Creations

Colonial

In Colonial, I will return to my native land, the Philippines, to acquire and assemble a group of Filipino artists to work with and guide me in producing and telling an epic dance theatre story of the past and present, of social realism from a colonized society faced with the journeys, struggles, fights, fears and conditions of a colonized life.
 
Colonial is inspired and will be sourced from Pasyon and Revolution (Passion and Revolution): Popular Movements in the Philippines, 1840-1910 by Filipino author, Reynaldo Clemencia. A book that gives detailed insights on how a peasant movement came to the fore as a dissident force in fighting Spanish and American colonial powers using jokes, songs, bodily movements, chants, prayers and agimat or anting-anting  (amulet or charm). With the assistance of Filipino theatre director, Dennis D. Gupa, we will work side by side to construct Colonial as a dance theatre piece, an interdisciplinary and intercontinental project between Canada and Philippines that will evolve in three phases of research, creation and production between 2011 and 2013.

Colonial will glean from the physical and spiritual, in humans and books, invisible and visible, imagined and reality, from paper to textiles, stones to spears from the depth of Filipino life and souls. Colonial will attempt to tell the stories, both real and mythological to inquire and redress a critical examination of colonialism to society and individuals.
 
Co.ERASGA’s mandate and core values through dance is to depict and utilize art as a vehicle to bring light to social reflection and this new work, Colonial, will be no exception empowering and redressing social issues for awareness. My dance works have provided expression to cross-cultural investigations that continues to define and defy the relation of my dance to society.
 
In Colonial, I hope to deepen my relation working solely for the first time with Filipino artists that have remained still in a colonized land while dedicating their creativity and livelihood for the betterment of its society; they have empowered pure Asian core values, resurrecting ancestral ways and beliefs, breaking away from the boundaries and structure of power and dominations.

It is in these important, respected and highest principles, values and passionate relations why Colonial signifies my need to create the work at this time. More than ever, these are reflective times for me to inquire and look at our roots, as globalization expands, migration grows and people embark to new territories.
 
-Alvin Erasga Tolentino
Colonial