04 July 2016 – Touted as a highlight of the Fete dela Musique, the annual musical event of Geneva that attracted musicians and other artists from around the globe, the small group of performers from the Leyte Dance Theater (LDT) began its routine on June 19 with an upbeat take on a popular folk dance of Muslim royalty in Southern Philippines: the Singkil.
The initial crowd of mostly Swiss residents soon doubled as curious onlookers gathered around the stage in the historic Place de Neuve, one of several sites for the music festival that featured, for the first time, an act from the Philippines.
From afar, the dancers looked like the typical Filipino dance troupe: their colorful costumes accented by native jewelry, the bamboo poles used for Singkil and Tinikling decorated with uniform patterns of color, and their movements in sync with the engaging rhythm of gongs or clapping or Spanish guitars.
A closer look, however, revealed another, more nuanced story.
The Leyte Dance Theater was founded in 1995 by choreographer Jess De Paz, whose skillful blending of folk dance with other dances, like ballet, created a unique way of storytelling, one that showcased both energetic prowess and emotional intensity especially in his interpretation of the country’s colonial past.
De Paz certainly did not shun from tackling history. His candid exposition of the travails of nation-building, from the abuses of colonizers to the incendiary events that led to the Philippine Revolution, was a frequent theme of his varied work. It set apart his repertoire from usual cultural activities that tended to leave out thought-provoking historical details in favor of the grandeur of gilded costumes or the innocence of courtship in a romanticized rural setting.
His was an inspiring narrative of struggle and resilience dramatically punctuated by the colors of the Philippine flag, a story fit for both local and international audience as the Philippines celebrated this year the 118th anniversary of its Declaration of Independence.
Paradigm Shift
It was also a narrative that hit much closer to home, as the members of the Leyte Dance Theater themselves witnessed and suffered from the devastation wrought by Typhoon Haiyan in November 2013.
All the dancers came from Region VIII who either lived or studied in Tacloban City. The strongest recorded storm that made landfall, Typhoon Haiyan resulted in substantial loss of life and damage to property; indeed, the widespread devastation it left forced global attention to the new norm of extreme weather events that put developing countries like the Philippines in a vulnerable position. It likewise led to policy adjustments both domestically and in international forums.
Amidst massive recovery efforts that focused on the need to build back better and more resilient communities, the residents of the affected areas, including Tacloban City, struggled to regain normalcy.
But normalcy, in this case, did not mean returning to the past, said De Paz.
“For us in Tacloban, there was no looking back. We knew that, after Typhoon Haiyan, we were changed,” he confided.
“We knew that from then on, what we needed to do was to keep building and building until we became better. It was what we had to do. We did not want to forget what happened. In fact, we wanted to use it to help make us stronger,” he added.
Such conviction strongly manifested in their dances as they brought the audience to a similar voyage of conflict and perseverance, a journey that ended that Sunday in Place de Neueve in a lengthy, rapturous applause and an even longer standing ovation from members of the diplomatic corps and international organizations during the Diplomatic Reception hosted the following night at the Theatre du Leman by the Permanent Missions of the Philippines to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva and World Trade Organization.
“It made us all cry and feel proud to be Filipinos, said Marissa Gonzales, a Filipino artist working at the UN who attended the Diplomatic Reception. The performance “took us on a different journey,” wrote one Stephanie Agostinetti in French in a letter sent to the Philippine Mission after the Sunday performance.
Nations United
“Perhaps it was fitting that Geneva was the last leg of the five-stop European performance of the Leyte Dance Theater,” shared Permanent Representative Cecilia Rebong. Through the cultural diplomacy program of the Department of Foreign Affairs, the group made similar well-acclaimed performances in Warsaw, Prague, Vienna and Berne.
“The international community acted in solidarity with the Philippines when Typhoon Haiyan left a tragic and indelible mark on our recent history. The name ‘United Nations’ had then rung so true,” she remarked.
“Above this tragedy, the people of Tacloban City and other affected areas continued to rise, the way our forebears and freedom fighters did when faced with the challenges of their time,” assessed the ambassador.
In an emotional farewell to the Permanent Mission in Geneva on June 22, the members of the Leyte Dance Theater, many of whom had travelled outside the Philippines for the first time, recalled their experiences telling a story of resilience to a foreign audience through entertaining, innovative, and show-stopping dance.
It was the story of the Philippines and of communities that refused to give in despite adversity. It was a story about the birth of a nation and the strength of communities. Some teared up.
It was, after all, also their story. END
