2008 – Tuklas Tanghal

Cultural Center of the Philippines
presents the

RAMON OBUSAN FOLKLORIC GROUP
Ramon A. Obusan t, National Artist for Dance
TUKLAS TANGHAL
THE UNVEILING OF A PEOPLE AND THE UNRAVELING OF TRADITIONS
JULY 4, 2008 0 10AM & 8PMO JULY 5 & 6, 2008 • 10AM & 3PM
TANGHALANG NICANOR ABELARDO (CCP MAIN THEATER)

Cultural Center of the Philippines
MESSAGE

The Cultural Center of the Philippines salutes the Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group as it stages a series of performances billed as TUKLAS…TANGHAL: THE UNVEILING OF A PEOPLE AND THE UNRAVELING OF TRADITIONS.

Utilizing the many disciplines of movement and music, ROFG enthralls audiences this season with diversified presentations that bring life to some of the unusual, colorful, and interesting village-based traditions of various cultural groups. Witness echoes from the mountain range, the vibrant and vivid colors of Mindanao, mystic voices from beyond, a passion for the varying phases of fashion and a convergence of cultures translated into dance, meant to educate and demonstrate the power of art in developing the human society.

We join ROFG in its mission to help produce a generation of performers and teachers who continue to harness the talents of young and promising performing artists. Under the guidance of its Administrators Iris O. Isla and Sonja O. Menor and Executive Director Dulce A. Obusan, members of the group, friends and supporters, we thank them for not only perpetuating folk dance as a way of life, but for keeping its legacy vibrant and enchanting as set forth by the late National Artist for Dance, Ramon Arevalo Obusan.
Mabuhay ang artistang Pilipino!

NESTOR O. JARDIN
President & Artistic Director

MESSAGE

RAMON OBUSAN
FOLKLORIC FOUNDATION, INC.

“Find a way where the RAMON OBUSAN FOLKLORIC FOUNDATION can be of full service to the PHILIPPINES and the generations to come.”

RAMON AREVALO OBUSAN
National Artist for Dance

The above message was lifted off Kuya’s handwritten will. Difficult as it is, we the ROFF family and its friends continue with what he had started four and a half decades ago.
Kuya had traveled to remote corners of the Philippines to document obscure rituals, dances and folkloric traditions. On the original stage, which could be the deepest recesses in the forest, a small remote clearing on the side of a mountain, the shores of an embattled island in the south of the country, he had set forth to seek, to watch and listen, to discover, to search, to record and to compile. What he had collected, he transported to you. He has written, created, conceived, produced and will present some of his life’s works to you on the stage that we know, the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
Tonight is an “informance”, an inform and performance approach. We are here mainly to be educated in a less than formal way. To be entertained is only secondary.

We hope to open your eyes to what KUYA, the NATIONAL ARTIST had worked and sacrificed for, to fulfill his dream of touching the youth of today that they may learn and yearn and not forget who and what they are… FILIPINOS.

SONJA OBUSAN-MENOR
Administrator

IRIS OBUSAN-ISLA
Administrator

DULCE A. OBUSAN
Executive Director

OPTEAM
MESSAGE

I would like to congratulate the Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group for again managing to produce TUKLAS… TANGHAL, a unique anthology-dance-demo choreography in keeping with the Ramon Obusan legacy of educating as many people as possible with the diverse and interesting folkloric dances of this country.
OPTEAM will continually support the efforts of the ROFG Foundation because we share its vision of investing skills and positive values in the youth, instilling pride in the Filipino towards his heritage, and its unwavering commitment of giving poor youth the chance to be a part of a world-class dance company.

As one of Finland’s largest manpower companies, our strength is Human Resources. Likewise, the ROFG derives from the inherent strength of the Filipino people — past, present and the future.

It is my fervent hope to showcase to our European audience the ROFG next year in Helsinki, Finland.
More power to you!

MIKA ESCOLA
Chief Executive Officer

RAMON A. OBUSAN: A LIFE INTO RITE

Fear and Fascination. These are the diurnal encounters of Ramon Arevalo Obusan, intensifying since he founded his folkloric group in 1971. These may also describe what’s inside the man for the past 35 years in order to set his extensive research and repertoire in Philippine dance. Which have both been solid and prized scholarly resource for us at home, and living treasures for the rest of the world to marvel at: about who and what we are, Filipinos.

Who could have provoked a critic in a Hong Kong festival to say that these are “the stuff an art festival should be made of’? Not only to be startled by but also to believe in, in the verity and variety of a people’s folk expressions.

Obusan himself said of an obsession, “As an anthropologistethnologist, I am trusting a ray of hope into the grim fact that if we did not take time to understand the underlying influence or force that these rituals have on us, and save what is left of their forms, all this on-going destruction will throw us blind, leaving these rituals as displaced, outof-context pieces of puzzle of our cultural heritage.”

This cultural concern is broad and deep: from this Bicolano who personifies all of us in his scouring our islands, who relentlessly communes with our peoples and their cultures, and who gives us and the rest of the world a total picture of these ethnographic pieces he speaks of. But beside other researchers and choreographers, and other folk groups, Obusan often goes beyond the easily panoramic and now formulaic presentation of those pieces.

