Co. Erasga - Alvin Erasga Tolentino - Artistic Creator

Gender/The Baylan

Yes, it is spring and I finally get to write something for this blog that has been way over due!

I warn you, this will be long!

The beginning of 2011 seems quite a while ago, since it is now almost April, (and thank god's it's spring in Vancouver)!

Yes those amazing cherry trees are ready to pop out.

So many things have come and gone and time seems to have just passed over me.

Existing in three continents; having such a presence and knowing why I am there has been gratifying but also exhausting!

Happiness, Sadness, obstacles and chaos have come and gone; I feel the emotional roller coaster in my body as I groove to the daily grind of moving to dance full time and back.

As I write this, I am once again in the creative process with Martin Inthamoussú, having just completed a one week residency at the Shadbolt Centre for the completion of Expose.

Now we move to the Dance Centre, about to take our final weeks of preparation and put together the strings of events that will be EXpose for unveiling April 14-16 at Scotiabank Dance Centre.

Gender is a thematic theme the lingers in this work, constantly in the thread of our working thoughts and process; moving about it both consciously and unconscious.

I ponder and wonder how much of identity dictates who we are, or do we choose to simply play at identifying ourselves with gender play.

Last February, my most memorable time yet for this year has been visiting Indonesia in Bandung, West Java; exploring the realm of this country's vast cultural place, working with dance students at STSI, Sikolah Tinngi Seni Indonesia as well meeting my collaborator and friend, Dennis Gupa.

Dennis and I go back in creative exchanges in the Philippines from UPLB (University of the Phillipines, Los Banos), We are both intensely passionate with creative work, him in contemporary theatre and I in dance and together in our visioning of Filipino cultural life, development and  aesthetics.

In Bandung we begun the 1st phase process outlining the preparation for a new project, COLONIAL, to take place between now through 2012. It was a driven creative brainstorming and research period that really struck some discovery, journeying into in the visioning and life of COLONIAL. It's like pulling out and unearthing the roots of Filipino life, intense and complex, how colonialism lies in psyche of so many southeast Asian people.

For the first time, I invited Dennis to blog and share with me our process in Bandung, read below….

The Baylan
Alvin came to Bandung bearing a light of the Babaylan, the ancient Philippine priest/priestess. His light was in the form of questions.

Questions that I needed to grapple as I gather and re-gather body, time and memories.

En route to his Master Class workshop for Sekolah Seni Tinggi Indonesia's dance and theatre students and professional choreographers in Bandung, I plead him to observe my rehearsal for my Penyutradaraan
class (directing class). After an hour, I came to him and he gave me his thoughts on how to structure a performance using body as the main germ of imagination. Like a Baylan, he enchants me with series of no
tad questions to conjure the muse of arts:

What is the time?
Where is the body in time?
What is the space?
How do you let them tell us the space!
How come she/he is delirious?
What is the story?
What do they hear?
What do they feel?
Who are they?

Alvin's short stint in Bandung and Jakarta was episodic. He gave a master class, he interacted with traditional master and young artists,
he visited art schools and centuries-old market place, he watched Sundanese dance and learnt their instruments, walked in forgotten
streets and museum, met with the Filipinos in the Catholic church, rode the becak and spoke Bahasa: the result, a pastiche of experiences like a Balinese cornucopia of tropical fruits ready to be offered in
the temple of gods.

In one of his workshops, I witnessed how he made the students sweat and inveigled them to let loose the body and forget their very classical dance techniques for a time to try contemporary movement.

How fascinating to see these students, roll, spin, rotate, soar, wheel, climb, scramble, fall, rise, reach, cringe,
ascend, fly, soar and plummet from the air like their mythical Garuda. As a passionate artist, Alvin is also an incredible teacher of dance. His art is
always bold which speaks to the current time where stress and change is heaving.
His art is both Asian and global, personal and political, spiritual and sensual.

Our time together in Bandung was one of the most prolific moments I had so far. Our conversations about arts, dance and theatre crisscrossing to contemporary Philippine history and issues were
riveting. His love for his native Philippines is admirable like a jazz master work of improvisatory technique and that ‘nation' affinity he
carries with him swings back from memory to ideologies from body to dance: full of drama and sass, never regimented, never linear! The
most stirring conversation with him was about our colonial history/ies and I am personally affected with his longing to source this history/ies and restructure it in a breathing creative piece.

 He would ask me, troubling questions, constantly: “What is the problem in the Philippines?” I would answer, “I think we easily forget…”

I remember one time I sent him an email of a short article on dissident movements in the Philippines:
“Under the colonial powers, the Philippines scrimmaged several crucial mass revolts against Spain not to forget the 1840's Cofradia
de San Jose, 1896's Katipunan where Andres Bonifacion rise up to become the messianic leader, the Colorum rebellions of Southern Tagalog in 1840 and the very famous 1899's Philippine Revolution. When
the Philippines was still under the American colonial power, the barber and comedia actor turned revolutionary leader Macario Sakay
waged series of rebellions against the American. The Sakdal, Hukbalahap and the Valentin delos Santo's Lapiang Malaya movements later came into fore in the leaves of anti-colonial history. To break
loose from manipulation, these dissident acts were driven by passionate love for independence anchored with deep-spiritual beliefs:
anting-anting or amulets, chants, pasyon used as anti-colonial firearms by these Christ-like leaders of Philippine history.”

Alvin's art is an anting-anting, a bertud that will remember our past to lead us to a better consciousness of ourselves as Filipinos in this time where hope is lean in our country.

