Asuncion Capadocia; Founded Filipino Dance Troupe

Asuncion “Sonia” Capadocia, a schoolteacher and pioneer of Philippine American folk dancing in Southern California, died Feb. 3 at a Los Angeles nursing home of complications from a heart attack. She was 65.

Capadocia launched the Silayan Dance Company in the early 1970s, several years after moving to Los Angeles from her native Philippines.

The 20-member troupe performed extensively in Southern California and completed three European tours under Capadocia’s direction.

Born in Manila, the daughter of a schoolteacher and a principal, she learned native dance at Philippine Women’s University in Manila.

She came to Los Angeles in 1965 when her husband, a touring scholar, was injured in a car accident. She nursed him back to health and wound up staying.

By 1972, she was making room for a dance studio in their small apartment near downtown Los Angeles. Recruiting students from the growing community of Filipino Americans settling around Temple Street, she formed Silayan, which means reflection.

“She wanted to teach young Philippine Americans that dance was a way to learn about their culture,” said her daughter, Dulce Capadocia, who is now Silayan’s artistic director.

The company interpreted four types of Philippine dances that reflect the island nation’s fusion of cultures: its primitive mountain traditions, its 300-year Spanish occupation, Malaysian and Indochinese influences and rural peasant cultures. Capadocia not only choreographed the performances but also sewed the elaborate costumes worn by her dancers.

By 1977, the company had its professional debut at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Capadocia by then had also begun teaching at Alexandria Elementary School near Hollywood. She continued teaching--mainly fifth-graders--until she suffered a heart attack in August.

During her quarter-century at the school, she blended teaching with her love of dance, forming a multicultural school troupe that students competed to join. They learned complex numbers, some of which involved clapping together tall bamboo poles, and performed at Los Angeles civic events as well as on tour with Silayan in Europe.

“They fought to get into her class,” said Olinda Grimley, an office assistant at Alexandria, “because they knew they would be a part of all the things she did. She’s going to be really missed here.”

Silayan was the recipient of several grants from such organizations as the National Endowment for the Arts, the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, the Los Angeles Performing Arts Commission, the California Arts Council and the California Community Foundation.

In recent years, it has earned critical praise for blending modern and traditional dance styles in shows inspired by Philippine legends and folklore. “At its best, Silayan Dance Company does not present a concert so much as cast a spell,” Times reviewer Jennifer Fisher wrote in 1995.

Capadocia is survived by her husband, Santos, and her daughter.