Nouvelles et événements

The Baylan

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: We should not forget that the wars that our heroes/heroines waged are symbols of our victories as a nation. Though, it failed it still the unsourced gems of triumphs. Let me recall them and conjure their memories:

1840's Cofradia de San Jose…

1896's Katipunan under the messianic leadership of the mass hero, Andres Bonifacio…
1840's Colorum rebellions in Southern Tagalog Region…and the Christ-like revolutionaries of the Philippine history: the polyglot Jose Rizal, comedia actor and revolutionary leader Macario Sakay, The Sakdal, Hukbalahap and Tata Valentin delos Santo's Lapian Malaya movements. Anchored with a deep spiritual callings they waged war until the last drop of their blood. I still smell it fresh and breathing.
 
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.