What first won me over, from this man I did not then know, was his second Kayaw presentation in 1974 at the new Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP). Factual yet fascinating as it was, it veered away from the usual and digestible series of regional and variegated suites that seductively spellbind foreign eyes in our folkloric groups’ global tours, since the successes of the Bayanihan, Barangay and Far Eastern University groups in the late ’50s.

| Kayaw focused on the ritual traditions of the Kalinga, Benguet, Bontoc, Apayao and Ifugao. It was both a researcher’s and a stager’s triumph. It was an in-depth presentation on stage, not just a drastic or dramatic survey. Later, another enchantment from Obusan I saw was at Philtrade, focusing on our Kuwaresma rites. More existential than our traditional Senaculo that sweepingly reenacts the biblical story in Holy Land; the portrayed practices were forcefully close to and revelatory of how our people feel a religious need, processing a conversion in indigenous terms.

In contrast to that, today Obusan annually celebrates one of our most festive occasions, Christmas. As no one has done, he has brought together an anthology of our Pastores (shepherds’ reciting, dancing, playing on way to visit the Christ Child) where he invites us, “Vamos a Belen”. I have seen this outdoor production in vernacular vigor, under the sun and sometimes rain, in front of the fountains of the

CCP, and with a pulley-pulled star-lantern drawn from a practice in a Negros Oriental church. It dares to end by bringing us to a modern mall in today’s colonial and consumerist spectacle of balloons, confetti and St. Nicholas’s presence. Is this a sly anthropologist’s question-in-performance?

This is the kind of cultural focus that makes the Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group different from others. It is a concentrationbeside his study and staging of the far-and-widethat must have arisen from Obusan’s anthropological study in the University of the Philippines. (Or earlier, of as concentrated a world as marine biology which he once taught in a college out in Aklan.)

Can we equate this intensified focus to a disciplined acquisition he had from his father, Dr. Praxedes Obusan, and his music teacher mother, Josefina Arevalo? Born in Legaspi on June 16, 1938, to a large family, Obusan tells of how he grew up in a hardy, regimented atmosphere. Where he lives today in Pasay, fronting NAIA-I, he shows a brave enterprise that certainly goes beyond material goods as such. He has turned the family house into a museum containing his extensive collection of musical instruments, implements, costumes, furniture, artifacts of Filipino culture. Moreover, he has added more architectural features that also become settings for his presentations, film documentation, aside from rehearsal and storage space of properties and costumes.

His investment is tremendous for these, in order to enhance his archival record of such perishable practices as chants, songs and dances. His memory and understanding of these are phenomenal, which he generously shares with other scholars, teachers, stage directors, filmmakers, choreographers and numerous dance groups. Indeed, he houses a school for a living culture.

Often enough, he also houses more than his troupe’s members. When financially able, he would bring in various ethnic groups into his presentations. He arranges their coming and going, feeding and lodging, adjustment in an urban setting. Indeed, his authentic concern goes beyond appropriating a tribe’s practices; he brings them in as living participants in his metropolitan life, as much as he becomes one with them in their remote, even dangerous domiciles. Out there, he would sometimes spend for an occasion in order to revive and record a celebration. Thus, the description director-choreographer is such a confining term to describe Obusan. He is also all of impresario, hotelier and, when need be, a modern-day babaylan to negotiate among folks, and between them and the spirits they believe in. To simply call him artist in dance is to restrict and constrict his obsession and function.

Inasmuch as he negotiates these, and between his performers and us, his audience, he does indeed tread the grounds of fear. To some, this may seem an exaggerated statement.

Fear stems from the uncertainties in the ephemeral nature of dance and all performing arts. Conceptually, one may be clear and confident about what’s to happen in living bodies adapting to each other and to a setting, the stage or Mother Earth’s. But to be realized in that circumstance of uncertainties, dance embodies itself in concerted beliefs, in faith among collaborators, and in the goals of that momentary occasion. A faith validated at each performance

Martha Graham has always harped on this fear as an “acrobat of the gods”. Yet this is paired with Fascination. For one, by the very precariousness of the performing arts. You have to ever go into it, to practice, practice, practice. In order to arrive at what you wish to be. Aside from the visual and virtual attractions of dance, this fascination stems from the very beauty of the body (post-modernly redefined as any body that empowers itself), the rhythmic enchantment felt and conveyed, and the (re-) enactment of the rite of being, of performing, of communicating an aspired-for cause.

These paradoxical feelings must explain the endurance and creativity of Obusan as an artist. Witness the breadth of his choreographic content and craft.

Amid a long record of productions, he lists several full-length presentations. These include Kayaw ’68 and Kayaw “74, Ritual, Tausug Tapestry, Noon Po sa Amin, Kaamulan, Maynila – Isang Dakilang Kasaysayan, and his survey of undocumented dances he called Unpublished Dances I, II, III. He also surveyed Asia in Under the ASEAN Skies, Glimpses of the ASEAN, Mystique Asia and in fact had formed and directed an ASEAN company, while his dancers were once resident artists at the Sentosa Island in Singapore.

Reprinted from the 2006 ORDER OF NATIONAL ARTIST Commemorative Book produced by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and the Cultural Center of the Philippines

He has collaborated in several film productions, and himself directed dance documentaries, among them for the CCP’s Tuklas Sining: Sayaw series. To have won awards locally and abroad, one a grand prix de reportage in Videodanse, France. He has also been consultant for the UNESCO, and done research in the Pacific: Fiji, Samoa, Tahiti and New Zealand.

