Dancing Goodwill without the 'Tinikling'

For 10 weeks, the Integrated Performing Arts Guild (IPAG) jaunted through six states and fifteen cities, inciting goodwill and introducing the tri-people art of Mindanao to over 60,000 audiences in the United States.

Two and a half months, 15 full-feature, and 9 excerpted performances later, IPAG reveled before an audience as diverse as America, of enrapt 6-year-olds in a Catholic school and curious elders in a Home for the Aged.

Our U.S. hosts risked reputation and money to introduce IPAG - unknown in America-to a market that was already show-fatigued with the repetitive Filipino dance troupe repertoire starring the tinikling. The risks paid off: IPAG would jar their audiences' expectations with a program that was unlike any dance troupe's and which program merged dance, drama, music and folklore. Without the tinikling.

In its 15 full-feature performances, IPAG of the MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology received standing ovations for all of them.

Goodwill through the stage

Media exposure was generous. Fil-Am papers ran regular features and articles. Maui conducted a radio interview. Olympia-Seattle ran the IPAG show on TV for two weeks. LA TV 18, reputedly cornering the largest Asian viewership in Southern California, broadcast an IPAG feature and interview. Voice of America TV featured our D.C. participation. The internet was a harvest of articles, blogs, and reviews including the documentaries of the LA18 TV feature and the Kennedy Center performance.

IPAG's celebration of the Philippine Centennial in America was nothing short of striking. The shows exhibited a positive image of Mindanao, its cultures, and an enlightened panorama of Philippine life making significant connections with Fil-Americans whose Pinoy links, besides the tinikling, are "Wowowee," the TFC channel, and the Abu Sayyaf.

Pre-tour jitters

Getting a U.S. visa will never be a picnic. The flurry of endorsements from U.S. Senators and Congressmen did not appease the jitters of our U.S. hosts when - after we finally raised the amount needed for our application fees - the embassy scheduled interviews close to our departure date. Despite endorsements from leading cultural figures, the creeping uncertainty of being denied a visa cowed us, intensifying our already-stressful state, courtesy of the tentative commitments of our sponsors. While applicants request visas to join cultural events but end up caring for the elderly, we assured our hosts and embassy officials that IPAG has a reputation built from 8 international tours and not a fly-by-night company.

The U.S. Embassy was gracious. It moved interview dates earlier and allowed us preferential treatment. But proper procedure made us queue like the others for the interview of our artists, individually. The Embassy provided all of us with visas but with a note that we all report back by October 5. We fulfilled that request to the letter.

The First Leg

Our sojourn opened in Hawaii in postcard-pretty Kauai. IPAG traipsed from island to island: Oahu (Honolulu) to Hawaii (the Big Island), to Maui, then back to Oahu where after a performance in historic Pearl City, IPAG was the main feature in the Lapu-Lapu Awards in downtown Waikiki. The event had former Chief Justice Hilarion Davide Jr. as its Guest of Honor. Attended by Hawaii big shots including Governor Linda Lingle, Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann, and a host of politicians, the banner activity awarded exemplary migrants.

Our entry to the mainland was via the Seattle-Tacoma airport in Washington State. We surmised that the Filipino community here needed little convincing to host the IPAG because this evergreen state of lakes and fir trees has hosted premium Filipino cultural groups before. Besides, there was Rufino Ignacio.

Rufino Ignacio, who as Vice President of the Mindanao State University in the 70's incited a cultural frenzy in war-weary Mindanao, continues the same passion of stirring interest in Philippine arts through his Filipino American Community of South Puget Sound (FACSPS).

After two full-feature performances in Olympia and the University of Washington in Seattle and excerpted shows at the State's Departments of Natural Resources and the Labor and Investment, IPAG further cemented its mission of goodwill and thus, bridged our humanity with that of northwest America.

The City of Angels

Next stop was to be a problem. In the pre-tour planning, LA proved to be a difficult city to convince. It was a city steeped in showbiz, and IPAG was definitely not showbiz. Not only were the Americans star-crazy, but, more passionately, the Filipinos there were eternally hooked to the likes of Sarah Geronimo and the celebrities of the old days that old-time Fil-Ams still adored and paid to watch.

