Last October 25, the La Salle Dance Company-Folk (LSDC-Folk) rekindled the past with the long-awaited second run of their 12th-anniversary dance concert, Ulayaw, at the Teresa Yuchengco Auditorium. Deriving its meaning from the Filipino word for intimate conversations, the event’s title became a guiding light for the troupe as they channeled not just choreographic mastery, but the heart of community and culture beating within each traditional dance. Every step, sway, and strum breathed life into ancestral movements that contemporary influences have long buried.
With LSDC-Folk’s expressive performers enacting how history unfolds into the present, the concert wove together the vibrant threads of our heritage, creating a magnificent tapestry of kindred identity.
Echoes of the colonial past
As the auditorium lights dimmed, an impassioned voice filled the air. It chronicled the deep-rooted origins of ulayaw: the collective Filipino identity that ebbed and flowed against the tides of Spanish colonialism. The narration seamlessly opened the evening as the Balangay Dance Troupe & Rondalla musically enchanted the first set of the program.
The initial strum ushered in red-clad performers of the Jota de Paragua from Palawan. The dancers’ powerful steps struck against the volatile beat, accentuated by the graceful swirls of women’s shawls and the sharp clicks of men’s castanets. As the performance came to a close, a group of young women cradling books enacted an elegant rendition of the Estudiantina from Undian, Quezon. They frolicked and swayed to the slow, graceful pulse, tenderly portraying the innocent infatuation of smitten schoolgirls.
The tempo quickened as the lively dancers of the Jota Gumaqueña from Gumaca, Quezon, paraded onto the stage. Donned in blues, whites, and wide grins, the performers jovially leaped and stomped to the cheerful music. The routine radiated an exuberant festivity which gradually softened to Pitik Mingaw, a courtship dance from Central Visayas. At the stage’s center, pairs danced in intimate, romantic synchronicity, embodying the transcendence of love.
A breeze then enveloped the auditorium as the Sayaw sa Cuyo from Palawan began. Women in pastel-hued dresses twirled gracefully as they waved their brimmed hats to the thrum of the rondalla. The merrymaking drew to a close as a cacophony of clacks began to echo from the shadows. Slow, deliberate movements juxtaposed the sudden thumps and stomps that characterize the Jota Manileña from Manila.
At the crest of the first set, the entire ensemble gathered for a grand performance of Habanera Botoleña from Botolan, Zambales. Couples weaved through and around the cascade of cloth and color that painted the resplendent image of kapwa—the spirit that grounds every Filipino to each other.
Whispers of the ancestral spirits
After a fifteen-minute intermission, the concert shed its colonial bindings and revealed the archipelago’s indigenous pulse. The rondalla strings yielded to drums and gongs, summoning an insistent beat that carried the resounding weight of ancestral ritual.
The stage darkened to a sapphire haze as men dressed in woven tapis and bearing candle-tipped poles entered with measured poise. The company’s rendition of Palawan’s Inim held the auditorium taut. A veiled woman furiously waved dried leaves while metallic clacks and a candlelit glow heightened the tension. Her collapse and resurrection transfigured the stage into a solemn altar, to which the audience bore private witness.
The Dugso of the Talaandig followed: women in ornate headdresses sustained a trance-like tempo with chiming ankle bells and measured stomps. The formation fractured into quick, spiraling steps, with hands interlocked and feet tightened in a synchrony that surged into explosive momentum. From there, the T’boli women, in vivid red beadwork, captivated the audience with their performance of Madal as they shuffled to the roaring percussion. Their tapis snapped and wrapped like extensions of their arms, punctuating each dramatic shift.
A light calm drifted the Tausug’s Sua ku Sua as dancers gleefully waved white fans and silk panels in a playful call-and-response. Such levity quickly ceded to the pensive Pangalay, where silk-clad women with gold- and silver-tipped fingers traced slow, precise zigzags alongside men who bore bamboo beams that doubled as platforms. Balance defined the performance, with the slightest tremor fanning the flames as the ensemble stepped on and off the beams with precarious harmony.
Agusan’s Kinugsik-Kugsik injected another burst of buoyancy as they romped with pursed faces, quickened hops, and imitative stumbles, a welcomed comic foil to the night’s solemnities. The Subanen’s Sohten then rekindled the intensity as men brandishing wooden shields and saliringan leaves performed a drum-driven combat dance, moving fiercely to the piercing percussion.
The final triad of performances honored the Cordillera region, commencing with the Ibaloi’s Kayabang. Wielding hollow sticks and baskets, dancers swept across the stage with swift footwork and sharply-timed claps that evoked the cadence of the mountains. The section wound down with Salip, where performers donned long, woven tapis that stretched their limbs’ reach—wrapping, spinning, and snapping in tight, circular exchanges. The rapid kicks and ringing gong built a charged intimacy that soon softened into a display of partnered grace.
The routine culminated with a stirring rendition of Chalijok from Kalinga. Flowing from Salip’s tenderness, the dance swelled in deep, resonant chants as men in traditional Kalinga wear encircled the women, winglike hands rising and folding like eagles in flight. The concentric circles widened and tightened until the troupe converged at the center, their cries echoing the bellows of nature and drawing a wave of thunderous applause.
A pulse born of ovation
As the curtain rose for a final time, the ensemble glided across the stage in a blinding surge of gold. Swathed in indigenous and Spanish-inspired garments, they artfully melded ancestry and modernity for one final show of resonance, reverence, and spirit.
Then, a sudden and abrupt quiet seized the room. Born from silence was a wondrous symphony of claps and cheers, transforming itself into the very rhythm to which the dancers continued to sway. At that moment, ulayaw transcended the stage. What began as the troupe’s intimate whisper had finally received its reply through the audience’s resounding response.
Such reception exemplified ulayaw’s essence, reflecting the enduring interconnectedness of dances, regions, and people. With their movements unmistakably Filipino, the event became a living manifestation of a culture whose value thrives in its diversity. In that shared rhythm between dancers and audience, Ulayaw fulfilled its promise: rekindling memory into motion.
