Bayanihan Philippine National Dance Company Program

Bayanihan PhiliPPine national Dance comPany

FRIday, OCT. 8 — 7:30 p.m.

Hill’s Pet Nutrition, Inc., the maker of Science diet® and Prescription diet® pet foods, is proud to be the VIP sponsor of Bayanihan Philippine National dance Company. Hill’s celebrates 12 years of sponsoring Lied Center events in the 2010-11 season.

This event is sponsored, in part, by the Lied Performance Fund. audio description services and recorded program notes are provided through a partnership between the Lied Center and audio-Reader Network.

Please turn off or silence cellular phones and other electronic devices during performances. Food and drink are not allowed inside the hall. Cameras and Performing Arts recordinglied.ku.edu devices are strictly prohibited in the auditorium.

Bayanihan The National Dance Company of the Philippines Helena Z Benitez, founder Amb. Alfonso Yuchengco, chairman Dr. Lucrecia R. Kasilag, president Suzie Moya Benitez, artistic director Isabel A. Santos, costume director Ferdinand B. Jose, dance director and choreographer Melito S. Vale Cruz, music director Helen Legion, costume mistress This performance includes one 20-minute intermission.

The Company Musicians Timoteo Basco Dominic Glenn Cruz Rommel de la Cruz Jose Laurence Leong Rudolf S. Pabon Rogelio C. Sambrano Jr. Jezreel Lastra Singer Mary Anne Luis Female dancers Marielle M. Benitez Pamela Rose Corales Charisse Cabera Rachel Dawn Cudiamat

Leonor Petra Elepano Karina Gabito Louis Belle Ignacio Mary Anne Luis Male dancers Ferdinand Orbacedo Peter Laurenz Callangan Peter Laurent Callangan Michael de la Chica Paulo Emmanuel Garcia Leo Laurence Q. Lorilla Joseph Robert Manayan Gian Carlo Yabut Hubbert Cristian Guerrero Corrigidor Reche Obillo

COLUMBIA ARTISTS MANAGEMENT, INC. Andrew S. Grossman, producer W. Seton Ijams, associate producer Brandon E. Conley, production assistant Aisha Ahmad-Post, production assistant 1790 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10019

Bayanihan Philippine National Dance Company

program All Time Favorites

Mestizaje y Criolleria

Well-loved Bayanihan dances that have firmly ensconced the company on the world’s stage for more than 50 years.

The cross-cultural expressions in this suite echo almost 400 years of Spanish colonization. Bayanihan captures the fire and passion of Spanish culture in dances and music once performed inside the walls (intramuros) and outside the walls (extramuros) of Manila.

Alitaptap Pandanggo Oasiwas Maglalatik Sa Kabukiran Bangko Tinikling Asik Vinta Singkil

E-Bayanihan Bayanihan ventures into the fusion of new technology and folk dance, capturing the unique traditions of certain towns and cities in the Philippines such as Marikina, Pagsanjan, Laguna and Mindanao. This suite is inspired by the Bayanihan’s Teaching and Touching Lives program, a partnership with local government leaders. The result is captured and projected on the stage from the lens of Bayanihan’s artistic team.

Bituing Marikit Valse Marikina Lerion Zapatero Labandera Bangkero Sayap / Rhythms of Gandingan

Silverio Bravo Caviteña En la Luneta Malageuña de Bailes Sacramonte de Intramuros Cancion Habanero de dilao El Cañi

The Philippinescape The rhythms and colors of the Philippine islands.

This suite is a fitting finale as it celebrates the spirit of the Filipinos in their love for traditions, nature and the environment. This includes Bayanihan’s tribute to a master Filipino artist, Fernando Amorsolo, who gave life to the Philippine countryside and beautiful traditions in his masterpieces. Dances inspired by the studies done in partnership with the local governments of General Trias and Noveleta Cavita, and Iloilo are recreated in this final extravaganza.

Amorsolo Kasilyo Kawayanan Ang Maya Fiesta Extravaganza

PROGRAM IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE

BAYANIHAN PHILIPPINE NATIONAL DANCE COMPANY

Bayanihan, the National folk dance company of the Philippines, takes its name from an ancient Filipino tradition called bayanihan, which means working together for a common good. In 1956, Dr. Helena Z. Benitez founded the Bayanihan Folk Dance Group of the Philippine Women’s University. The following year, it was formally organized as the Bayanihan Folk Arts Center with the Bayanihan Philippine Dance Company as its performing arm.

Both the center and the dance company were tasked to research and preserve indigenous Philippine art forms in music, dance, costumes and folklore; to restructure and enhance these research findings to evolve repertoires suited to the demands of contemporary theatre, and to promote international goodwill through performances at home and abroad.

Barely a year old, but eminently supported by painstaking research and innovative chore-

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ography, Bayanihan made its highly successful debut at the Brussels Universal Exposition on May 27, 1958, launching the company on an international career representing the Philippines.