But there were angels willing to adopt us.

Joaquin Punsalan Jr. and wife Yolanda, both from Iligan, migrated in the 80's and are now settled in Carson City. Their home became a refuge in the three weeks that we took anchor in California. Jun convinced friends Carmen Page and Jo Eiselstein to produce the IPAG show after the Iliganon Association backed out, not willing to take risks. With the help of former IPAG dancer Joy Orbe Brown, now living in the States, the efforts to produce paid off well.

In three weeks, Jun and company filled up the 400-seat International Celebrity Center Garden pavilion in downtown Hollywood, a facility owned by the Scientology Group whose most eminent members include Tom Cruise and John Travolta. The Hollywood performance was fanned by a tri-media barrage including press releases and our ambush appearances in meetings of Filipino civic associations.

Continuing his support, Ignacio booked IPAG in the main reception of the Northern American convention of the Alpha Phi Omega fraternity at the Universal Hilton Ballroom. The performance invited prospects for future shows from over 400 delegates representing the U.S. and Canada.

The East Coast

The Migrant Heritage Commission, headed by lawyer Arnedo Valero, Esq., hosted IPAG's Washington D.C. debut. The program introduced the newly-appointed Philippine Ambassador to the U.S. Willy Gaa who addressed an audience many of whom were members of the diplomatic corps. (IPAG has made such an impression to Cultural Consul Grace Valera in a performance which the embassy in Madrid hosted four years earlier. Upon her assignment in Washington, Valera turned wheels to bring IPAG to Washington. With organizer Jesse Gatchalian, the DC team welcomed the IPAG.)

The program had to tackle a major technical glitch, though: the new state of the art Kenmore Middle School Theatre, venue of the show, was an "intelligent" fully-computerized facility. Problems with both the sounds and lights system could not override the computer-programmed infrastructure. Only its contractor had the means to override the system, but at this late hour he could not be reached. The technicians were rendered inutile. Starting an hour late, the program commenced with only two microphones working. After the Ambassador's speech, I apologized for the delay and quipped that we never have this kind of problem back home because our theatres were not intelligent. (Laughter)

We were to meet the Ambassador again in two weeks in the Fayetteville International Art Festival, a combo of activities that gathered over 30 countries and 70,000 audiences. Fayetteville (next to Fort Bragg) featured a country each year, and this 28th outing featured ours. It is ranked among the top 20 events in southeastern USA. Gaa was feted with dinner and a full-feature show of the IPAG.

IPAG opened and closed the festival and front-lined its well-attended parade.

Also in North Carolina, our Durham show at the historic Carolina Theater packed the 700-seater, a program that celebrated this state's Filipino migration. Migrant Juliet Malit, IPAG's founding choreographer, was instrumental in convincing the Philippine Heritage Foundation of North Carolina under Jesse and Joy Mabellos to have the IPAG frontline its celebrations.

Encore

Relatively laidback Virginia Beach - next to Norfolk, a major US naval base - is like home not because of its manicured landscape and low buildings but because of the presence of many things Pinoy. Filipino eat-all-you-can restaurants, Filipino-styled ukay-ukay, and Filipino accents that cannot be disguised by any twang are everywhere. Whenever there is a naval base, there will surely be Pinoys.

The IPAG theatre encapsulated Pinoy lifestyle not familiar to second- and third-generation Filipinos who have successfully made other options besides sailor-ing. Virginia Beach offered IPAG a spacious beach house built around the picturesque brackish waters of the south Virginia sound. For a while, we were among the rich and famous.

What better encore to cap a memorable tour than headline an international dance festival at the prestigious Kennedy Center in America's capital. The DC Dance Festival underscores the diversity that is America. The theme was appropriate: Asian Legends in Dance. So with the Chinese, South Koreans, Malaysians, and Mongolians, the IPAG staged its Princess Lawanen segment from the Maranao epic darangen that wove the narrative around the singkil, a novel approach that had the large audience in a trance until the final gong. The bravos were spontaneous.

In ten weeks, we did not have the tinikling to build goodwill and bridge cultures. But in similar bamboo fashion, we traipsed, paced our movements, measured our every step to capture hearts. A jaunt not unlike the erratic tikling bird.