Set in beautiful Balboa Park, the Philippine American Celebration was the first (and only) major event for the Balboa Park Centennial...and it was totally FREE!
The park's centennial celebrates the Panama-California Exposition, held in San Diego in 1915. Four original structures from the exposition still stand to this day, including the beautiful Spreckels Organ Pavilion (where this event's performances were held), the California Tower, the Botanical Garden and the Cabrillo Bridge. The expo celebrated the opening of the Panama Canal and San Diego as the first port of call for ships traveling north through the canal.
Kudos to the Filipino American communities to putting this event together. Here are some photos from my two part post on the BPC2015PAC.
Friday night's opening - The singing of the American and Philippine national anthems by singers from PASACAT Philippine Performing Arts Company. The women are wearing dresses made from a malong (a tubular cloth with many uses) while the men are wearing the traditional barong tagalog dress shirt.
The emcee for the evening was NBC news reporter Liberty Zabala. In fact over the course of the next few days, there were several Filipino American reporters who emceed (Melissa Mecija and Marie Coronel, both of 10News) and Robert Santos who is of Guamanian descent
The coordinators of the BPC2015 PAC were presented with a proclamation from Francine Maigue, District Director for Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez.
The Filipino American Symphony Orchestra from Los Angeles...
Skillfully led by conductor Robert Schroder, the FASO was professional, entertaining and provided a touch of class to start off the evening.
The opening musical number was "Musika" by Philippine composer Ryan Cayabyab. This song was performed for the past three PASACAT Extravaganzas and is very difficult choral piece to sing. It sounded quite awesome with the symphonic orchestral accompaniment instead of just piano. The video doesn't have the best quality but you can get the jist of it...
The opening dance number was the beautiful Pandango sa Ilaw Oasiwas (Dance of Lights combined with Oasiwas), a dance of grace and balance involving dancers waltzing with lit oil lamps (electronic votives actually)...The Oasiwas variation includes the men swinging the oil lamps in their handkerchiefs/bandannas. The dancers on stage were from San Diego while off stage (not seen in the pic below) were dancers from San Francisco. It was quite impressive seeing Pandango danced on such a grand scale.
It was quite lovely seeing the flickering lights as it was nearing dusk. This dance was performed by five Philippine dance companies including PASACAT and Samahan from San Diego, Kayamanan ng Lahi and Likha Pilipino Dance Ensemble from Los Angeles, and Malaya Philippine Dance Arts from San Francisco. What you can't see from this video's vantage point are the other dance troupes dancing on the sides. There was so much to look at and it was fun to hear the crowd get involved with the handclapping.
The evening continued with the Filipino American Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Robert Schroder (the only one of its kind in the United States) accompanying world class and award winning soprano Joan Cano. Her voice was so beautiful and I had chills listening to her sing songs in English and Tagalog.
Another great performance was next by tenor Pete Avendano, who is the music director of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in LA (their parishioners are so lucky to have him)...
The musical performances were followed by a narrated show featuring all of the dance companies wearing costumes of the people of the Philippines, ranging from the mountain region, Spanish influence, southern islands (with a Muslim influence) and the Philippine countryside. In addition to the costumes, the dancers also performed "motions" of each particular dance and were in "character" while on stage. Another cool thing the narrators provided were the Four Waves of Migration (please refer to my previous posts here and here for more info) which was important in knowing the historical aspects of the Filipino presence in the U.S., particularly the West Coast and especially in San Diego which has a big military presence.
The crowd cheered especially loud when the Third Wave (the military) was presented. My father himself was part of the Third Wave (1945 - 1964), which precedes the 1965 Immigration Act in which Philippine immigration quotas were raised to 20,000 per country. My father joined the US Navy in 1963 so I was especially proud to see Navy Men represented.
After the People of the Philippines show, there was a concert by Philippine singer, Martin Nievera. Having grown up in the US and never having watched TFC (The Filipino Channel), I wasn't as "into" his concert as the majority. Let's put it this way, all of the aunties and lolas were going wild when this guy took the stage and joined the audience on the ground level.
Bert and I left after his first song. TC and the troupe had to break down their sets and keep their costumes, so while they were doing that, Bert and I went out for a late night dinner, drinks and dessert in North Park.
The Organ Pavilion looks so pretty lit up at night.
The welcome sign on the north end of the Organ Pavilion...
Saturday the 6th was also a busy day. We had to get TC to the park early so that she could get ready and be in costume for their performances that day.
The morning's performances were emceed by Melissa Mecija (pictured) who was later joined by Robert Santos.
BIBAK Youth dancers - BIBAK is an acronym for the five Igorot tribes in the mountainous regions of Luzon: Benguet, Ifugao, Bontoc, Apayao and Kalinga.
Each of the Philippine dance companies did a specific "suite". PASACAT from San Diego did the Spansish or Maria Clara dances. I believe Samahan did Countryside.
This was Noche de Gala...
I don't remember what dance this was but it might have been Paso Doble:
Ciega - This is a playful dance in which the male dancer is "blindfolded" while maidens dance around him.
Paragua - this was quite stunning as it had three dancers skillfully maneuvering the manton de manila (embroidered silk shawl)
Mariposa ('butterfly) where young girls primp and preen with mirrors and fans. Some of them had little purses hanging on their wrists. Those were Crown Royal bags! My dad's favorite liquor (besides Chivas). As kids, we used to fight over those purple velvet bags!