Obusan’s courage to be and for all of us, to the rest of the world, is recorded in his numerous tours at home and abroad: Asia, Europe and the Americas. He also joined the Smithsonian Folklife Festival during our centennial year in 1998. These just approximate in focus and scope his own intensive and extensive field research in our islands to know our dances and music, and the very people who do and live them. He doesn’t just study them; he joins their diurnal and ritual life.

Obusan has made of his own life a ritual process. As Victor Turner describes it, Obusan crosses borders, enters a ritual space (which can be any customary circle), and emerges enlightened. Or reinvigorated as a researcher-artist. It takes a kind of daring to just cross that transept. But Obusan the producer has to do another crossing by staging the peoples’ dances on stage, or just in any setting other than the original space. He claims to somehow resolve the question of “authenticity” by true costumes and music, and explicating on the context of a relocated observation. (This explicating was so easily and summarily done in the past with an attributed progeny by geographical location, general classification of costuming, and unilateral codification in recordings.) Obusan’s own collection, documentation and sometimes invitation of tribal participants mitigate accusation of appropriation. As critic, I must say that any performance could create its own context and could be accepted or rejected by the very verity of that moment, anthropological claims withstanding. (Check Homi Bhabha on hybridity issue.)

Despite and through all these, Obusan has won recognition or awards from the City of Manila, the CCP, the Centennial Awards in 1998, and what’s more, an ROFG Day out in Cleveland, Ohio in 1994. He ever refurbishes and reinvigorates his repertoire by his assiduous and indefatigable research work in the field, keeping his ties alive with the very culture he observes (and participates in). As a result, he has infused others with this research orientation, influencing teachers and directors of many dance groups all over the Philippines. Had he more than one life, he proclaims:

“If I could have another lifetime and several more, I would definitely go back amongst my dear friends living in deep forest recesses or wedged in some slopes of high mountains to listen to tales of a rich culture, delight in their music, be one with them in dance and record their timeless traditions.”

By Basilio Esteban S. Villaruz

I. KALIHAN: ECHOES FROM THE MOUNTAIN RANGE
TUKLAS TANGHAL
A poignant melody from a mountain flute stirs the people of the Cordillera to come as one in this special “budong”. Such a gathering bespeaks of the people’s greatness. Brawn and beauty, color and drama combined make for a Ramon Obusan trademark piece that introduces the audience to some of the ethno-linguistic communities that thrive in the vastness of the Mountain Province; the Apayao, Bago, Benguet / Kangkanay / Ibaloy, Bontok, Gaddang, Ifugao, Itneg / Tinggian, Ilonggot / Bugkalot, Kalinga, and the lesser-known Iwak and Kalangoya.

Tarektek. (Benguet). Tarektek is woodpecker in the Kankanai dialect. Two male woodpeckers, one with a beautiful voice as represented by the gangsa flat gongs and the other with the colorful plumage as represented by a blanket show off their skill in dance to win the heart of three female woodpeckers.

Bumburak Tatalabong. (Gaddang). Two Gaddang females contest their gracefulness in dance to win the attention of an elusive male. The female whom the male gives away his scarf wins his heart.

Salip. (Kalinga). A courtship dance imitating the movements of a rooster and a hen in a love play.

Imbajah. (Ifugao). The Ifugao, famous builders of the Banaue Rice Terraces, a World Heritage site, celebrated a wedding over a bountiful harvest. The groom wears the traditional kango headdress while the bride wears the dongdong, a small female figure with open arms symbolizing the status of the family in the society.

II. KARIALA: VIBRANT AND VIVID COLORS OF MINDANAO

Kinakulangan. (Maranao) Beaded multi-colored umbrellas purposely made for wedding parades are displayed, highlighting the “kini-kini” – the graceful and noble walk of the Maranao women.

The captivating sound of the “agong” reverberates throughout this land where Sultans and Sultanates were born. Home to some two million Muslims, the island of Mindanao boasts of a rich mix of culture and traditions which are significantly influenced by those of the Middle and Near East, India, and the Malay Peninsula. These extraordinary people and their way of life came through the trade routes and flourished for many centuries. This is why Obusan studied, compiled and re-created a spectacular tableau of Mindanao dances with special emphasis on their costume, accessories and musical instruments. Here are the fascinating Maguindanao, Maranao, Samal, Yakan, Tausog and Badjao along with the Jama Mapun, Iranon and Kalibugan.

Silat. (Samal) A martial art-dance form performed by men showing their strength and prowess in fighting.

Mag-langka / Mag-igal. (Badjao) Traditional dance of the Badjao similar to the pangalay of the Tausog.

Sua-sua. (Tausog). Tausog male and female use fans in the tune of “sua ko sua” and gabbang as an accompaniment in imitation of the pomelo leaves being blown by the wind.

Tausog Musical Instruments:
Gabbang, Dambara, Gandang, Viola

Bulah-bulah. (Tausog). This is a form of pangalay performed by a male and a female using bamboo or shell clappers.

Yakan Traditional Musical Instruments:
Tungtungan, Agung, Kulingtang Kayo, Gabbang

Maranao and Maguindanao Instruments:
Kulintangan, Agung, Dabakan, Sarunay, Gandingan, Kudyapi, Kubing, Babandir.

