(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.
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