SAMAHAN PHILIPPINE DANCES WILL ADD DRAMA TO RING FESTIVAL

When the local dance community puts on its annual display of the best in San Diego, the Samahan Philippine Dance Company performs the grand finale. And every time these dancers and musicians finish off the Dance Alliance concerts, they stop the show with the visual pageantry of Philippine dance.

But local aficionados seldom see this unique ethnic ensemble in other concert settings, so their exciting art form remains outside the mainstream of San Diego dance.

Sunday afternoon, the Samahan Philippine Dance Company will take center stage again--this time as part of UC San Diego’s Pacific Ring Festival, a celebration of the cultural achievements of Pacific Rim countries. The performance will be at 5 p.m. in the Mandeville Auditorium.

The troupe is scheduled to perform three traditional dances culled from the company’s extensive repertoire of Philippine-inspired works.

As Lolita Carter, director of the troupe, explained in a recent interview, “There is a strong Arabic influence” in the three dances.

“ ‘Moslem Suite’ is a set of dances from the southern part of the Philippines,” Carter said, “and there’s a very large Moslem (population) there. In fact, the influence is so strong that the Moslems wanted to secede.”

The fleet-footed “Singkil” keeps audiences on the edge of their seats as barefoot women nimbly and nonchalantly step in and out of crashing bamboo poles being pounded together in rapid-fire bursts by the troupe’s men.

The imposing bamboos provide the relentless aural designs, as they clack together on impact. They also threaten to trap the women in their vicious grip, if the split-second timing is slightly askew.

But Carter said “Singkil” is more than just a virtuoso display piece, it’s a dance drama based on Philippine mythology.

“The dance is based on a legendary princess of noble blood accompanied by her retinue. They encounter an earthquake, which is what the clapping bamboos simulate in this dance. It’s really not as dangerous as it looks,” Carter said with a knowing laugh. “The one where the dancers are balancing on bamboo poles (held high above the men’s heads) is much harder. We can’t get the girls to do that very often.”

Along with the spectacular ensemble works, Carter has included a small duet, “Agond,” which takes its title from a “big brass instrument like a bass.”

Carter goes back to the source of Philippine dance as often as possible, to stay close to her artistic roots.

“I try to go to the Philippines every year, but it’s become so dangerous that I haven’t been able to go as often as I like,” she said. “I still read a lot and take the material from real legends. I don’t want to over-Westernize the dances or dilute the material. The style is always authentic, even when we do new things.”

For this performance, Carter has assembled a cast of about 30 dancers and five musicians. The costumes will be lavish and authentic in detail, as usual. Some of the older ones are ornately embossed originals created in the Philippines.

“It’s hard to get the original fabrics now, but we match them as faithfully as possible,” Carter said. “And we only use live music. Our ensemble is just like the gamelan orchestra.”

Carter, a respected modern dance choreographer as well as a well-known designer of Philippine dance works, has been a fixture in the Grossmont College dance program for 22 years. This year, she announced her retirement. She intends to invest even more time in the Samahan Philippine Dance Company.

As a result, audiences should see a lot more of her brand of ethnic dance.

“I want to spend more time on the administrative duties for the company,” Carter said. “When we get any publicity from the media, we have to turn people away (from the performances). But up to now, we haven’t had anybody to handle those details.

“We’ve been invited to perform in Los Angeles, in Phoenix, and in many other cities. Now that I’m ready--and we have enough accomplished dancers--we can do a lot more performing. You know ethnic material takes a lot of dancers, and we used to get many of them from high school.”

Now, she said, alumni of the troupe want to come back, so she can take her show on the road.