Shared narratives unite nations
Diplomacy, Connectivity, Unity
EXHILARATING 21 DAYS OF CULTURAL KINSHIPS
Rebooting our flight wings after COVID, the INTEGRATED PERFORMING ARTS GUILD (IPAG) set forth an itinerary of international performances opening with an auspicious collaboration with ASEAN states. IPAG represented the country anew this time in the 2023 Panji Festival, performing with other ASEAN states in Yogyakarta, Kediri, Malang, Surabaya, and Surakarta (Solo) cities.
The Festival hosted by Indonesia composed the elaborate threads of a shared heritage—the Panji narratives– that has strengthened the binds of our cultural kinships.
Taking one cycle of the heritage narrative rooted in the Majapahit Java heritage, each of the 9-member ASEAN performed an assigned episode. The Philippines’ IPAG performed Episode 8, Panji Semirang in the forest transforming into a Gambuh dancer.
Taking from its own signature performance form, IPAG displayed its part in the tapestry of this shared heritage. Clearly were expressions of understanding, values, relationships, and beliefs, the nations share of strikingly similar performance expressions. In unity, the countries wove a tapestry stamping our identical marks.
The Philippine episode narrated of heroine Semirang, disguised as a male warrior confronting hero Panji Inao, unaware that this enemy was her lost lover. Semirang wandering in the forest in despair meets hermitess Dewi Kilisuci. Dewi transforms her into a Gambuh dancer to immediately head for the Gagelang Kingdom where she reunites with Inao.
The narratives were woven by a distinguished Indonesian creative team led by the project’s Artistic Director Dr. Bambang Pudjasworo, dance and Cultural Studies specialist of the ISI (Arts Institute of Indonesia). Local performing groups from the five cities provided the transitions threading one nation’s story with the next.
In the cities where thousands watched the performances in large venues, different styles of dances, the classical forms of each nation (IPAG’s being the pangalay derivatives) merged to complete the Panji epic.
The process produced not only a complete narrative but relationships beyond the epic’s plots. Friendships grew. Having bonded feelings, the artists at the end of three weeks of collaboration parted with heavy hearts baring the rekindled bonds of the ASEAN kinship.
A collage of images composing one immense tapestry contributed much significance to the Philippines which, in the fringes of the ASEAN mainstream, retrieves its own position to claim its shared cultural identity.
Plans have been set to institutionalize this collaboration. ASEAN nations will take turns hosting the Panji festival annually. With the support of our governments, such bonding ensures the powers that the ASEAN deserves to claim a dominant spot among the world’s greatest stories.
The UNESCO proclaimed the Panji tales a Memory of the World Heritage in 2017.
Scenario, Mise en Scene, and Music (adapted from “Sita: The Ramayana Revisited”). STEVEN P.C. FERNANDEZ, Artistic Director | Choreography. LEILANI M. FERNANDEZ, and derived segments from the choreography of NOLLY CEBALLOS
Cast and Music Pool. JEANNIE M. DARANTINAO (Performer/Stage Manager) | ARLEM M. ABANES (Liaison) | JACOB TOGONON (Performer/Musician/Cargo Manager) | RESTINIL KIM INDINO (Performer) | SASHA BLANCHE ASUNCION (Performer/Production Manager) | PRESCIOUS GIFT C. EDNALGAN (Performer)
#inspiringIPAG #inspiring46 #ipag #panjifestival
[The invitation was extended to IPAG through Chinggay Bernardo of the CCP Cultural Exchange Division. Logistics were processed through CCP liaison Violeta Mero, with the support of Former CCP President Margarita Moran-Floirendo, Artistic Director Dennis N. Marasigan, and the NCCA (Exec. Director Oscar Casaysay and Head of the International Cultural Affairs Office Ms. Mariel Jasmine A. Nini.
IPAG is the Resident Company of the MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology.]
