Barangay leaders target ng hired killers?

One of the most enjoyable tasks when I was doing research for the first edition of my Fiesta Book was touring the barrios to document their local practices and traditions. Most interesting were the folk dances unique to each community. The dances so captivated me that it inspired “Of Cocks and Choreographers,” one of the stories in my short story “Something to Crow About.” Cockfighting itself, another favorite pastime in the barrios, is like a dance ritual, where the roosters seem to dance around, testing each other’s strength and striking at each other with lightning precision.

In an American suspense movie I watched recently, I was surprised that a scene in a preschool day care center showed a Filipino folk dance being taught by a teacher. Two American children were being taught to do the tinikling, complete with bamboo poles being clapped together in rhythmic motions. The children’s attention was captivated in a spirit of play that makes them easily learn a native dance in the process.

Folk dancing is a wholesome form of entertainment, a simple, inexpensive recreation that has been enjoyed through the centuries by Filipino children and adults. It is one of the forms of expression of cultural pride arising from a widespread urge to revive the past and preserve Philippine culture. With influences from previous occupations however, the more native dances are replaced by more popular forms. This is the price of civilization.

Many elementary schools used to teach the various folk dances like the pandanggo sa ilaw, planting rice, salakot dance, tinikling, itik-itik, singkil, maglalatik and many others as part of Physical Education. However, through the years, the practice seemed to slowly disappear, being replaced by ballroom dancing or tree planting.

During a time when westernization was in full stream and the public was starting to be generally indifferent to folk arts, there was one enterprising Filipina teacher from Lolomboy, Bulacan who in the 1920s became so concerned that many dances might be lost or extensively modified. With a stringent budget and lots of determination, this woman took the plane, boat, car, bus and caretela to travel end-to-end from Ilocos in the north to southernmost Jolo in her never-ending search for yet undiscovered examples of Filipino culture in folk arts form. she did not hesitate to do the arduous work involved in persuading local folks to share their songs and dances, learning the movements, steps and rhythm through countless repetition so she can understand the expression behind each dance and translating them into a permanent record for teaching and dissemination. Through the years, she taught, she published books, made presentations here and abroad and continued research on the folk dances she was very proud of.

There’s a new book, “Lola Kikay”, which tells the story of Francisca Reyes Aquino, National Artist and Ramon Magsaysay Awardee, who expressed an unbridled sense of pride and nationalism for her country by using her talent and love for dancing. She captured many hearts through the magic of the folk dance and as such, continues to be an ambassadress of goodwill through her many works on folk dancing.