Pangalay. (Tausog). The most popular of all Tausog dance. It shows the broken arm and languid movements of the hands and fingers imitating the movements of fish and birds. Some use “janggay” or brass fingernails to accentuate the soft and fluid gestures.

Sirong sa Ganding. (Maguindanao) A formal training for young ladies to achieve social and physical graces that reflect good breeding. In Sirong sa Ganding, executing delicate arm movements, wrist twist and finger placements are dictated by style, intense coordination and graceful interpretation.

Mag-asik. (Maguindanao) Reminiscent of ancient Persian markets, female ulipon (slaves) perform a doll dance to entertain their masters. Asik in Maguindanowon is “to dance”.

Sagayan. (Maguindanao)The most colorful and the most visual of all Maguindanao dances. Young sagayan warriors play a serious part in the healing ritual centering on the sagayan warriors fight to scare away “tunong” or evil spirits. Kamanyang fumes inhaled by the sagayan moves him in a magic-like trance.

Pansak. (Yakan). The rhythmic resonance of the tungtungan syncopated by the kulintang kayo is heard throughout a Yakan village sitting in the mountainous terrain of Basilan Island to announce a pagkawin wedding. Preceded by the colorful panji and tipas-tipas banners, a magtudwas parade heads towards the bride’s house u the groom is carried on the shoulders of his male friends while the bride is carried in an usungan from a neighbor’s house. As the ungsod or bride dowries are laid out, male relatives perform the tumahik, a frenetic warrior dance using a spear and a shield. After the wedding rites, the bride and groom perform the pindulas, a take-off of the Tausog pangalay which is characterized by the broken arm movement that imitates the undulation of fish. It displays an exotic facial make-up of dots and lines in various patterns creating the effect of a formal and elaborate mask The entire village celebrates in a pansak which literally means “to dance”

I KAAMULAN: MYSTIC VOICES FROM BEYOND

Kaamulan : A Gathering

Chants and songs of supplication to gods and deities have always been in the minds of men since time began. These messages they believed carried enough influence to guide his existence, just as other forces of life and nature were brought by the winds. Many tribal communities wedged in deep mountain recesses and dark forests continue to propitiate the great powers of the unknown to answer their daily needs. This Obusan piece-de-resistance has enthralled audiences the world over for its richness and authenticity. Witness the Aeta, Bagobo, Bilaan, Bukidnon, Talaandig, Higaunon, Isamal Kalagan, Mangyan, Manubo, Mansaka, Mandaya, Palawan, Pintados, Matigsalug, Subanon, Talaingod, Tagbanua, Tagakaolo, Tasaday, Tiruray, Umayamnon, Ubo, and the T’boli in their extraordinary rituals of life.

In Malaybalay, Bukidnon, the annual festival is celebrated by the gathering of the different groups living within the region. Believed to be the sub-groups of the Manubo, the Talaandig, Matigsalug, Higaonon and Umayamnon perform a ritual of unity and thanksgiving sharing each others beliefs and culture in a merry mix of music, dance, rituals and food.

Kinugsik-kugsik. (Manubo). Two male kugsik or squirrels playfully outdo each other in animated gesture to win the attention of a female squirrel.

Tradisyun ug mga Ritual: Traditions and Rituals

Pag-ampo. The mystic healers of several villages come together in one powerful supplication moving as one. They borrow power of fire from Maaslag na Amay. When the healing session is over, the borrowed fire is returned.

Palawan, Mindoro and Zamboanga are home to several ethno-linguistic groups which perform time-honored rituals and literary arts that have been with them through the years: the Pagdiwata of Palawan, the Inim of the Tagbanua, the Surat of the Mangyan, the Buklog and Sinalimba of the Subanon and the Banog-banog of the Sulod Pintados. Modernization may have taken over, but the heart and soul of these people still live with these rituals and traditions.

Ang Mga Manlalakbay: The Nomads

The Aeta – found all over the Philippines are believed to have inhabited the islands and have been traveling through land bridges in search for food and places to stay. They are called Agta in the Visayas, Negrito in Zambales, Abyan in the Bicol region, Dumagat in Bulacan, Baluga in Panay and Mamanua in Mindanao.

Sohten. (Subanon). Pre-combat sequence put to dance performed by this all-male ensemble dramatizes the strength and stoic character of the Subanon bagani or warrior.
Hinabing Panaginip: Dream Weavers

Found in the forest recesses of Mindanao, the Tagakaolo, B’laan, Mandaya, Mansaka, Bagobo, and T’boli express their creativity and uniqueness through weaving. Using the same materials like abaca, they tell their history, life, and beliefs as they spin dyed fibers, creating a masterpiece that is distinctly theirs.

Banog-banog. (Sulud). Elaborate body tattoos earned the Sulud of Central Panay the name Pintados by the 16th century Conquistadores. A dear possession of the community is a dance that imitates the hawk or banog. Surely, the students will take inspiration from these modern-day forest dwellers’ avant-garde movements.

Kadal Tajo. (T’Boli). This translates as “traditional dance” and is sort of a dance-drama centering on a bird with a broken leg, coached by the rest of the flock in an effort to try her wings and fly with them again. In the end, the flock of blilah birds succeeds in a lift off.

