{"id":764,"date":"2025-11-19T08:44:01","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T08:44:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/?p=764"},"modified":"2025-12-15T18:40:26","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T18:40:26","slug":"balik-balik-the-undoing-of-self-exoticization-in-teaching-performing-staging-igal-pangalay-in-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/balik-balik-the-undoing-of-self-exoticization-in-teaching-performing-staging-igal-pangalay-in-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"Balik\/Balik: The Undoing of Self\/Exoticization in Teaching\/Performing\/Staging <em>Igal\/Pangalay<\/em> in Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Dennis Gupa<\/strong><a href=\"#end\" name=\"back\">*<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Abstract<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"abstract\">This essay reflects and complicates the word(s) \u201cinter\/national\u201d as a framework of engaging Inter-Asia. Through an autoethnographic theorizing, I take advantage of this concept as a framework in decolonizing the teaching of Southeast Asian theatre performance forms, particularly Igal\/Pangalay in Canada. I look at the slash in the word, as a pause or reflexive apparatus to guide me in complicating my subjectivity and positionality as a (im)migrant artist and Assistant Professor at the University of Winnipeg. In this essay, I embed my positionality to foreground my multiple identity formations as an epistemological intervention to enable me in constructing meaningful and ethical pedagogical work that I offer to my students who are learning Igal\/Pangalay in my acting courses. By doing such, I put forward the concept of \u201cbalik\/balik\u201d (returning) as an ethical orientation in teaching Southeast Asian theatre forms to my acting students in Canada. Here, &#8220;balik\/balik&#8221; is a transnational enactment of worldmaking that carves pathways for non-Western pedagogical praxis of knowledge making informed and shaped by Inter-Asianity.<br><br><strong>Keywords:<\/strong> Igal\/Pangalay, transnational pedagogy, Philippines, Canada<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am drawn to the slash in the word(s) \u201cinter\/national\u201d because it reflects my relational connection with Asia and Canada as liminal spaces within my theatrical practice, both as a creator and professor of performance\/theatre. I am a diasporic Filipino artist and an Assistant Professor of Theatre in Canada. The persistent use of the slashes in the first sentence emphasizes my liminal subjectivities, which shape my ongoing identity as an (im)migrant scholar, artist, and community researcher affiliated with a university as a tenure-track assistant professor. I see these slashes as necessary representations of my identities and a metaphor for my body that flows between Asia and Canada. Recently, with the privilege of serving as an Assistant Professor in Canada, my mobility has expanded, allowing me to travel to Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe to attend conferences, tour performances, engage with scholars and artists, and develop new inter\/national research projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The slashes also serve as markers of my own self-reflexivity on how I continue to complicate this mobility, particularly in acknowledging that air travel significantly contributes to carbon emissions that impact the environment. Here, the slashes support an assembly of ethical consciousness in this scholarly and artistic global mobility. The slashes, therefore, represent an ongoing project of multiple identity formations and diverse epistemological interventions that enable meaningful ethical engagements, reflections, and negotiations within the terrains I inhabit and the aerial routes I traverse, which are deeply rooted in colonial histories and high-carbon spaces. These slashes also highlight ontological subjectivities that guide, challenge, and dismantle colonial and capitalist projects. I am honored to be part of this collection that brings together not just authors interested in exploring the geopolitics of performance within and between Asia but also the discourse that informs the practice and theorization of making, thinking, and producing theatre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In my case, I draw my epistemological contribution from the diasporic experience that continually returns (balik\/balik) to the orientations of homeland (Docot and Farrales 1). I want to start this paper by emphasizing my positionality as a diasporic educator and showcasing my intercultural pedagogical approach, which incorporates intersectional and decolonial reflections in teaching Southeast Asian theatre to Canadian and international students at the University of Winnipeg\u2019s Department of Theatre and Film. By connecting Canada and Southeast Asia through traditional performance forms, I critically explore how my diasporic perspective influences and enriches the practice of teaching and directing within a transnational and intercultural framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I pose the following questions to guide my pedagogical inquiry:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>To what extent does self-exoticization of identity show off in the teaching and performance of Indigenous forms outside their original context?