Sampling a Feast of Folklore

The current American tour by the popular and influential Bayanihan Philippine National Dance Company returns audiences to the age of innocence in adapted folklore.

Founded in 1957 by Helena Z. Benitez, the company has always specialized in hyper-accessible hands-across-the-sea sampler programs, with the incredibly rich and varied resources of Philippine traditional cultures presented as a collection of glossy souvenirs.

Other companies in the Philippines and the Filipino diaspora may emphasize the social and historical contexts of folk culture, drawing you deeply into an unfamiliar world by showing how music and dance express the values of a particular tribe or class. But Bayanihan’s specialty remains splashy ethnic vaudeville costumed for maximum splendor, and the current tour program delivers in more than 30 separate pieces divided into five suites.

At Pepperdine University in Malibu on Tuesday, dexterity ruled as dancers performed with wine glasses atop their heads in “Pinandangguhan sa Bangko,” balanced candles on their heads and hands in “Pandanggo sa Ilaw--Wasiwas,” wore clay pots on their heads (up to 10) in “Banga/Salidsid,” jumped and turned on a four-level tower of benches in “Bangko” and perched on long bamboo poles carried shoulder-high by others in “Vinta.” Faultlessly, of course.

Those horizontal poles, rhythmically slammed together along the floor, became a dangerous obstacle course to be quickly stepped through in the most familiar dances on view: the vigorous “Tinikling” and the more aristocratic “Singkil,” each presented as the climax of half of the evening.

But despite all the skill on view, the program sometimes threatened to become a blur--something like too many slides or postcards of somebody else’s vacation. (Is this one Manila or Mindanao?) Where was the sense of connection?

Not in this repertory, and the best advice to prevent numbing might be to think of the performance as a buffet rather than a banquet: Choose what interests you and mentally bypass the rest. Be selective and create a more purposeful collection than Bayanihan artistic and costume director Isabel A. Santos managed to do.

Concentrate on the many animal dances, for instance: pieces that may be ancient in origin but stay sharply communicative in their mime specifics. Or look for work dances that are often sugar-coated here but still convey the age-old Filipino connection to the land and sea.

On Tuesday, it may have been easiest to think of the performance primarily as a costume exhibition, with Santos’ spectacular array of fabrics, headdresses and ornaments artfully heightened by the lighting design of Alfredo Gomez Jr., Los Angeles’ own Filipino folk companies cannot yet match Bayanihan in this kind of lavish display, but the best of them have taught audiences to expect more sophisticated and insightful movement theater.

Along with such companies as Les Ballets Africains and Ballet Folklorico de Mexico, Bayanihan formed its staging strategies during the high-risk first generation of international folkloric ensembles and those strategies are now outdated. But Philippine culture itself makes powerful statements about primal human experience--war, courtship, religion--and their power survives even in this pointless potpourri.

Just as Russia’s pioneering Moiseyev Dance Company captivated Americans in the 1950s by dancing the Virginia Reel during its curtain calls, Bayanihan’s 2001 finale included a rousing rendition of “California, Here I Come.” But the audience’s aren’t-they-cute delight instantly turned dead-serious when the company began to sing “America the Beautiful.”

This parting gesture of friendship from people who know the fear and pain of terrorism from long experience spoke more deeply of Filipino character than anything in the company’s colorful assortment of native diversions.

*

Bayanihan Philippine National Dance Company, Friday, 8 p.m., and Saturday, 2 and 8 p.m., Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, 12700 Center Court Dr., Cerritos. $30 to $45. (562) 916-8510. Also Sunday , 2 p.m., Haugh Performing Arts Center, Citrus College, 1000 W. Foothill Blvd., Glendora. $22 (students, seniors) to $24; $12 (children). (626) 963-9411.