Tales from Mindanao is the highly-acclaimed international touring repertoire of dance-music stories about Mindanao and its people. Tales has been performed in extensive road shows representing the Philippines in countless world festivals since its premiere at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
A series of dance-music vignettes pooled from the rich indigenous and folk cultural resources of the Philippines’ southernmost island, this suite is perhaps the Philippines’ most-traveled repertory production. It premiered as Life, Love and Death: Tales From Mindanao in the 1992 1st CCP National Theatre Festival. Since its first appearance and its subsequent international premiere in the 1994 Singapore Festival of the Arts, Tales has enthralled thousands worldwide.
Choreography.NOLLY CEBALLOS and the IPAG CREATIVE COLLECTIVE (Associates.MELVIN PASCUBILLO LEILANI MONTEROLA) Music.STEVEN P.C. FERNANDEZ (also adapted from indigenous and folk sources) Designs.VICMAR PALOMA, HERMI DICO Production Management and Marketing. ARLEM ABANES Technical Director. ANDREW SALAZAR
Mise-en-Scene. Steven P.C. Fernandez
Reviews
“… grab(s) me fully from their opening seconds: dark stage, figures in shadow, kulintang music (which resembles Indonesian gamelan) beaten out on rows of gongs. The lights come up, dancers in native costume appear, the kulintang drives their movements—balletic, athletic, poetic—and I feel like I’m looking at images sprung from vestiges of a Jungian collective imagination, not theatrical performance. The experience is visceral and exhilarating. Fernandez and his troupe revitalize folk traditions; they show that the traditional is the contemporary, and that inspired live performance continues to ace all the apps on iPhones. ” Tim Tomlinson, President, New York Writers Workshop, New York City
“…skillful storytelling via dance…fascinating… not for an instant did audience attention falter…” Leonor Orosa Goquingco, National Artist for Dance
“…heir(s) of … [the] pioneers [of Southern culture]…. versatility … in conception, direction, and musical writing and leadership.” Basilio Esteban S. Villaruz, The Manila Chronicle
“… I watched with pleasure… eloquent inspite of the minimal use of dialogue …” Doreen G. Fernandez, Ph.D, Theater historian and critic
“How exquisitely delightful to watch IPAG steadily increase in stature thru the years! Thoroughly professional, the group exudes an easy confidence and seamless mastery – a natural charm and agility, especially in its vivid storytelling, that mesmerizes and thrills a captivated audience, like me. Tibo has found that perfect synthesis of styles in Philippine dance theater (gone is the contrivance, the frills) and whatever it is, it has made me glad to be Filipino…” Julie Lluch, PHILIPPINE ARTIST
