Women’s Month – UPD Office for Initiatives in Culture and the Arts

This international women’s month, we honor the extraordinary legacies of Dr. Fe Del Mundo and Dr. Maria Orosa, two exceptional Filipina pioneers who have left an indelible mark on Philippine society. Their achievements and innovations are a testament to the resourcefulness, intelligence, and tenacity of Filipina women, whose contributions remain relevant and in practice today.

May we follow in their footsteps and let compassion lead the way to greatness.

We continue our celebration of International Women’s Month by remembering the contributions of Pura Villanueva Kalaw and Josefa Llanes Escoda. Their tireless advocacy for women’s rights and empowerment has had an enduring impact in the country to this day.

Let us sustain their efforts by being good leaders in our fields of influence and ensuring that all sectors of society are able to assert themselves in ways that embody the principles of a true democracy.

Content and posters by Jolien Monteyn

Wikimedia Commons
Vera Files
Fantastic Filipinas: “Feeding the Fight:The Story of Maria Orosa.” Written by Ceej Tantengco and Sabrina Schnabel. Art by Alexandra, Lucas, and Leia Broekman
Fantastic Filipinas: “Pediatrician and Pioneer: The Story of Fe Del Mundo.” Written by Ceej Tantengco and Sabrina Schnabel. Art by Dani Go.
“Whats AP? Araling Panlipunan Rebooted” Podcast
Fantastic Filipinas: Girl Scout, War Hero – The Story of Josefa Llanes Escoda, Written by Ceej Tantengco and Sabrina Schnabel, Art by Alexandra Romualdez Broekman
Fantastic Filipinas: Super Suffragette – The Story of Pura Villanueva-Kalaw, Written by Ceej Tantengco and Sabrina Schnabel, Art by Georgina Camus
Girl Scouts of the Philippines
University of Michigan Library Digital Collections
Spot.ph
Her Campus

UP Filipiniana Dance Group

The UP Filipiniana Dance Group is one of the most acclaimed cultural performing groups in the country, showcasing the Philippine’s rich cultural heritage both in local and international venues. Composed of students from the University of the Philippines-Diliman, the country’s premiere state university, the group performs a wide array of Philippine dances from the Cordillera region in the north to Muslim Mindanao in the south— and, in recent years, from works of contemporary choreographers.

As cultural ambassadors of the Philippines, Filipiniana remains true to its vision of embodying Philippine traditional and modern-day cultures through dance. The group has performed, among others, at the Midosuji Parade in Japan; Surin International Folklore Festival in Thailand; and Sayaw Pinoy, Pasinaya and WiFi Contemporary Dance Festival in Manila. This August it will be one of the few groups to represent the country at Pyesta Kolon Datal, an international dance festival in Koronadal, Philippines organized by the Conseil International des Organisations de Festival de Folklor et d’arts Traditionnels (CIOFF).

In 1935, Mrs. Francisca Reyes-Aquino, the first National Artist for Dance, founded the group, which was originally named the “UP Folk Song and Dance Club.” Through her extensive research, Aquino notated and disseminated close to 200 folk dances from the country’s different regions. These dances are now part of the country’s physical education curriculum and are present in the repertoires of Philippine folk dance groups within and outside the Philippines. The artistic directorship of Mrs. Corazon Iñigo led to the group’s almost 3 decades of phenomenal tours abroad, especially to Europe. Under Mrs. Iñigo not only did Filipiniana secure its place on the world’s stage, it also garnered prestigious awards at folkloric festivals and won international dance competitions.

After Mrs. Iñigo’s tenure, Dr. Leilani Gonzalo assumed Filipiniana’s directorship that led to the training of emerging choreographers and folk dance artists. However, Filipiniana’s current thrust toward jazz and modern dance began when Mr. Van Cornelius Manalo was appointed as Filipiniana’s next director. The group is now under the directorship of Mr. Peter Alcedo, Jr., who has received training from and been mentored by Mrs. Iñigo, Dr. Gonzalo, and Mr. Manalo. With him, the group continues Filipiniana’s tradition of artistic excellence and creative versatility set forth by the directors before him.
Filipiniana steadies its mission of furthering and deepening the practice of Philippine folk dance and its accompanying dance forms through research, teaching, re-staging, and participating in cultural events locally and internationally. While the group remains committed to training the next generation of scholars, artists, and leaders in Philippine dance, Filipiniana remains a proud bearer of the country’s amazingly diverse dance heritage and artistic choreographic products. (Edited by Russ Patrick P. Alcedo, Ph.D.)

UP Dance Company

Founded in 1987, UPDC was set up for the apprenticeship and professional training of dance major students in the College of Music, University of the Philippines. It is meant to develop the technique and creativity of student dancers and choreographers as a company. Moreover, it serves the university’s choreographic needs (dance and allied arts, other curricular studies and extension programs) not just in UP Diliman but also in other UP campuses nationwide. It also aims to promote dance as a serious form of study and profession, and a public and communal expression. UPDC compliments a main program of the college, the dance degree program: 4 years as diploma, 5 years a baccalaureate.

The program is the most comprehensive in the country in dance practice and theory, in music and theatre, in Asian and Philippine dance and music, in movement notation (Benesh system, the only one in the country), etc. Diploma requires the production of a dance recital while the Bachelor of Music includes a thesis requirement. Students often collaborate with music composition majors and sometimes with the faculty in recitals and performances, as performers and composers. Many students/graduates have been involved in Asian festivals, workshops, Laban notation studies and academic complementation (the last three mostly in Taiwan).

Prominent students have received UP awards, invitations to festivals, and workshops in Asia and Europe and special studies in Taipei and Sumatra, Indonesia. Two had scholarships in India to study Bharatanatyam classical dance. Also, it is the only company known to have deconstructed the dance classics like The Nutcracker (into Maria Clara’s Colonial Dream – as japayuki), Giselle (into Ang Higanti), Cinderella (into Mariang Sinderela Ang Bagong Bayani), Petrouchka (into Pedro Kusinero), and Les Noces (into Ang Kasal).

The UP Dance Company has premiered a good number of original works from dance recitals and a commissioned work for the 30^th anniversary of the Cultural Center of the Philippines. The National Commission for Culture and the Arts had once sponsored UPDC’s national tour, performing from Aparri to Davao. It has joined festivals in Beijing, Hong Kong, Macau, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Taipei and Kaohsiung in Taiwan, Japan, Indonesia and Korea in their individual capacity. Furthermore, UPDC has once organized the Contemporary Dance Map in Quezon City that had routes of several dance studio venues, and the Wifi Body Festival with the Contemporary Dance Network Manila.

National artist Leonor Orosa Goquingco once wrote of the dancers as “talents coming up brightly in the firmament of dance.”

Recent awards:

Champion (Contemporary Category) – Sayaw Pinoy National Dance Competition – Dec. 7, 2013

1^st runner up (College – Contemporary Category) – Dancelebration Avenue 2014 – Mar. 9, 2014