Dance is an art that imprints on the soul. It is with you every moment, it expresses itself in everything you do. — Shirley Maclaine
Among the earliest expression of cultural life in Oriental Negros is the art of dance. The Inagta, the Balitaw and Polka Biana are among the early expressions. These early dance colors gave us a sense of national pride as every flow of grace brought a story of our heritage.
Then, came the need to go global in expression.
It was an easy transition from folkdance to varied modern expressions. The presence of the Americans in Dumaguete through Silliman University led to the full awareness of the international dance expressions. Physical Education classes at Silliman led students to discover the American line dance, the waltz and the square dance. It was the latter becoming like a tradition that was handed down from generation to generation.
The dance history of Dumaguete, a noted cultural center of Southern Philippines, achieved concrete forms even before balitaw and kuradang evolved with a touch of Spanish grace and romantic intensity. These folk traditions were never destroyed even when the American educators at Silliman overshadowed the Spanish influence with the demand for a more disciplined expression, as dance became a formal academic program with measurement of the body poetry in a standard form.
The University Town had its first local harvest of ballet excerpts in the early 1950s with Gloria Piñero and the late Gamut Dominado as the prime movers. As dance artists, they brought Silliman and Dumaguete to an experience of the classical ballet.
In 1961 the dance program had its formal offerings under the astute direction of Luz Jumawan. Jumawan, a Silliman and St. Paul alumna, studied dance at the Anita Kane Ballet School in Manila. She also had French ballet training under Cassel. She founded the Silliman University Dance Troupe, which received critical acclaim and recognition under her creative direction. Furthermore, her international glory was showcased when she choreographed the aboriginal dance part of the cultural pageantry that opened the 2000 Sydney Olympics (she’s currently based in Australia and was given an Outstanding Australian Citizen award for documenting aboriginal dances). With this achievement among many, Jumawan was recognized as one of the cultural heroines of this University Town. She was acknowledged as the 2010 Outstanding Sillimanian in the Field of Performing Arts.
The Jumawan legacy reached its apex in 1968 when New Zealand native Shona Mactavish visited Silliman. With her being on campus, ballet and interpretative movements became the SU Dance Troupe’s popular creations.
In 1972, Mactavish rejoined the SU faculty after years of being away. It was during this time that the talent of the Serion sisters, Luwalhati and Liwayway, was “discovered,” and from then becoming the Town’s leading dance artists. It was through the efforts of the younger Serion, Liwayway Arabe, that Mactavish’s contributions were preserved. Arabe even had her own productive years with her original choreography in Philippine air. She subsequently became director of the Silliman Dance Troupe.
Also in the 70s, Silliman’s Calo twins, Nida and Nieva, introduced jazz variations and at one point, choreographed a jazz piece as a means of praising the Almighty during a worship service at Silliman Church.
In the 1980s, Silliman dance icons Helen Araneta, Pearly Queen Cafe and Ulysses Catan, with the rest of the Silliman Dance Troupe family held productions which featured ballet interpretations of the rock music of Pink Floyd and other modern hits.
The street craze of Bronx was captured in the 1980s by the Moving Variations, Dumaguete’s No. 1 dance group, which eventually became pop icon Gary Valenciano’s back-up dancers. There was also an all-men Homeboys that was followed by the G.I. Joes of the 1990s.
Prayer Dance, with inspirations from the deaf sign language, was a regular feature in fellowships at Silliman in the 1990s. Dance artist Beth Castillo, a veteran in global youth missions, got the University Talent award for leading young people to worship through dance, using popular music then like Sandi Patti’s “More than Wonderful.” Beth’s group, The Spreading Flame, with dance as the medium for evangelism, was an all-Sillimanian team supported by Care Corner International. The group made trips to barangays. They even got to travel to China on a missions trip.
Except for ballet lessons for kids, the dance troupe was in total silence.
The Silliman University Dance troupe was revived under the directorship of the Makiling Art School dance teacher Ronnie Mirabuena. With helm at the helm, Folkdances from Luzon to Mindanao were in tapestry called “Tara na, Biyahe na” a dance concert in March 2005 that signaled the return of Silliman University Dance Troupe, now known as the Silliman University Kahayag Dance Company. The tribal dance workshop with Mindanao’s King of the Manobo Dance, Butch Lansang, resulted to the distinctive presence of Kahayag in the national scene. Mirabuena’s high-energy-choreography of the Manobo genre gained national acclaimed and established the university dance company’s position among the country’s prestigious dance companies. They shone endlessly. This led them to be Philippine representatives to two dance festivals in China. Mirabuena, as a choreographer, also has grown in exposure. At the Douglas Nieras national workshop, he won a citation for his original choreography.
To celebrate their 50th birthday this year, the SU Kahayag Dance Company mounted Hayag (Aug. 12 and 13), a showcase of performances by noted personalities of their past. The first to respond was Ulysses Catan and his Kayumanggi Dance Company of Manila which gave modern twists in the Singkil. To give the historic celebration a stronger ballet presence, Aljana Alicia Rose Marie Limuaco (Silliman dance icon) of the Lydia M. Gaston School of Dance of Bacolod joined in with her intense Dying Black Swan which had the audience in awe. Mirabuana also brought the colors of his hometown with the presence of the Albay Performing Arts Group of Bicol, thereby adding more flair to the festivities. Colors from Mindanao came from the Subanon tribal dances which gave life to the grace and solemnity in the worship of Diwata as interpreted by Silliman alumnus Brian Celeste and the Kalinao Dance Troupe of St. Columban College. This gathering of regional leaders in dance in an evening concert was a milestone in itself in the cultural life history of Silliman University.
Beyond this 50th year, I still have one wish: to hear Valencia’s Baling Mingawa, a duet by two mountain women. With this ethnomusicology harvest by noted Silliman icon Priscilla Magdamo Abraham, I wish to see two Silliman dance alumni Araneta and Limuaco interpret this gem from the Cuernos de Negros mountain ranges. The local colors will be so vivid and will open an avenue of possibilities. Dumaguete’s vibrant spirit in dance is indeed endless.
