rondallas/ me ecuardo de Intramuros, la
fiel,/ La ciudad que nacida entre
murallas, / se expande por doquier./Fue
España tu madre y Tu dueña,/ Ojalá, No
olveden tu ayer, los que quiren ver tu
enseña/ Levantada nuevamente./ El amor
conocí en tu regazo/ me nutria de su
ambrosia./ Eres tu el sueño de mi
corazón/ Ay Manila, Fanal de amor.
Sandaling dingguing ang aking awit/ At
sa inyo’y aking issusulit, Ang pook ng
tugtugan at awit./Maynilâ kong sakdal
ibig./ Maynilâ pugad ka ng ligaya/ bawat
puso’y nagagayuma/ Ang lahat ay umaasa/
Masilayan ka sa twina./ Maynilâ, puso’y
koy maligaya/ Lagui kang naaalala,/ Nang
pusong nangangarap ng lagui na/ Ang
Maynilâ may ligaya. CANTO A INTRAMUROS (
Manila, 1941 )
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Mestizaje by Señor Guillermo Gomez Rivera |
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When Suzie Moya Benitez, Bayanihan's executive director, wanted a name for the projected super-show involving Bayanihan and the visiting Folklorical Group from the Island of Palma de Mallorca, Spain, the word "re-encuentro" (re-encounter) was given. She paused to think and found the word "warlike" for that is the word for "shoot-out" in present day Tagalog and Visayan. So "re-encuentro" would not do. The lady opted for another given word "Mestizaje" which means "fusion", "unity", "a dynamic step forward". She directed the use of "reencuentro" for the suite where both Bayanihan and Palma de Mallorca dancers do dances to the same music of the jota, the fandnago and the bolero.
And indeed, "Mestizaje" is the right word for this new meeting with folklorical Spain of the Mallorcan variety. This new meeting is the of shoot of Bayanihan's victory last year as the world's best folklorical group in a worldwide "concurso" held in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
It is obvious that the word "Mestizaje" is kindred to that other word we all know in these Islands. Mestizo. And Mestiza if feminine. For us who were born in old native Cabeceras like Vigan, Malolos, Lingayen, Iloilo, Zamboanga and Cebú the "Sector de Mestizos" or "Pari-án" is a place familiar to us. But the mestizos there, or the "kamistisuha ng Par-ián", are not blood mestizos of Spaniards. They are cultural mestizos because Native and Chinese by blood but Christian Catholics by religion and Spanish by their language, their food, their songs and their dress. Thus the first mestizos were the children of a Chino Christiano father and an Indio mother.
And since the Chinos Cristianos were traders, usually involved in the Galleon trade, the "Sector de Mestizos" was an enclave of the rich and the educated who spoke and sang in Spanish and wore the "traje de mestiza" and lived in those big Vigan houses and those Malolos mansions, to cite but two examples. Those who ignore history rashly label these "Sectores de Mestizos" as "a gheto" when these are not enclaves of poverty and misery but precisely by opulence.
The hispanization by blood of these old "Sectores de Mestizos" became intensified when many Spanish government officials, employees, businessmen and military settled in the Islands and married into the families of these "Sectores" or "Pari-ánes". The offspring of these latter marriages were called "Mestizos terciados" because aside from Native and Chinese, they also had Spanish blood.
These dynamic fusion of Catholic Spain and the Philippines is Christian "Mestizaje" and the virtues of this fusion can be seen in all Christian Filipino dances which are classified into three kinds: (1) bailes criollos (the creole dances). These are dances that directly came from the Spanish Peninsula and New Spain (Mexico) but which were later indigenized, (2) bailes urbanos (dances from the big cabeceras and ciudades), and (3) bailes municipales y rurales (rural dances). The pre-Hispanic dances were called danzas tribales ( tribal dances).
Bayanihan's multi-awarded Choreographer and Director, Ferdinand "Bong" José, has observed that many of our Filipino regional dances are very similar to the regional dances of Spain. This merely confirms our thesis about Mestizaje and the fact that under Spain, all Filipios were Spanish citizens or subjects.
But the Mestizaje of Filipino native dances is not only limited to what is Spanish and native but also to what is Filipino and Chinese (El collar de Sampaguita) and to what is Filipino and Japanese (Habanera Japonesa de Paco). These dances we have offered when the suite called Extramuros de Manila (Beyond the Walls) was staged with the 1873 Manila visit of Hong Kong Governor-General, Sir John Bowring, as the theme. While Intramuros had purely Spanish or creole dances, the arrabales beyond the walls, like Binondo, Santa Cruz, Quiapo, San Miguel, Paco, Ermita and Malate had their respective Mestizaje dances.
Some sectors of course did ask: What about "American Mestizaje"? And the simple answer is that there is no such thing as a fusion between native and American dances and songs. This never happened since Filipinos were never made, wholesale, American citizens. With English as our compulsory medium of education, no such fusion took place. We simply were made to adopt, wholesale, American pop culture with its Hollywood movies, popular jazz, blues and the cowboy square dance. Thus, although still under American suzerainty up to now, its either Filipinos sing and dance jazz, the charleston, the boogie-woogie, the swing as they are wont to do, or we change what folkdance means within the accepted concept of authentic Filipino dance culture.
This re-encounter with the folkdances
from Palma de Mallorca, Spain, should
prove to be an experience for Bayanihan
and Manilas culturatti. It is a pity
that with the destruction of Intramurso
de Manila, the grand old Palma de
Mallorca Hotel y Panadería, the cultural
center then of old Intramuros and of
greater Manila, has also disappeared. If
not, Mestizaje, would have been also
staged in its big function hall complete
with a good sized stage. Bienvenidos a
Manila, amigos mallorquines. |
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