Celebrating contemporary dance

“CONTEMPORARY DANCE is not ballet,” said Chris Millado, the Vice-President and Artistic Director of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), during the launch of NeoFilipino 2019: Ar[res]t on Oct. 2 at Hotel Jen in Pasay City.

“Ballet has a fixed vocabulary. Contemporary dance is dance that breaks out of it’s vocabulary and looks for new ways of expression,” he explained.

NeoFilipino 2019: Ar[res]t is the third part of the annual CCP Choreographers Series which will run from Oct. 25 to 27 at the CCP’s Little Theater.

Envisioned and directed by choreographer Denisa Reyes, along with dancer and performance curator Myra Beltran, and dance artist and educator Nes Jardin, with the aim of elevating contemporary dance in the Philippines, the CCP Choreographers Series begins with WifiBody.ph, a solo-duet form competition for emerging choreographers; it is followed by Koryolab, a showcase of experimental dance by mid-career choreographers; and ends with NeoFilipino as a venue for established choreographers to stage original works.

This year’s NeoFilipino show, themed “Ar[res]t,” highlights “the power of dance to seize focus, to arrest a crowd in a frenzy, and to piece through the noise to arrive at the truth that lies inside the body,” a press release said.

Ms. Beltran, NeoFilipino’s artistic consultant, differentiates contemporary dance from modern dance as having “no category, no standard, and based on intention.”

She noted that in modern dance, “There is a standard vocabulary,” while contemporary dance “is measured by the authenticity of the artist.”

The show this year will feature Ava Villanueva Ong’s Order and Disorder, described as a piece about hope, danced to music by Krina Cayabyab.

“[Hope] is present in the most mundane and the most fundamental of all places. We can find it within ourselves and we can be inspired by factors outside ourselves as well,” Ms. Villanueva-Ong said in a statement.

Biag Gaongen’s Tatak: Ta-Tu, which is accompanied by a film by Manny Montelibano and music by Jose Centenera Buencamino, centers on the ritual of getting a tattoo. In the piece, Mr. Gaongen pays homage to his Igorot roots.

“Practices from Cordillera which include tattoo art and folk dances have been explored and exploited by many to assert the Filipino identity. In effect, has it empowered the contemporary Cordillerans?… In my dance piece, images and symbolisms associated with Cordillera’s tattoo culture will be explored on film and live performance,” Mr. Gaongen said in a statement.

Georgette Sanchez-Vargas’ Arrhythmia is a moving picture of a human heart, while JM Cabling collaborates with production designer Tuxqs Rutaquio in a dance adaptation of the Filipino children’s story “Ang Lihim Ni Lea,” based on the book about child abuse by Augie Rivera.

“…I want to express my stand on the issue of abuse of power. In times when power lies in the hands of abusive people, every opportunity to be defiant is important,” Mr. Cabling said. — Michelle Anne P. Soliman

Tickets to NeoFilipino are available at https://tinyurl.com/y3xcw5hx , the CCP box office (832-3704), and Ticket World (891-9999, www.ticketworld.com.ph ). Discounts apply for students, senior citizens, PWD, government, and military personnel.