I am writing this at 12:00 noon here in Bandung and our Indonesian brothers are praying in their mosques asking Allah to send peace,

freedom and prosperity to the world.

In concluding 10 years

I leave you with two quotes as we fold the 2010 season with Co.ERASGA, 10 solid years of dance making and performing has been an impeccable journey that keeps me going!

• “Culture, the arts, our expressive heritage, are reasons for living, catalysts of our imaginations and prompters of our dreams. If we hope to make a full life, and to live that life in decency, freshness or curiosity and freedom of spirit, we must always remain open to the offerings of the defiant imagination.”

Max Wyman in his book
“The Defiant Imagination” which I am currently reading.

• “The body is just the objective experience of our consciousness-it's a process, it's not a structure.”

Deepak Chopra
A recent article on him, “Longevity Prescription”

It is awe-inspiring, writing and sharing this with you; over 10 years ago, when I first created my first full-length work SOLA with Operatic singer Maria Piazza, a meditation on cycle-circle, the essence of life and death, when I founded Co.ERASGA then, I said to give it 5 years, then 7 and now we are concluding 10 years, well, let’s see what happens next.

The last two months concluding our season have been full of activities that kept Co.ERASGA on the go with production, fundraising, grant writing and celebrations.

Just a week and half a go, I completed two shows of PARADIS in France, the last of our touring performance season for the year with the 19th and 20th showings of this piece at the town of Coucy Chateau and at Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris. Returning to PARADIS again with French musician Emmanuel Mailly has given me another boost to continue performing the piece with a new goal to reach, 50 shows!

The eventful productions of Shadow Machine in late October saw it being up for 8 nights of performance in partnership with W2 media arts society plus a show for the downtown eastside “heart of the city” and an excerpt shown to 400 elementary kids at Sir Wilfred Grenfell Elementary School.  An evening was also dedicated to our annual fundraising event and I am thankful to all who supported; artists, members, friends and family.

Collaborative efforts and partnerships have been at the core artistic pursuits of Shadow Machine one that signifies an important element to Co.ERASGA’s mandate and continued working pathways in the years to come.

I accepted an award from the city of Vancouver, “the 2010 mayor’s arts award”, last November 24th for my artistic contribution to the performing arts/dance in the city.
It meant a lot coming from the city, although I really feel I have a lot of homes, but Vancouver has been the central place of my development and practice for this intense creativity, as well to the many special individuals that have been part of me with dance in Vancouver over the years.

I am grateful for the recognition and remind myself again that I am only a conduit to follow a calling to provide art to humanity.

I shared the award and chose a South East Asian Classical-Fusion Indian dancer emerging artist Sujit Vaidya., whose cultural background, his freshness, poise, focus and performance ability, with some perspective from his teacher Jai Govinda, earned my choice for him. This choice is also my voice for advocacy for more recognition and celebration of the rich and growing cultural diversity and artists of colour in this country.

It is Saturday morning December 18 as I complete this blog in Laon, France. On the grounds are 10 inches of fresh snow, white and glittering.  Wishing everyone, peace and good tiding for the holiday seasons and an inspiring prosperous new year.

Co.ERASGA have recently completed another open public studio process of Shadow Machine in partnership with the Dance Centre as part of their 2010 open house and in celebration of the first national culture day across the country; Close to 80 people attended to see the studio showing.

Shadow Machine continues its research and creation moving towards opening night Oct 20, 2010 at W2 Storyeum

Shadow Machine began to return to life in the fall of 2009 through a creative process re- locating old materials for inspiration towards a new full expanded version, the first since it was first put to public in 2001 part of Industrial Ear festival produced by The Western Front.

Under the collaboration of media artists Carol Sawyer, Peter Courtemance, Ken Gregory and myself, Shadow Machine (first inception) came to life from our efforts to depict the relationships of machinery and body closely relating to the working class, builders and machinery workers that were once greatly part of our evolving industrial era in the turn of the century.

It would be one of my most memorable collaborative performance works,  not only deeply rooted in dance but also in observations and responses in working collaboratively with the other artists, their creative approaches in discourse, sounds, visuals, technological affinity and aesthetics to bring Shadow Machine to life.

As time passed, I have desired to re-visit the work to be part of Co.ERASGA’s repertoire.

In living and observing Vancouver, its changing states, ecologically and socially, have reminded me so much of work.

People building Vancouver to a new frontier, a bigger city, but also signaling the disappearance of a once working historical and industrial site; the ghost of the past and the busy builders of the new Vancouver.

An intense time for Vancouver, where working people seem everywhere to be building and occupying structure and new territories.  40-50 years ago people work inside factories and machineries employed and slaved in the labor of machineries to earn a living, these industries would build what would become a Vancouver today from its industrious saga.

As an artist, I slave and work for my art form; it is my work, this activity is rarely defined and missed at times by the public not realizing the amount of energy and labour in what goes on in making art beyond the facility of imagination.

For dance, the body is a machine that labours to bring the dance in space and in time amidst the multi-hours in studio and rehearsal to perfect a movement.

As Co.ERASGA completes its 10 years anniversary celebration, it is fitting to dive into shadow machine, a multi-media work, representing the past and acknowledging the present. 10 years of working and building Co.ERASGA meant a lot of effort and as today, when economical crisis for the arts is felt in our province, the creativity of Shadow Machine reveals to you the basic working method we all have.

A path, a true sense of a living entity as humans, to work, to live and progress.