Popular television host Ed Sullivan featured the Company in a coast-to-coast broadcast of the Highlights of the Brussels Fair, viewed by 40 million people in the U.S. Shortly after, Sol Hurok, “The king of impresarios,” signed Bayanihan to appear at the Sol Hurok International Festival. On Oct. 13, 1959, Bayanihan opened on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theater and received unanimous acclaim from New York City critics. It was a major breakthrough in Philippine dance history; the world became a stage for Bayanihan.

Dr. Lucrecia Reyes Urtula, national artist for dance, can largely be credited with transforming Bayanihan’s ethnic research materials into dances of theatrical excitement and artistry.

As Walter Terry of The New York Herald Tribune observed, “Indeed the choreography is endlessly fascinating, for while preserving authenticity of step and regional color, Lucrecia Urtula has devised designs of incredible originality, visual beauty and excitement.”

Since its formal organization, the Company has embarked on 14 major world tours (of six months to a year in duration) to Asia, Australia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East and the Americas, and made more than 100 short tours to foreign countries. In half a century, Bayanihan has performed on six continents, in 64 countries and in 658 cities, worldwide.

Through the years, the Company has earned many “firsts.” Bayanihan is the first ensemble of Filipino artists to break on Broadway and the first non-American dance company to perform at the New York State Theater at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. It is the first Filipino cultural group to perform in Russia and PROC, and the first to make an in-depth tour of South America. It is the first Filipino dance company to perform at the World Showcase Millennium Village EPCOT at Disneyworld in Florida, and the only Filipino dance company to receive the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for international understanding.

At the onset of the new millennium, Bayanihan undertook its 12th tour of the United States in 2001, performing to standing ovations in 56 cities in 20 states, chalking up a record total of 69 performances in 77 days.

In 2002, the company won the Gold Temple award for overall excellence in dance, music, costume and production at the 47th International Folklore Festival in Agrigento, Sicily.

In 2004, Bayanihan participated in the Universal Forum in Barcelona, the third CIOFF World Folkloriada in Hungary and represented the Philippines at the Cultural Olympiad in Athens, Greece.

Then in 2005, the company bested all previous Gold Temple Awardees at the 50th International Folklore Festival in Sicily, winning the festival’s golden anniversary Gold Temple Award—an 18-carat gold replica of an ancient temple. Bayanihan was also given the Diwa ng Lahi Award, the highest honor given by the City of Manila for outstanding achievement in culture and the arts. The same year, the company embarked on an extensive Asian and European tour, which reached China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Brunei, Taipei, Singapore, Germany and Russia with the support of each country’s Philippine Embassies and Departments of Tourism.

A multi-awarded company, both nationally and internationally, Bayanihan has awakened a new pride in cultural heritage among Filipinos, added a new dimension to the country’s dance tradition and built a rich reserve of international goodwill.

In appreciation and recognition of its pioneering efforts and international success, the people of the Philippines (through the 10th Congress enacted R. A. 8626) have declared the Bayanihan Philippine Dance Company as The Philippines National Folk Dance Company. The President of the Philippines issued Proclamation No. 138 to declare May 27 as National Day to commemorate and propagate the Bayanihan spirit as the unique way of working together as a people.

Bayanihan Philippine National Dance Company is currently on a transcontinental tour of the United States and Canada.

Bayanihan Philippine National Dance Company

about the artsists Dr. Helena Z. Benitez (founder), one of the most remarkable women of the Philippines, continues to be a motivating force behind the Bayanihan Philippine National Dance Company. She originally provided Bayanihan with an institutional base in her Philippine Women’s University (the first university in Asia founded by Asians), where the company gained popularity while perfecting its craft and repertoire in the 1950s. Once Bayanihan gained its own independent footing and identity, Benitez continued to be the company’s foremost patron and promoter even as she pursued her career in education and made her mark in other fields of endeavor. Benitez served in the Philippine legislature as Senator and Member of Parliament for more than a decade. She was elected head of not one, but two United Nations, bodies; she was the first Filipino to become chairperson of the UN Commission on the Status of Women; and the first and only woman president of the UN Environment Programme. Benitez has served as a member of the executive board of the International Association of Universities and was chair of the Southeast Asian Council of the International Association of University Presidents. She has served as ambassador of the Philippines and headed Philippine delegations to many international conferences including the UN Habitat Conference in Vancouver. She is the only person to have served on the Bayanihan Board of Trustees continuously throughout its existence. Benitez currently serves as chair of the Philippine Women’s University System and of Bayanihan.

Dr. Lucrecia R. Kasilag (president and music director) is renowned for her dual titles as national artist for music and the “First Lady of Philippine Music,” as well as her roles as president and music director of Bayanihan Philippine National Dance Company. She is a pioneer in researching indigenous ethnic music and blending it with Western musical approaches. Her work in uniting the sounds of ancient ethnic instruments with Western music stands in a class of its own.

An internationally acclaimed composer, she is also a highly accomplished educator, cultural entrepreneur, researcher, lecturer and writer. Aside from Bayanihan, she is also active in various other organizations including the Young Artists Foundation, the League of Filipino Compos-

ers, the Federation of Asian Cultural Promotion and the Asian Composers League, the latter of which has designated her as its honorary chair.