REPERTOIRE
I. KAILIHAN:
ECHOES FROM THE MOUNTAIN RANGE
APAYAO
BAGO
BENGUET / KANGKANAY / IBALOY DANCE: TAREKTEK (BENGUET)
BONTOK
GADDANG DANCE: BUMBURAK TATALABONG (GADDANG)
IFUGAO
ITNEG / TINGGIAN
ILONGGOT / BUGKALOT
KALINGA DANCE: SALIP (KALINGA)
IMBAJAH (IFUGAO)

II. KARIALA:
VIBRANT AND VIVID COLORS OF MINDANAO
TAUSUG MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
YAKAN MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
MARANAO AND MAGUINDANAO MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
MAGUINDANAO DANCE: SIRONG SA GANDING, MAG-ASIK,
SAGAYAN
MARANAO DANCE: KINAKULANGAN
SAMAL DANCE: SILAT / TAUTI
BADJAO DANCE: MAG-LANGKA, MAG-IGAL
TAUSOG DANCE: SUA-SUA, BILAH-BULAH, PANGLAY
YAKAN DANCE: PANSAK
TUKLAS TANGHAL
INTERMISSION

III. KAAMULAN:
MYSTIC VOICES FROM BEYOND
PAG-AMPO (PRAYER FOR THE GODS)
ANG MGA MANLALAKBAY: AGTA, ABYAN, MAMANUA, AETA
CHIP
HINABING PANAGINIP: DREAM WEAVERS TAGAKAOLO, B’LAAN, MANDAYA, MANSAKA, BAGOBO, T’BOLI
DANCE: KADAL TAJO (T’BOLI)
KAAMULAN: A GATHERING TALAANDIG, MATIGSALUG, MANUBO, HIGAUNON, UMAYAMNON
DANCE: KINUGSIK-KUGSIK (MANUBO)
TRADISYUN UG MGA RITUAL: TRADITIONS AND RITUALS PALAWAN, TAGBAUA, MANGYAN, SUBANON, SULOD
DANCE: SOHTEN (SUBANON)
BANOG-BANOG (SULOD)

IV. GAYA-GAYA NGUNIT KAKAIBA:
CONVERGENCE OF CULTURES
RIGODON ROYALE. (NEGROS ORIENTAL)
MAZURKA BOHOLANA (BOHOL).
BIRGINIA (PALAWAN)
BINISLAKAN (PANGASINAN).
POLKABINA (NEGROS ORIENTAL).
LA JOTA DE PARAGUA (PALAWAN).
PASTORES TALISAY (BICOL).

V. SAPLOT: PASSION FOR FASHION
ARRIVAL OF THE CROSS AND THE SWORD DAYS OF THE CONQUISTADORES
EL DOMINGO MERCADO — LOS DIAS DE DAMIAN DOMINGO
EL TRAJE DE MESTIZA
THE THOMASITES — AMERICAN OCCUPATION
THE MANILA CARNIVAL
THE TERNO ERA

N. GAYA-GAYA NGUNIT KAKABA: CONVERGENCE OF CULTURES
TUKLAS TANGHAL
The influences did not begin or end in Spain. Inadvertently, others that came before, during and after the Conquistadores, left the same impact and indelible impression on our people. Such imprints are manifested in the steps and movements of a dance, or in the music or yet still, in fashion and clothing.

Ramon Obusan’s researches confirmed that a confluence of styles transpired between countries such as France, Germany, Poland, Mexico, China and the Americas, creating a hybrid that in many ways are similar to the original, yet carries a very distinct and unique quality that identifies it as truly Filipino.

Rigodon Royale. (Negros Oriental). This Rigodon, similar to the French Quadrille, is a double quadrille popularly used to open grand balls. A modest eight pairs to a staggering fifty may make up the head (Cabisera) and side lines (Custados). It is usually the affluent, popular and moneyed members of the society who make up the rigodon.

Mazurka Boholana. (Bohol). A social dance from Bohol showcasing the costumes of the turn of the century. The mazurka step of the Europeans, specifically the Germans, came to the Philippine shores after opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Together with fashion, mazurka became a popular dance during the turn of the century in great balls.

Birginia. (Palawan). It was during the American occupation that Birginia (obviously from Virginia, USA)
became popular. Except for it having been Filipinized, the Birginia is all but a Virginia reel with gigs, paso doble and grand chain. The familiar “home sweet home” refrain makes it even more American.

Binislakan. (Pangasinan). Descendants of Chinese traders who settled in Pangasinan in the 1700’s must have created this dance. Bislak means sticks which probably refer to chop sticks.

Polkabina. (Negros Oriental). A dance influenced by the European Polka popular in the 1800’s. Through the creativity of the Filipinos, this simple step became a dance that suites the taste of the Filipinos.

La Jota de Paragua. (Palawan). Think of that early afternoon when friars, soldiers and Spanish men watched with great excitement as native Cuyunin sat around exits. Chosen girls and boys from nearby school will perform the jota, painstakingly taught by the homesick Spaniards. It must have been an enjoyable event for after many hundred years, the dance still thrills the Cuyunin.

Pastores Talisay. (Bicol). In the sleepy town of Talisay, in the not-so-known province of Camarines Norte. comes one of the country’s colorful pastores. Said to have originated in Mexico, it has the entire tale-tell of Teotihuacan where a practice of the same kind is known to exist.

