Koryolab 2023: In the Round, the second tier of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) Choreographers Series, exhibits independent versions on contemporary dance choreography and performance.
Conceptualized by founders dance producer and director Denisa Reyes and independent contemporary dance pioneer Myra Beltran, it is a circular exchange of energies and space between audiences and artists. It provides a look into lived experiences and movement practices unique to Filipinos amid the post-pandemic world.
The show presents originals by Filipino choreographers Aaron Kaiser Garcia from Tacloban, Raflesia Bravo from Manila, and Tin Gamboa from Vancouver. They were mentored by Reyes and OcampoWang Dance Co-Artistic Director Paul Ocampo.
Garcia, an alum of Intercultural Theater Institute Singapore and the Dance Program of the Philippine High School for the Arts, was trained in Philippine Folk Dance, Odissi, and Chhau and immersed in the traditional forms of Kuttiyatam, Wayang Wong, Beijing Opera, and Noh Theater.
He explores the potentiality of the body to process and reveal the layered landscapes of the socio-political psyche and actively counters political revisionism. He invokes the true spirit of folk as a mutable and mutualistic practice and interrogates the term’s implication in state mechanisms of violence and erasure.
For Koryolab, Garcia’s E X P O [ S E ] examines how the body is exploited in reimagining Filipino culture.
A theater artist since 2012, Bravo has been featured in Philippine Educational Theater Association’s Rak of Aegis, Himala: Isang Musikal by the Sandbox Collective and 9 Works Theatrical, Annie The Musical at Resorts World Manila, Hair: A Love Rock Musical with the Repertory Philippines, and Tanghalang Pilipino’s Lam-Ang: An Ethno-Epic Musical as sub-lead Saridandan. She likewise participated in the Australian-produced All Out Of Love in Resorts World Manila and in “”””Dubai Expo 2020″”””.
She is a former and pioneering member of the Daloy Dance Company under Ea Torrado. She was a scholar of Julie Borromeo’s Performing Arts Foundation, eventually becoming its faculty. Bravo, who directs and choreographs major productions for universities and events, teaches Dance Theatre at Homeschool Global Philippines. Shehas enacted Coke around Europe under Arco Renz of Kobalt Works at the Goethe Institue. She debuted her one-hour one-woman show at the 2019 Fringe Manila Festival K-raze.
Her Koyolab piece Baba-I-lan is an ethno-tale that fleshes out the interconnectedness of Baba, the source; I, the self; and Lan, the lan.
Cultivating a cross-cultural arts practice, Gamboa finds the balance between the mundane and the rigor to elicit affective and thoughtful pieces.
Her British Columbia (BC) Arts Council-funded film Kariskis, which she choreographed and edited with a team of 13 Manila-based artists, won Fan Favorite at the 2019 Festival of Recorded Movement in Vancouver. She has danced for established Vancouver choreographers. The Canada Council supported her research on daily interactions and gestures of urban and indigenous communities in the Philippines. She currently imparts her knowledge and skills to the Dance students of the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB).
dama, her Koryolab entry, evokes the audience’s senses through real-time sounding and movement-making and engages them through deep listening, communal rhythm, and conscious embodiment.
Koryolab 2023: In the Round is directed by dancer, choreographer, and Benilde Dance Program educator Christine Crame with set design by theater director, production designer, and Benilde Theater Arts Chairperson Tuxqs Rutaquio.
Its institutional partner is Guang Ming College. DLS-CSB, Asian Institute of Maritime Studies, and Far Eastern University are venue sponsors.
It will run on Saturday, August 19, 2023 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.and Sunday, August 20, 2023, 2 p.m. at the Tanghalang Ignacio Gimenez, CCP Complex.
Tickets are available at P500.
For more information, visit https://culturalcenter.gov.ph/event/koryolab-2023-in-the-round.