HISTORY OF FOLKDANCE

(World Perspective)

With each passing year, customs and beliefs of groups of people get built
little by little, slowly with time forming into traditions. Folk dances represent one
of the strongest ways these (sometimes truly ancient) traditions of countries and
regions can be showcased to the public. Even though many traditional dances
bear the name of an ethnic dance, not all of them remained folk dances, but all of
them try to emphasize the cultural roots of the particular dance.

Some of them morphed over time into religious dances, and as such, they
are not primarily used to showcase tradition but to enhance religious
ceremonies and beliefs. Such dances are often called religious or ritual dances.

Folk dances are usually danced at social gatherings (which can be formed
spontaneously or during yearly celebrations) that can but are not required to
have a particular dancing stage and are almost always so simple to dance that
new dancers and amateurs are encouraged to start dancing with everyone else.

Such dances almost never have an official governing body that is keeping
the development of folk dance in check. Instead of that, the morphing of the folk
dances in their countries and local regions happens spontaneously by the changes
with local traditions.

Modern dances that have developed spontaneously such as hip hop are
not regarded as folk dance, and they are often called as “street dances”.

PHILIPPINE FOLK DANCE HISTORY

          Filipino folk dance history is not the history of a single national dance of one
or two regions. Dances evolved from different regions which are distinct from one
another as they are affected by the religion and culture.

FORMS OF PHILIPPINE FOLK DANCES

RURAL AND BARRIO DANCES

          Perhaps the best known and closest to the Filipino heart are the dances
from the rural Christian lowlands: a country blessed with so much beauty. To the
Filipinos, these dances illustrates the fiesta spirit and demonstrate a love of life.
They express a joy in work, a love for music, and pleasure in the simplicities of life.
Typical attire in the Rural Suite includes the
colorful balintawak and patadyong skirts for women, and camisa de
chino and colored trousers for men. 

          A good example of rural or barrio dance is Sinulog. It is a ceremonial dance

performed by the people of San Joaquin, Iloilo, during the feast of San Martin. It
originated in a barrio of San Joaquin calledSinugbahan. It was believed that the
image of San Martin was found at the edge of a beach, and that it could not be
removed until the people dance theSinulog.

MARIA CLARA DANCES

The coming of the Spaniards in the 16th century brought a new influence in
Philippine life. A majority of the Filipinos were converted to Roman Catholicism.
European cultural ideas spread and the Filipinos adapted and blended to meet
the local conditions. These dances reached their zenith in popularity around the
turn of the century, particularly among urban Filipinos. They are so named in
honor of the legendary Maria Clara, who remains a symbol of the virtues and
nobility of the Filipina woman. Maria Clara was the chief female character of Jose
Rizal's Noli Me Tangere. Displaying a very strong Spanish influence, these dances
were, nonetheless, "Filipinized" as evidence of the use of bamboo
castanets and the abanico, or Asian fan. Typical attire for these dances is the
formal Maria Clara dress and barong tagalog, an embroidered long-sleeve shirt
made of pineapple fiber.

MUSLIM AND MORO DANCES

Mindanao and Sulu were never conquered by Spain. Islam was

introduced in the Philippines in the 12th century before the discovery of the
islands by Magellan in 1521.

The dances in Muslim however predated the Muslim influence.

Like Ipat which was a dance to appease ancestral spirits. Before Islam, the
Maguindanaons held the view that diseases are caused by tonong (ancestral
spirits).Thus; a folk healer performs the pag-ipat while being possessed by
the tinunungan (spirit).

Another is the dance baluang which creates the illusion of an angry

monkey, and is always performed by male dancers. The popularity of this dance
comes naturally, since the baluang, or monkey, enjoys an affectionate place in
Asian folklore.

Singkil was introduced after the 14th century. It was based on the epic
legend of Darangan of the Maranao people of Mindanao. It tells of the story of a
Muslim Princess, Gandingan who was caught in the middle of a forest during an
earthquake caused by the diwatas, or fairies of the forest.

CORDILLERA DANCES

Cordillera, a name given by the Spanish Conquistadors when they first saw
the mountain ranges. Meaning "knotted rope", the Spanish term refers to the
jumbled rolls and dips of this long-range traversing the northern part of Luzon
Island.

Today, if one is to generalize one of the six ethno-linguistic tribes as an

"Igorot" is considered degrading. Living amidst the rice terraces that tower over
Northern Luzon are a people whose way of life existed long before any Spaniard
or other foreigners stepped foot on the Philippines. The Bontoc, Ifugao, Benguet,
Apayo, and the Kalinga tribes reign over Luzon's mountain terrain.

TRIBAL DANCES

The cultural minorities that live in the hills and mountains throughout the
Philippine Archipelago considered dances as basic part of their lives. Their Culture
and animistic beliefs predated Christianity and Islam. Dances are performed
essentially for the gods. As in most ancient cultures, unlike the Muslim tribes in
their midst, their dances are nonetheless closely intertwined with ceremonials,
rituals and sacrifices.

The only dance that is believed to have evolved during the Spanish
colonization is the Talaingod dancewhich is performed to the beat of four drums
by a female, portrays a virgin-mother bathing and cradling her newborn baby,
named Liboangan. She supposedly had a dream, or pandanggo, that she was to
bear such a child. This concept of a virgin-birth may have been derived from the
Catholic faith.