Letter from the Philippines.

Manila - Dance has arrived in the Philippines. There is a boom in ballroom dancing, with the Philippines regarded as the center of the form in Asia. it has gained adherents from all walks of life, and is practiced in the grand ballrooms of five-star hotels, in schools and universities, aerobics studios, parks, offices, and restaurants. Since ballroom dancing will be included in the Sydney Olympics, the Dance Sports Council of the Philippines will enter a team.

This year, all energies are directed toward the 1998 Centennial Celebration of Philippine Independence, with all dance companies employing patriotic themes. When I was in the Philippines last year researching a forthcoming updated edition of Philippine Dance: Mainstreams and Crosscurrents, sponsored by the newly created National Commission of Culture and the Arts Dance, I was struck by the passion, obsession, and desire of dancers and dance companies about the centennial celebration. Even the politicans are caught up in it; President Fidel Ramos has decreed the fourth week of April a national dance week.

Filipinos' obsession with dance is reflected in the success many Filipino dancers have enjoyed abroad, from the japayukis (cultural dancers sent to Japan to perform in various clubs) to the ranks of companies such as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ballet Ciudad de Barcelona/ Escola Ballet, and Atlanta Ballet. Emigre dancers include Anna Villadolid (Bavarian National Ballet), Elizabeth Roxas (Ailey), Maniya Barredo and Maniya Manosa (Atlanta Ballet), and Toni Lopez-Gonzales (Washington Ballet).

Ever since the Bayanihan Philippine Dance Company became a hit at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair (where it was judged the best of thirteen national troupes), the world has become aware that dance, culture, and the arts in general are thriving in this part of the world.

BPDC, the most decorated company in the Philippines, has, in promoting the country's folk traditions for forty years, been a source of national pride. in 1995 the company was selected as one of the top groups of artists at the first Conseil des Organizations de Festival et de Folklore et d'Arts Traditionelles Work Folklore Festival in Brunssum, the Netherlands.

Credit for the development of local dances must be given to Franciusca Reyes Aquino, a pioneer in research and the revival of dance in the 1920s and in the first codification of Philippine folk dances - a gargantuan task indeed. An outcome of this is the establishment of the U.P. Filipiniana dance troupe.

Other Filipino folkloric groups followed the Bayanihan: Filipinescas Dance Company, F.E.U. Folk Dance Troupe, Ramon Obusan Folkloric Ensemble, Leyte Kalipayan Dance Company, Kasiyahan Dancers, Dagyaw Theater and Dance Company, and U.P. Visayas Teatro Amakan, among others.

Ballet has a following, as exemplified by the numerous ballet schools and companies. Last year, the three major national ballet companies performed in the United States: the newly formed Ballet Manila and Philippine Ballet Theater in New York City, and the twenty-eight-year-old Ballet Philippines on the West Coast.

Ballet Philippines is the premier dance company in the country today. It started as a cultural center of the Philippines Summer Dance Workshop in 1970, when Alice Reyes and Eddie Elejar originally organized the company for modern ballet. Over the years it has also mastered a classical style to vary the season with part classical and part modern presentations. The troupe was renamed CCP Dance Company in 1974, when it officially became the first resident company of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), and renamed Ballet Philippines in 1981. It has added colorful and, on occasion, athletic dances to produce a repertory of more than 200 works, integrating Western technique with Filipino movement, theme, and design.

PBT celebrated its tenth year in 1996. Known as the foremost classical company in the country, PBT came about from the Ballet Federation of the Philippines, and in the eighties through the Festival of Four, when CCP opened its once closed-door policy to other ballet groups.

Ballet Manila is an offshoot of PBT formed by the celebrated and talented Lisa Macuja and is now considered the most promising classical ensemble in the country. Macuja, who has performed in 120 evening-length ballets, is planning to mount a performance for the centennial as well. After her star turns as Odette in Swan Lake, Princess Aurora in Sleeping Beauty, and the title role in Giselle, Macuja promises to come up with a grand performance.

Not only has Philippine ballet gained recognition, but modern dance has also gradually emerged. Douglas Nierras, the quintessential choreographer of the company Powerdance, has taken the lead in addressing religious and historic themes, as seen through physical contortions. The Chameleon Dance Company, featuring Jojo Lucila, is also outstanding.

Nierras, who studies dance in New York City and Los Angeles, has employed a range of idioms, including modern, classical ballet, jazz, and hip-hop. Another jazz troupe is Dancemasters, whose young, energetic dancers have appeared in the International Dance Festival and the Contemporary Dance Festival.

Famous among the festivals are the Ati-atihan in Panay; Masskara in Negros Occidental; Sinulog in Cebu and in other Eastern Visayan provinces; Payoy-pahoy in Samar; Kagayhaan Festival, Duaw Cagayan, and Sakay-sakay Lambago in Cagayan; Kadayawan sa Davao Festival and Apo Duwaling Festival in Davao; Kaamulan Festival in Bukidnon; Bantawan, Festival of Festivals in Mindanao; Mindulani Festival in Butuan; Pahiyas Festival in Lucban, Quezon; Sayaw sa Obando Festival in Obando, Bulacan; Caracol Festival in Cavite; and Flores de Mayo and Santacruzan.

Other newly formed troupes are doing their best to bring dance to the forefront. In the provinces, the scene is enlivened by a number of small ballet companies. Mostly school-based, some have delved into their regional heritage, such as the Dagyaw and the Kahayag Community Dance and Theater Company.

Dance education can been seen in the Philippine High School for the Arts. Preservation, documentation, and research are gaining footholds through the National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA). Ethnologists are also researching folkloric dance, foremost among them Ramon Obusan, whose unpublished Dances of the Philippines is much-awaited.

For the centennial, Ballet Philippines has produced Agnes Locsin's La Revolucion. PBT has Andres. When the next World Dance Alliance Asia Pacific Center conference comes to Manila later this year, Philippine companies will have plenty to boast about.