V. SAPLOT: PASSION FOR FASHION

The waves of influence altered many folk traditions of the country when the Spaniards came. With the introduction of the sword and the cross, came the European art forms such as in music, dance, fashion, food and lifestyle. The opening of the Suez Canal in the mid 1800’s allowed for the easy access to new ideas and novel goods that eventually caused a shift in the country’s sense of artistic style. Here, we pay tribute to Obusan’s attempts at re-creating the period that changed the fashion sense of a country from the 1590 pintados, to the advent of the traje de mestiza and the barong of the 17th century. The trip takes the audience all the way to the 1960’s when a fashion era that is truly Filipino was born. Feast your eyes on a cornucopia filled with fabulous fabrics, dreamy silhouettes, art motifs, extraordinary patterns and unusual designs until you come out of the experience bedazzled.

Arrival of the Cross and the Sword: Days of the Conquistadores
El Domingo Mercado — Los Dias de Damian Domingo
El Traje De Mestiza
The Thomasites — American Occupation
The Manila Carnival
The Terno Era

RAMON OBUSAN FOLKLORIC GROUP
Ramon A. Obusan Ť, National Artist for Dance
Founder and Artistic Director

The Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group (ROFG) celebrates its 36 years of preservation and perpetuation of Philippines traditions with special emphasis on music and dance.

Founded in 1972, the ROFG started as a fledgling folk dance company composed of thirty performers. Leaning on the vast amount of data and artifacts he has accumulated while doing researches, Ramon A. Obusan thought of starting a dance company that will mirror the traditional culture of the Filipinos through dance and music.

For more than thirty-six years, the ROFG has created a niche in the world of dance as a forerunner of Philippine folk dances performed closest to the original. Boasting of over a thousand performances in the Philippines and abroad, the ROFG has been one of the resident dance companies of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) since 1986.

Under the able leadership of its founder, Artistic Director, Choreographer and Researcher Ramon Arevalo Obusan, National Artist for Dance, it has so far, gone on three successful extensive European tours in 13 countries namely, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, the Czech Republic, Yugoslavia, Greece, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Austria in 1987, 1990 and in 1993.

In the 8th Hong Kong Festival of Asian Arts in 1983, critics showered the ROFG with praises describing it as “the stuff an arts festival should be made of”. Three years later in the 1986 EXPO in Canada, its 21 shows all ended with standing ovations. In 1992, the group was the first Filipino performing group to receive resounding applause and standing ovations for all its performances in Japan under the auspices of Min-on. The group then had its first extensive American tour in 1994 visiting sixteen (16) states, capped with the proclamation of February 8 as ROFG Day in Cleveland, Ohio, a first for a Filipino dance company.

In Asia, the group represented the Philippines in various dance festivals and conferences as cultural ambassadors. Along with this, Mr. Obusan was chosen as Artistic Director of the first Joint ASEAN Performing Troupe in 1991 and the ROFG as the official Philippine representative. In 1994, it was the only Filipino company asked to participate for six months at the ASEAN Village in Sentosa, Singapore performing not only Philippine dances but dances of other Asian countries as well. In 1995, the ROFG helped raise HK 1.5M for Filipino overseas workers (OFW’s) in Hong Kong when the company performed for a fund-raising event sponsored by the Hong Kong Bayanihan Trust

April and May 1996 saw the group in France, Turkey, Greece and Sweden for a series of performances under the auspices of the Department of Tourism. In May 1998, the company performed at the

Lisbon Exposition in Portugal as part of the Philippine Centennial Celebration and in Milan, Italy for the Philippine Consulate’s Independence Day Celebration. In 1999, the group returned to Japan for the Philippine Independence Day Celebration through the invitation of the Philippine Embassy. The following year (2000), the company received the ASEAN Travel Association Award for Excellence in Tourism as Best ASEAN Preservation Effort in the ASEAN Tourism Forum in Thailand, besting other contenders.

In 2001, the company traveled to South Korea, London, USA and Baghdad, Iraq for a series of special performance and workshops. It was also awarded the Sining ng Kalinangan Award of the City of Manila as Outstanding Folk Dance Company in the same year.

In the year 2002 and 2003 the ROFG was seen at Hong Kong’s Marco Polo Prince Hotel for the Philippine Food Festival and in the biggest Filipino musical extravaganza of Filipino artist in Hong Kong under the auspices of the Philippine Consulate. In March 2006, the company had a successful three-week performance tour of Hawaii as part of the Centennial Celebration of the First Filipino Migrants in Hawaii under the auspices of East-West Center, performing to more than 8,000 audiences in the five major islands of the State of Hawaii.

In June 9, 2006, Ramon Arevalo Obusan was conferred the Order of National Artist for Dance by President Gloria MacapagalArroyo at the Malacanang Palace in recognition of his artistic excellence in the arts, significant contributions to dance and as testament to his phenomenal work in Philippine dance.

Early 2007, the company performed the finale for the ASEAN Summit Gala Performance in Cebu City for the heads of State of various ASEAN countries and its dialogue partners namely, China, Japan, Korea, India, Australia, and New Zealand.

