Half-century on stage, Bayanihan still beacon for culture

It pays to sit beside folk dancers when watching the Bayanihan Dance Company. How else would I realize that the Jota dances have a specific technique—from the way the fingers touch to form a graceful arc to the tilt of the head and angle of the body when two dancers face each other?

Silliman University Kahayag Dance Troupe member Aiken Quipot even pointed out, “Look at the costumes when Visayan rural dances are performed na. No flower prints on their dresses. Those can only be found in Luzon.”

We were sitting there as part of a rapt audience of mostly Silliman students. As part of the university’s Founders Day celebrations late last month, the SU Cultural Affairs Committee invited the Bayanihan to “surge to the crest” in the campus by the sea.

And by the end of the night, the audience’s cultural experiences were brimming with visions of candles covered in pink cloth, swung round and round with the lights off in Bayanihan’s version of Pandanggo sa Ilaw.

Or the breathtaking Singkil performance (a dance they originally choreographed out of a Muslim legend, Aiken said), with the Datu and Princess’ feet hypnotically moving between pounding bamboo sticks.

Or the resounding applause following the last dance, the multi-awarded Voyage of Love and Peace, after the three dancers skillfully transformed two bamboo sticks and a piece of colorful malong into a rushing, moving vinta.

The Bayanihan Dance Company wowed the crowd with an hour-long visual and musical treat—with the actual rhythmic cacophony of gongs, kulintangans, drums and kandingans onstage. They created the beat for a swaying, thumping group of Philippine cultural ambassadors in their richly textured, jewel-toned garments. And we couldn’t help but stand and applaud.

Heights scaled in 51 years

We have all heard of the term “Bayanihan”, and can immediately recall a hut being transferred with the collective efforts of a community. A symbol of working together for the common good, the Philippine Women’s University Bayanihan Philippine Dance Company walks its talk.

How? Its founder Dr. Helena Benitez started the group to research ethnic rites and tribal folklore; collect indigenous art forms expressed in music, dance, literature and the arts; transform cultural traditions into theatrical presentations; and, promote international understanding through performances.

That was in 1957, when Benitez and her group answered the call of the government to present Philippine culture during the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair. How sensational they were in their “Glimpses of Philippine Culture through Music and Dance” production then. And they haven’t stopped since.

 Among their distinctions throughout the years include being the first Filipino group to perform on Broadway, the first foreign dance company to perform at New York City’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and the first Philippine cultural group to appear in Russia, the People’s Republic of China and throughout South America.

Moreover, the Gold Temple Award given during the prestigious Agrigento Festival in Sicily first came into Bayanihan’s hands in February 2002. Then, during the 50th Festival Internationale del Folklore and 60th Sagra del Mandorio in Fiore held in Agrigento, Sicily in 2005, they bested all the past Gold Temple Awardees in 50 years for the Golden Anniversary Gold Temple Award.

All these, and so much more, amounted to being named by Congress as the National Folk Dance Company of the Philippines in 2000. They not only represented the country splendidly in other parts of the world, but they also changed other people’s minds about what Filipinos have to offer.

Because of Bayanihan and its long years of promoting folk dance, the country now boasts of numerous folk dance companies. It was as if the group was proving its name again and again.

Half-centenarians, still alive and kicking

Filipinos well-versed in our folk dances sometimes take offense at how Bayanihan performs.

Ferdinand Jose, Bayanihan Dance Company dance director and choreographer (and former dancer), chimed in, “We modify ourselves into theater, and there are certain rules we have to follow in performances. The music has to be arranged in a certain way, and choreography has to have an entrance, climax and an exit. Otherwise, as in some tribes or localities, it can go on and on and on.”

“It’s an old debate about authenticity. But nothing is authentic anymore,” said Melito Vale Cruz, Bayanihan Dance Company deputy music director and former dancer (as well as former Philippine Madrigal singer).

The two compose the creative team behind the Bayanihan Dance Company today, following the footsteps of former teachers National Artists Lucrecia Úrtula, Lucrecia Kasilag. Both explain that Bayanihan performances are traditional, and not contemporary folk dance, if there is such a thing.

And believe it or not, these magnificent traditional performances are the result of research, community immersion and creativity. “Folk dances still exist, and finding them is an ongoing process until now. For example, in five barangays in the hinterlands, you’ve seen two dances performed. There are three left you have not discovered,” Cruz said.

Jose explained that before a dance is performed onstage, “We go visit a community; we live with them, eat with them. We watch them go about their daily lives. Then we come up with material that can go with theater. We enhance movements and details. In the end, the community ends up preserving the dances on their own.”

An example they gave was their “Bangkero” performance from the municipality of Pagsanjan, choreographed as part of the Bayanihan Folk Arts Foundation (wherein they adopt a community, search for new material, send dance teachers to teach the locals, and leave the dance to the municipality).

Of the world-renowned Pagsanjan Falls-inspired dance, Cruz said, “They had particular movements with their feet and their arms as they came down the waterways. The women could not walk straight because it was slippery. ‘Bangkero’ was an adaptation of those movements.”

What’s more, the dance also projects the strength and skill of the boatmen (bangkeros) as they propel boats between boulders and over rapids, all thanks to the mind-blowing skills of the Jose-Cruz tandem.

Surging to the next 49

In their Dumaguete performance, 19 students from Philippine Women’s University and Miriam College, among others, performed, right after a two-week stint in France. They milled about happily backstage, content with their representation of Filipino culture both abroad and in the laidback but culture-rich city of Dumaguete.

When I asked Jose and Cruz what the next 49 years could bring, they said, “We hope to continue performing in a lot of places, finding new dances, and passing on the same appreciation for dance and culture to the next generation. There’s still so much more to discover and create.”

Unlike other dance companies here and abroad, this wish does not seem that far-fetched.

For more information, bayanihannationaldanceco.ph and www.geocities.com/su_culturalaffairs/