Is 'street dancing' the emerging Filipino 'performing art' form?

I have been a staunch critic of street dancing, particularly in the manner performances of this kind wantonly misappropriate native expressions. I have been appalled by the mutations of street dancing festivals that have become staples of Pinoy fiestas and try to make sense of this unstoppable clone. It was an opportunity, therefore, to learn more about this "cultural" phenomenon when the Iloilo Dinagyang Foundation invited me to be one of the judges of their event dubbed "the Best Tourism Event in the Philippines."

I explored the Dinagyang and affirmed my suspicions that "street dancing" will grow exponentially. Its development is both a fortuitous and conscious design, as it also produces fortunate and disastrous consequences to our native cultures.

The Dinagyang, like most if not all street dancing spectacles, is not traditional. Their expressions are not grounded on communally-shared experiences manifested in forms that are shared and shaped by time. But there is the attempt to dig from the roots, a conscious design by well-meaning organizers to take source from tradition and history and the people's experiences. This in itself is an important gesture.

Initiatives from the top

A design that is dictated from the "top" - consider the fiat by the Marcos government in the late 70's that declared that all local government units develop their own festivals for tourism - never makes festivals traditional. A street-dance performance is often the design and vision of a choreographer (often too, informally trained) who may not bear the culture he/she recreates in a production. A choreographer's experience may be limited. His/her aims may be purely artistic (or even financial) as he/she appropriates expressions he/she copies from TV, live shows, or from other street-dancing events the choreographer has observed.

But working within fiesta conditions produces a culturally-bound habit: Filipinos decide important matters through consensus. The creative process more often than not evolves with the opinions of other members of the community contributing in the process, not the least of these is that of the hermana mayor who funds the work in the hundreds of thousands. The communal quality of this process is inherent in the collaboration that is theatre. The merging of ideas as with the merging of efforts is a community's contribution to the whole process. The worth of a final work is the worth a community has invested in. Honor or shame is shared.

Borrowed expressions

Clearly, the Dinagyang is a conglomeration of invented expressions, its forms "borrowed," its materials adapted. I will be bold to assert that the same qualities are true for the other street-dancing spectacles all over our "festival" country. The fiesta has given birth to expressions of our times that are structured, planned, and - necessarily - are financially feasible. These spectacles invite the visitors - which is the crux of the matter.

In these settings where the rural merges with the urban, city-evolved expressions like the music, dance, and design have been superimposed on the provincial piety and the folks' continuing veneration of their patron. The creative expressions revolve around the santo of forms that are appropriated from both the "indigenous" (or what the choreographers perceive to be indigenous) and the popular as absorbed from the electronic and mass media.

The unfortunate instance is when these street-dances misappropriate native expressions and, in the process, misuse cultural symbols and maliciously devolve ethics. I have witnessed many examples. But when one invents from resources one owns, I then accept the fact that one is doing a creative work.

The Dinagyang Expression

In the Dinagyang, the expressions revolve around the veneration of the Santo Niño. The festival commemorates the reception of a replica of the child Jesus in 1968 presented to the San Jose Parish by a delegation from the Confradia del Sto. Niño in Cebu. From celebrations focused in the San Jose Parish, what was formerly the Iloilo Ati-Atihan in 1969 has been institutionalized as the Dinagyang (or to make merry) in 1977, a tag coined by Pacifico Sudario.

The Ati-Atihan is the source in the Dinagyang celebrations patterned, according to sources, to that practiced in Ibajay, Aklan. To a visitor like me, the elements of the Ati-Atihan are familiar: the soot-painted warriors, the elaborately-designed headdresses, spears and shields, phalanx formations, the chants, and the drum rhythms. Juxtaposed in the performances are two anachronistic events, both historically-contentious, the 13th century Barter of Panay and the discovery of the image of the Santo Niño in Cebu half a century after Magellan's exploits. How the Ilonggos manage to superimpose one over another without deemphasizing the other is a marvel of post modern creativity.

The Ilonggo has added to this the Ati dimension. Innovations in design and execution betray a traditional character: the clearly structured performance design, the dissimilar variants of forms, the social commentaries implied in the works, the borrowed rhythms more Afro-Latin than indigenous Filipino, and the finesse in execution are characteristics of formally-trained artistry. In many instances, asymmetry in designs and experiment gave fresh meanings to the familiarly monotonous street dancing. Limiting the use of whatever expressions these performers could muster was music which the rules said should be beaten only on drums and bamboos, but were at times punctuated by the native flute.

Significantly, the performances were produced outside of ritual and religious prescriptions. The veneration of the santo may have been a fringe objective because clearly the performers were there to outdo each other. Group pride (the groups were called "tribes") was a high stake, and the best choreographers were hired to assure that executions were above par.

The creations were impressive and their exceptional qualities were widespread and shared. And how these compositions have managed to borrow from TV, hip-hop, classical ballet, modern dance, and the aesthetics of the modern stage! The varied elements have gelled to produce a composition where the ati and the Santo Niño images are central. Repeated over time, these forms will evolve a life of their own to become tradition and draw the distinctive dinagyang shape.

A plus for cultural industry

But while the "tribe" mentality is exacerbated by competition and the prospects of reward and recognition of one's group, the festival has made fecund the local cultural industry where the enterprise of creation has become profitable. "Tribes," to be worth their pride, invest a lot in peripheral objects: the costumes composed of various parts, services of artists, catering for the performers, transport, set, props, and the many downstream opportunities. This, besides the green moolah foreign tourists spend for beer and batchoy.

The synergy among the sectors is a fact recognized by the United Nations where the Dinagyang complements the UNESCO's millennium goals. The large street parade has become avenues for advertisements and exposure, and companies (even politicians) use this opportunity to the fullest. (This year's festival lured an estimated 1.2 million visitors to its streets and markets.) Imagine how a seamstress can supply costumes to a "tribe" of 60 to a hundred twenty performers, forty musicians, and a bevy of participants who perform a segment of seven minutes in five spots. Multiply this by 29 groups, at least!

Economic viability, entertainment, religion, and creation in a communal atmosphere are ingredients that make for a lucrative combination that assures the continuity and sustenance of the dinagyang. These factors are replicated all over these fiesta islands.

Culture and the Dinagyang

But if the Dinagyang - like all the other street-dancing spectacles - has no tradition to build from, the interest in the participation it has generated in the over three decades it has been practiced takes it steps closer to shaping tradition.

Culture is shaped by the instruments that allow a people to survive through piety, offerings, ritual, and celebration. These are addressed by Pinoy fiestas proven only by the fact that these have survived among the complexities of our digital age, no matter what their forms are. Culture evolves, and in all instances, the Dinagyang definitely has culture evolving.

Do we now witness the emerging performing art forms, evolved from the people and for the people? By the looks of these innumerable clones of humongous expressions, street dancing will become the Pinoy's quintessential performing art.