In 1993, Kasilag was honored to be elected one among five honorary members of the UNESCO International Music Council. In 1995, she won the fourth ASEAN Achievement Award granted

by Singapore’s ASEAN Business Forum for outstanding contributions to the performing arts.

Suzie Moya Benitez (artistic director) completed her liberal arts major in foreign service from the Assumption College, an exclusive school for girls in Manila. She completed a master’s degree in public administration from the University of the Philippines and a master’s degree in strategic business economics from the University of Asia and the Pacific. Benitez completed the program for development managers from the Asian Institute of Management under a Rockefeller Brothers grant.

She is a professional lecturer on corporate image, social graces, business etiquette and leadership skills. Benitez traveled around the world as a Bayanihan dancer and a Karilagan model from the late 1960s until 1977. Before re-joining Bayanihan in 1996, Benitez had extensive experience in public relations, sales and marketing, human resource development and administration. She was the first female vehicle sales manager at a Toyota dealership in Manila. She is a professional image consultant for two leading banks in Manila and a government financial corporation. She is also the head of PERFORM (Personality Enrichment and Character Formation) at the Assumption College, and is director of special events and special programs at the Philippine Women’s University. As executive director for Bayanihan, she spearheaded the group’s efforts for government recognition. Benitez is married to businessman and former Bayanihan dancer, Noel Benitez, and they are blessed with three children, Marco, Marielle and Martino Anton.

Isabel A. Santos (costume director) was born in the predominantly Muslim province of Lanao del Sur in the southern Philippines. She has lived and traveled throughout the country and is familiar with a variety of native costumes.

Costume director for Bayanihan since 1957, Santos has designed numerous costumes

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based on her research on ethnic dress across the archipelago. A recipient of the City of Manila Cultural Award for costume design in dance, Santos co-authored the 1996 book, Helena Z Benitez, Bayanihan and the Filipino, A Trilogy for Culture. Formerly costume director for the Folk Arts Theatre and cultural consultant at the Office of the President of the Philippines, Santos holds a bachelor’s degree from the Philippine Women’s University (PWU) and a master’s degree in English from Fordham University in New York. Her early career was spent as public relations and information director at PWU and Bayanihan from 1953 to 1959. Recently Santos received the Francisca T. Benitez Award from the Philippine Women’s University, her alma mater, “for her significant contribution to the nurturing of the Filipino spirit and identity through her accomplishments in the arts, particularly of theatrical costuming, that captured the intrinsic and enduring beauty of Philippine costume.” In 2003, she received the Antonio Villegas Award for culture and arts given by the City of Manila, and in 2005, she was given the award for costume design from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts in connection with the centennial of the feminist movement in the Philippines. Santos is also the author of Bayanihan: A Memory of Six Continents, a book on the history of Bayanihan Philippine National Dance Company from 1956 to 2005.

Alfredo Q. Gomez, Jr. (lighting designer and technical director) has served as lighting designer and technical director for the Bayanihan Philippine National Dance Company since 1987. He began his career as an instructor and facilitator for the basic theatre lighting workshop at the prestigious Cultural Center of the Philippines, and later went on to be lighting designer and technical director for a host of well-known institutions including the Philippine Ballet Theater, Tanghalang Filipino of the CCFI, Bayanihan Philippine National Dance Company, Ballet Philippines and the Gantimpala Theatre Foundation at the Metropolitan Theatre. A 1978 AB broadcast communication graduate of the College of Mass Communication at the University of the Philippines, Gomez completed graduate studies in theatre at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and specialized in lighting design for film and television.

Ferdinand B. Jose (dance director) joined the Bayanihan Philippine National Dance Company in 1976 and has toured extensively around the world with the group. His major choreography and design works include Tribulink (1996), Klasika (1997) and more recently, Kabayanihan Saludo, Bayanihan’s salute to the nation’s centennial celebration of its independence. Since 1982, Jose has played a focal role in Bayanihan’s research and program development teams, and was made acting dance director and administrative director for the company in 1995. Jose has studied traditional folk dance both locally and internationally, and has taken many courses on improvisation and composition for modern dance. He was selected as a recipient of a Rockefeller Brothers Fund study grant, administered by the Ramon Magsaysay Foundation, for development managers at the Asian Institute of Management based in Manila.

Melito S. Vale Cruz (deputy music director) has been a member of Bayanihan since 1975 and currently serves as deputy music director, assistant dance director, videographer, office manager and audio-visual department officer. His many awards include the 1994 outstanding Cavitaire accolade. A graduate of management and marketing, he has toured the world extensively with Bayanihan and was an ASEAN exchange dance instructor based in Singapore in 1992-93. His other interests include short film production for dance and video production for dance and voice studies. Vale Cruz was a member of the Philippine Madrigal Singers from 1980 to 1986.

Bayanihan Philippine National Dance Company

2010-11

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