The Balangay boat built and painted by members of PASACAT (more info here)
I didn't capture each and every performance from the other dance groups from Los Angeles and San Francisco, but I can tell you there were all very good and quite entertaining. It was super hot and Bert and I kept cool in one of the vendor booths. I was also dispatched periodically to buy food and drink (this will be a separate post) for us. It was a pretty warm day and I think more people would have been in the audience if it wasn't fully sunny and hot. Many folks were sitting on the outskirts in the shade or were in the area near the International Cottages where other performances were going on.
This is Rising Star, San Diego's #1 Dance and Show band. They were awesome and performed at my high school's 40th anniversary 5 years ago. They play instruments (they have a great horn section) and sing and dance hits from the 70's, 80's and up to the present day. Their song list is pretty much "old school" which I like and which I know many of my generation (and older) enjoy as well.
Philippine Chamber Singers of Los Angeles - Bert and I enjoyed their medley of songs from the 60's and 70's which included the 5th Dimension! I hadn't heard "Up, Up and Away" in years!
There were a couple of Filipino American comedians. The first one, Ron Josol wasn't that funny. I felt bad for him, going first and having to entertain the lolos and lolas, haha. But seriously, he was not that good. The second guy on the other hand, was way funnier - Joey Guila. If he ever does a show in San Diego, we have to see him! I could totally relate to his humor, especially when he talked about Filipini style punishment and discipline.
There were more dance performances but the finale was a performance called "The Evolution of Singkil" which included all five of the Philippine dance companies. Singkil is a beautiful and epic dance (over 10 minutes long). The collaboration between the dance companies and their musicians was mesmerizing. Originally the dance only included a female dancer and no prince or fan dancers. The dance was changed over the years and made more theatrical by the Bayanihan Dance Company, which is the version the PASACAT performs while Samahan depicts the previous version.
One version had a dancer balancing atop two bamboo poles (like in the dance Vinta)
Pakaraguin Kulintang Ensemble and Samahan dancers...
The entrance of the Princess...
The Prince...
It was a grand spectacle and probably the biggest Philippine dance collaboration of its kind, with five companies bringing the epic Singkil to life with this performance. There were fan dancers galore at ground level at both sides as well as on stage. It was definitely a show stopper.
To give you an idea of the dance Singkol, here is a video of PASACAT's performance at the Nations of Dance Festival in 2014. This is a 19 minute long video but Singkil is from the start up to the 14:40 minute mark. The Singkil Princess was the same dancer at Balboa Park. This is the more theatrical version; the one performed at Balboa Park was progression of the various versions of the dance.
Here is a really cool photo taken from the Instagram of yomaxxi. The top half depicts the dance Singkil being performed at the SAME venue, the Spreckels Organ Pavilion on September 7, 1969. The event for the Bicentennial of San Diego.This is the same photo that is on the full page ad seen in the first photo of this post (it was an ad page for the PASACAT Extravaganza '14 event). The Singkil Princess is now in her 60's. One of the tappers is a friend of mine (he is now in his 50's): his older sister was the Princess and was also former Queen of the House of the Philippines.
The bottom half of the photo was recreated by the photographer (yomaxxi on IG), a graphic designer and former PASACAT dancer. He made sure to snap the shot at the same angle. I love it!
*Historical note for the black and white photo - About 50 Filipino American youth performed various Philippine dances for the SD Bicentennial event. It was the first time that Philippine dance was performed on a large scale in San Diego and exposed many San Diegans back then to the beauty of the culture. One of the dancers is now the Executive Director of PASACAT, Ana Cabato who also co-chaired the BPC2015 Centennial event. Due to the success of the performances and the strong desire by the youth to learn their culture, PASACAT dance company was formed in 1970, followed by Samahan Dance Company in 1974.
The mini concert Saturday evening was by Jessica Sanchez, who was the American Idol runner up on 2012. She is a local from Chula Vista and is now touring professionally. Personally, I am not into her music, but more power to her for her powerhouse vocals and her singing talent.
Partial list of the performers:
Filipino American Symphony Orchestra - fasofoundation.org
PASACAT - www.pasacat.org
Samahan - www.samahanphilippinedance.com
There are more I didn't include for lack of time (and energy) but rest assured, they were all excellent!
The Website:
PhilippineAmericanCelebration.com
Here is a post I found (hot off the press) depicting even more highlights from:
CoolSanDiegoSights, "Philippine American Celebration in Balboa Park" - This was a nice roundup by a non-Filipino...
plus a small blurb in the UT San Diego (showing an old photo of PASACAT since some of those dancers and musicians are no longer performing):
"Philippine Traditions come to Balboa Park...", UT San Diego, June 4, 2015
and another article printed the next day (featuring current performers):
"Big Filipino Community's big Balboa Park party". UT San Diego, June 5, 2015
The food and sights post will be forthcoming...
2 comments:
This is a great post! Behind the scenes and explanations are what I need to understand. I hope we can go next year.
Thank you Cathy. I appreciate that. Part of the delay was my OCD nature of trying to make sure I explained everything as concisely as I could.
Let's hope there is a next year too. If people liked it well enough, hopefully there will be donors so this event can happen again. I would love for you and the Mister to experience this. :)
Post a Comment