Though steeped in international recognition, the ROFG has never forgotten the people who are the very source of its pride. For the past two decades it has documented and performed the dances, music and rituals of more than 50 ethno-linguistic groups in the country. With more than twenty outstanding full length Filipino dance works, among which are suites from the Cordillera, the Muslim and the indigenous tribes. The ROFG has continuously served to highlight the authenticity of the movements, music, songs and dances of these people.

Today, the ROFG humbly celebrates 36 years of fruitful existence and service to the Filipino people. There is no stopping the ROFG in its pursuit to record and stage the fast fading Filipino traditions.

PERFORMERS
RAMON OBUSAN FOLKLORIC GROUP
MARCIANO VIRI • CHERRY YLANAN • RAUL NEPOMUCENO JR. • CHRISTINE CAROL SINGSON SERGIO ANLOCOTAN JR. • EMELITA MEDINA • JHORDAN JHUNNARD CRUZ • ROMYLYN FRIAS
OMAR AGUILAR • SHEENA LOU TESALONA • ALVIN CANO • RECHELLE SIGNO
DANDEL ESPEŇA • MARIE RUBY OCAMPO • GENER ESTINOR • ABIGAIL CALMA
AMANTE VILLACORTA • DULCE IMELDA AMOR DE GUZMAN • JONATHAN DOMINGO KANAMI NAMIKI • PERCIVAL CAREL • LUIGI MILLAMINA • KENNETH CHRISTOPHER TORRES
ANGEL ELEAZER BRAVO • KRELL ALPHONSUS BENDIJO – ORLANDO OCAMPO ROMEO MEDINA JR. • MICHAEL BAYANI • RONALDO MENDOZA • ANGELITO SANTOS
LYLE EYMARD VILLAHERMOSA

PERFORMERS
ROFG APPRENTICES
From Olivarez College:
ANSHARI ALONTO

From the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
CHIKA NIHEI
NATSUKI MORIKAWA
URARA ITO

From Teatro Miguel
MARK RIVERA

BENJO ESCALANTE
ERWIN ABANILLA
JULIET CABALFIN
MA. BONA CIELO BONZON

BATANG ROFG
JOSE ROEL OGA • ANNE LLORAINE MEDINA • MARK ROY MAGALING MA. JUBELYN ALCANTARA • LUKE ANTHONY SINGSON • SHYME JEREMY ARELLANO MICHAEL ANGELO MEDINA • SHIELA MAE DELALAMON • FRANKLYN LOBOS FAYE TANCINCO • RAFAEL TISMO • CHRISTINE LAURA SINGSON • JAYTOR PANGANIBAN JR. KRISTINA MARIE PARATO • DANIEL BEGINO • MA. PATRICIA VELASCO DOMINIC LUDOVICE • LHYRA JANE RAMOS • CHRISTIAN JAY BEGINO • GINALYN TISMO NICOLE JUSTIN BALEN • MARY ROSE PLAZA • SAM JASMINE ARELLANO MA. ANGELICA CASACOP • MA. HENESSY FERRERAS • JASMINE BAUTISTA CHARMAGNE DEANNE AGUILAR • LISHELLE SALAMANCA

MUTYA PHILIPPINE DANCE COMPANY
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA

The Mutya Philippine Dance Company is the premier dance troupe in America’s Delaware Valley (Southeastern Pennsylvania, Southern New Jersey and Delaware). It was formed in Philadelphia, PA in April 1990.

Mutya is a performing group and a youth program that provides in depth education to Filipino-American youth about their heritage and encourages appreciation by the American public for the Philippine’s rich
and complex culture and history.

Mutya’s mission is to preserve, develop, promote, teach and share Filipino Cultural Heritage, Arts, Folklores and other indigenous cultural traditions through its Dances, Music and Songs with the purpose of instilling Filipino Pride amongst its youth.

PERFORMERS
RIGIL ABELLANOSA DARA ABELLANOSA JOSE BORRES NICOLE ALPAS WILFRED CABERTO CHRISTINE BORRES ROUEL LAMPAGNO MELISSA BORRES NATHAN NAVARRO CASSANDRA INIGO CHRISTOPHER RIVERA VANESSA INIGO JOHN PAUL SEÑERES NICIA NAVARRO WILLIAM THOMPSON ANGELA PADOLINA ANDREW WILLSON CHARLYN PADOLINA MELANIE REMOLADOR JENNIFER ROSERO ROSELYN THOMPSON STEPHANIE WILLSON

PRODUCTION STAFF JUN OCAVA / NICANOR LUCENIO, Technicals CLEMENTE ROSERO / AURORA ROSERO / JUDITH NAVARRO Costumes BILL THOMPSON / GERALDINA LAMPAGO ZENAIDA REMOLADOR / JERRY REMOLADOR, Props
BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2006 – 2008
VIRGINIA O. LUZ Chairman & Founder / Education Committee
IMELDA H. ALPAS President / Executive Committee
CECILIA NUFABLE Vice Chairman / Constitution & By-Laws Committee
ARLENE B. SEÑERES
Secretary
LUCILA WILLSON Treasurer / Finance & Budget Committee
LETICIA CABERTO Assistant Treasurer / Membership & Awards Committee
DESIREE ABELLANOSA
Property Management
RUTH B. LUYUN Friends & Public Relations
SUSAN T. THOMPSON Marketing & Long-Range Planning
REY BORRES Choreographer & Artistic Director
ADVISORY BOARD SR. LORETTO MAPA, R.A. ABE MARGALLO, L.L.S. ANDY GUEVARA, M.D.
MIGUEL SISON, Past President, 1996 – 2000 RAFAEL M. COMBALECER, M.D.,
Past President, 1991 – 1996

