This course will teach students basic Philippine dance techniques while critically exploring the issues behind Pilipino cultural representation through dance. These issues include: the perpetuation of male and female gender roles in dance, the celebratory performance of colonization, and cultural authenticity versus performance spectacle. In addition, students will have the opportunity to learn about the origins of four different styles of Philippine Cultural dance: Barrio Suite, Maria Clara Suite, Cordillera Suite, Moro Suite. Exposure to history, costumes and music are imperative to the understanding of the cultural aesthetic that has been established by professional Philippine dance companies since the 1960s.

Check out these links for some visuals:

RURAL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwPWgQ_cLS4

Spanish: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzuwBFBqhhA

Rag/Sid" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzuwBFBqhhA

M&M: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbyWle4cHt0      

In terms of dance technique, students will be exposed to a Tagalog/Filipino-language based dance vocabulary as well as other elementary and complex movement and performance techniques including (but not limited to): the waltz pattern, foot articulation, arm and foot coordination, prop use and manipulation, finger-hyperextension, wrist flexion, stage presence, centering, spotting and breathing. In a showcase at the end of the semester, students will present dances featuring their own choreography.

The goal of the class is to develop dancers basic Philippine dance technique and create a hub of cultural creativity by allowing students to deconstruct and reanalyze common Philippine dance repertoire with a critical choreography project so that students can define Filipino-American culture as a personalized art form that confronts the issues behind "traditional" Philippine dance.