Earth-Dance Month

Cecile Guidote Alvarez, chairperson of the UNESCO International Theater Institute (Philippine Center) and the Earthsavers Dreams Academy, writes that April 22 is Earth Day and April 29, UNESCO-ITI World Dance Day. The twin observance of April as Earth/Dance Theater Month enjoins us to stop violence against mankind and Mother Earth.

Earthsavers, which former DENR Secretary Heherson Alvarez founded, sounds an urgent call to us to remedy our damaged ecosystems – our polluted water bodies, poisoned air and balding forests.

During Earth Dance Week (April 22-29) the Earthsavers Dreams Ensemble will perform a front act with President Arroyo’s Kalahi for the Earth Jam Session of stars and artists at WOW Philippines, Intramuros, to demonstrate their collective concern for the plight of Mother Earth. The Earthsavers Gallery of the Sea will serve as the backdrop of the concert in line with the celebration of 2003 as the UN Year for freshwater. A musical front, Manalig at Mangarap, will be staged at the Araneta Elephant World to mark World Dance Day on April 29.

The celebrated Swedish dancer-choreographer Mats Ek sends the following International Dance Day Message: "What is dance? If you answer that, you are not trustworthy. But let me try, anyway: Dance is thinking with your body.

"Is it necessary to think with your body? Not for survival, perhaps, but for living. There are so many thoughts that only the body can think. Other things, like peace might be more important than dance. But then we will need dance to celebrate peace. And to exorcise the demons of war, like Nijinsky did. Emma Goldman, the anarchist, may have said it best: ‘A revolution that does not allow me to dance, is not worth fighting for.’

"The God Shiva created the universe with dance. But dance is the opposite to all divine pretensions. Dance is an everlasting attempt, like writing in water. Dance is not life, but it keeps alive all the things that the big thing is made of."

A festival of Frank Rivera’s plays is being presented by Radyo Balintataw for Dance-Earth Month, with Ms. Alvarez, PETA founder and RM Awardee for Outstanding Public Service, as producer-host of the drama series. The plays which started airing April 3 on DZRH, home of the soap opera, will continue to be heard every night at 9, Mondays to Fridays to the end of April.

Among the featured plays are Siyudad Mystica, Hindi Matatakasan Ang Kahapon and Si Pilandok. The Balintataw tri-media approach (TV-radio-comics) has been selected by Cable News Network as a model of Soap Opera for Social Change (which was pioneered by Cecile G. Alvarez in Asia) in a special "People Count" feature introduced by Jane Fonda and produced by Barbara Pyle.

Shown globally by CNN, the Balintataw drama series is the only Philippine broadcast theater production cited by TIME magazine as an effective example of values education theater program; further; it was named one of six Third World soap operas by the US Emmy Awards for Daytime Soap.