RENE M. SALUD
CLOTHES SHOPPE
MAIN: E. RODRIGUEZ SR. BLVD.
QUEZON CITY 712.0441 / 712.0459 / 712.0475
* 2ND FLOOR HIS BUILDING ZAPOTE ROAD, MUNTINLUPA CITY
807.6918 / 807.1336
* PRINCE PLAZA I LEGASPI STREET, LEGASPI VILLAGE
MAKATI CITY
815.9893

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
HON. MAYOR WENCESLAO “PEEWEE” TRINIDAD, City of Pasay
HON. MAYOR AMELIA NAVARRO City of Isabela
HON. MAYOR NESTOR ALVAREZ Science City of Muñoz
HON. MAYOR EDUARDO DIMACUJA Batangas City
AMBASSADOR ROY SEÑERES
ELVIRA GO, Columbia Inc.
DR. GEORGE OBUSAN-ROSS & MAORI ROSS
CECILE OBUSAN-DOMINGO
BILL AND SONIA MENOR
MR. MICKA ESCOLA, Opteam – Finland
PARALUMAN R. GERON, Dep-Ed Region IV-A Calabarzon
GLORIA P. POTES, Division of Quezon
ELIZABETH DE VILLA, Quezon DECS Supervisor
MR. AND MRS. REY BORES
DENNIS JULIO TAN
RENEE SALUD
TONY CAJUCOM
STEVE DE LEON
RODOLFO “BOY” GUINOO
ALFINIANO FRANCO
FLOY QUINTOS
JANICE DEE
GENER CARINGAL
MA. DONNA COSEJO Quesinhayaw Folk Dance Troupe
EMILIO S. ULPINDO Quezon National High School
SR. NEOMI MAGUINTO Sacred Heart School Of Paranaque
PEGGY SANGCO CORA MANIMBO
ROMMEL SERRANO Kalilayan Folkloric Group
FR. BENIGNO BELTRAN, SVD
ED BORBON
HERMES SINGSON
DENNIS SINGSON
ERIC CRUZ
SANDIE JAVIER

INSTITUTIONS
CULTURAL CENTER OF THE PHILIPPINES
TOKYO UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN STUDIES PHILIPPINE CULTURAL DANCE TROUPE
Teachers and Principals of Batang ROFG
CENTRO ESCOLAR UNIVERSITY
MUTYA PHILIPPINE DANCE COMPANY Philadelphia, New Jersey USA
CCP CULTURAL PROMOTIONS
CCP PRODUCTION DESIGN CENTER
PHILIPPINE BALLET THEATRE
TANGHALANG PILIPINO
UNIVERSITY OF SANTO THOMAS MEDICAL ASSOCIATION-TRISTATE CHAPTER
ILOCANO CULTURAL ASSOCIATION OF GREATER PHILADELPHIA UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
MUSEUM OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY
FILIPINO AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY
THE FILIPINO AMERICAN COMMUNITY OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY
OLDE ST AUGUSTINE CHURCH PHILADELPHIA PA
FILIPINO-AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF BUCKS COUNTY INC.

TUKLAS TANGHAL
ARTISTIC & PRODUCTION STAFF

FLOY QUINTOS
Overall Direction

MARCIANO VIRI
Dance Director / Choreographer

CHERRY YLANAN
Dance Director / Cast Master

ORLANDO OCAMPO
Music Director

JANICE DEE
Music Researcher & Spinner, “Saplot”

DENNIS JULIO Y. TAN, PATDAT-OISTAT
Stylist, Artistic and Production Design Consultant

RICARDO G. CRUZ, PATDAT-OISTAT
Set Designer

DANILO VILLANUEVA
Lighting Designer and Technical Director

IRIS O. ISLA
DULCE A. OBUSAN
SONJA O. MENOR
Administrative / Executive Producers

CHRISTINE CAROL SINGSON
Production Manager

RAUL NEPOMUCENO JR.
Stage Manager

MICHAEL GREGORIO
Deputy Stage Manager

CHRISTOPHER CERVANTES
Assistant Stage Manager

JOSE ROEL OGA
Assistant Stage Manager – Music

ERLINDA ARCEGA, PATDAT-OISTAT
Set Supervisor

SANDRA VICTORIA M. JAVIER
Graphic Designer

HERMES SINGSON,
Dream Time
Photographer

ABIGAIL CALMA
DULCE IMELDA AMOR DE GUZMAN
Secretariat

EMELITA OBUSAN-MEDINA
Costume Custodian

ALFINIANO FRANCO
KRELL ALPHONSUS BENDIJO
Assistant Costume Custodians

ROMEO MEDINA JR.
Property Master

SERGIO ANLOCOTAN JR.
Assistant Property Master

MARIETTA CABISUDO
FE BAYANI
REYNALDO AVENDANO
Food Coordinators

DULCE A. OBUSAN
SERGIO ANLOCOTAN JR.
VOLTAIRE ALIX EDGAR
LAGANAS
JAIME SISON
Transportation

CCP CULTURAL PROMOTIONS
Documentation