Igorot dances in pure form

(Note: I am reprinting this on this blog as part of my online compilation of articles written before. I'll be reprinting later other articles, which were written ages ago.)

Igorot dances in pure form

Source: Inquirer Author: Maurice Malanes Date: 2000-10-03

WHAT differentiates Igorot dances, or any other indigenous

folk dances, from waltz, tango and other ballroom dances? A lot

of things.


One can learn ballroom dances from an instructor but learning

Igorot dances is not simply knowing the steps and

synchronizing these with the rhythm of gongs and drums.


To really learn Igorot dances, with all their cultural trimmings

and meanings, one must go to the village where these are

performed for religious or spiritual purposes.


Ike Picpican, Saint Louis University museum curator, is anxious

about how theater performers are uprooting indigenous Igorot

dances from their ''cultural base'' because ''the dance tradition is

deeply rooted in the upland folk's day-to-day life.''


He stresses the need to ''preserve the indigenous spirit and

context'' of Igorot dances when these are performed by artists.

He notes how stage or theater performers have ''stylized'' and

introduced innovations, which, he fears, will ruin the essence

and spirit of the traditional dances.


Igorot professionals themselves must show how the dances

''should'' be performed, he suggests.


Picpican cites Baguio City Mayor Mauricio Domogan, an Igorot

of the Bago tribe, who can really perform Igorot dances, beat

gongs and drums, and sing and chant Igorot songs and poems.


Picpican also cites how Domogan chastised young Igorot

performers for wearing ba-ag or g-string over their underwear

while performing traditional Cordillera dances.


For Picpican, Domogan--who often dons nothing but a g-string,

Igorot necklace, a traditional head gear and a sangi or native

rattan backpack during special occasions such as meetings of

local officials--is a model ambassador of Igorot culture.


Picpican also lauds the Ifugao provincial board for passing a

resolution which requires the ''appropriate and corresponding

attire, music and cultural background'' of Ifugao rites, dances

and songs or chants when these are performed on stage.


Even if performed with the ''appropriate and proper'' attire and

cultural backdrop, Igorot dances or any other rituals done on

stage or at Baguio's Burnham Park are still not in their pure form

as sought by cultural purists or preservationists like Picpican.


Once presented on stage, Igorot dances become adulterated.


Cultural reality


But these cultural shows, like other performing arts, must at

least mirror cultural reality to meet the standards of cultural

guardians like Picpican.


To the Igorots, their dances and other cultural rites are as

sacred as Christian church rites. Guardians of Cordillera culture

consider it ''sacrilegious'' when cultural rites are done for other

purposes, such as to attract tourists.


For example, the attempt of the tourism ministry in the early

1980s under the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos to lure

tourists by showcasing Igorot culture through what was called

the Grand Cañao had invited protests from Igorot professionals

and student activists.


The Grand Cañao, they cried, did not only mock Igorot culture

but also commercialized it.


Over the years, some Igorot dances have taken a new twist. To

the dismay of their fellow Igorots, some mountain folk during

the Christmas season would go from house to house in cities as

far as Manila, bang their gongs and perform Bontok dances as

their way of soliciting gifts.


Also in recent years, some Igorot dances have been

transformed as a medium of protest. Igorot folk protesting the

entry into their communities of big mining companies, for

example, would intersperse their pickets with Igorot dances and

gong beats at the gates of the Department of Environment and

Natural Resources.


No matter what the purists say, Igorot dances through time will

assume various forms, simply because unlike cultural artifacts,

traditional dances cannot be preserved in museums.


And as the original reasons for performing Igorot dances, such

as the elaborate cañao feasts, continue to disappear, the

Cordillera needs culturally sensitive stage or theater artists

(who, according to Picpican, know the cultural base and context

of dances) to continue to breathe life into the Igorot dances.

The dances can die unless continually performed.