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How do Eurocentric frameworks of performance-making continue to influence and circulate within marginalized communities in diasporic settings?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What are the limitations of decolonial practices within Western performance institutions and spaces?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Although these questions allow for many responses, I approach them through self-reflexivity and storytelling, intertwined with the socio-political contexts that inform my teaching. These strategies foster in students a critical awareness of how power operates in cultural production, migration, and ecological crises. They also function as theoretical interventions\u2014ways of acknowledging my own concerns about cultural misappropriation and examining self-exoticization as a bodily reminder of persistent colonial structures that remain across both Canadian and Philippine contexts.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Following this, I explore issues surrounding cultural appropriation and how to address them within my own acting\/performance class via Philippine <em>Igal\/Pangalay<\/em>, a Southeast Asian dance form, primarily performed in the southern part of the Philippines and near the Sulu Archipelago. One should not be confused when distinguishing <em>Igal <\/em>to <em>Pangalay<\/em>; although, of different names they share similar movement vocabularies. For the Tausug who are inhabitants of Sulu Province, this dance form is called, <em>Pangalay<\/em> while Sama People of the Tawi Tawi Province, the term <em>Igal<\/em> is used to describe the dance. Both are performed in various social and cultural events. The prominent scholar of <em>Igal<\/em>, Matthew C.M. Santamaria described this as \u201cform of total performance\u201d (2).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The aim of this paper is to reflect on how transnational connections occur in my classroom when teaching Southeast Asian theatre, while exploring the liminal spaces of cultural exchanges and acknowledging the potential violence intertwined in acts of interculturalism, both in performance and pedagogy.&nbsp;This is relevant to me because, as someone who has been in the geospatiality between the Philippines and Canada, I continuously confront ethical dilemmas and challenges when integrating my contemporary performance work and pedagogy with Philippine traditions in Canadian performance venues and in my classroom.&nbsp;I always think of my teaching as a practice of intercultural pedagogy that examines the socio-cultural persistent dichotomies in knowledge production. I bring a self-reflective approach to explore the complex and often blurry issue of cultural appropriation in teaching a specific Philippine performance art, <em>Igal\/Pangalay.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I began thinking about this paper when one of my students asked, \u201cHow do I make sure I am not appropriating your culture and will not make your people feel disadvantaged?\u201d I was taken aback by his question and paused for a moment before responding. Although my goal was to diversify performance traditions in my acting classes, I was faced with an ethical question. Cultural appropriation in the performing arts has become a debated topic that continues to challenge dichotomies and create deep discontent around (mis)appropriative acts of cultural borrowing. Both cultural hybridization and borrowings are highly contentious and complex issues. Over time, debates on the cultural misappropriation of Indigenous Filipino cultures within transnational and diasporic Filipino communities in North America have increased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Adrian De Leon\u2019s \u201cIndigeneity, Diaspora, and the Violent Business of Atavism\u201d highlights atavism as a process of discovering Indigenous identity through and toward the pre-colonial and the \u201cnative identity untouched by modernity\u201d (para. 1). Vinta Gallery, a Toronto-based company that creates \u201ccustom and limited run, ready-to-wear modern Filipiniana and Filipino-inspired fashion &amp; accessories,\u201d organized in 2020 \u201cVoices from the Field: Filipino Identity and Contemporary Cultural Practice\u201d with speakers from various ethno-linguistic groups in the Philippines and from the diaspora to share perspectives on the pitfalls of cultural appropriation. De Leon\u2019s essay and Vinta\u2019s symposium showcase ongoing conversations about cultural (mis)appropriation that Filipinx\/a\/o artists in diaspora continue to navigate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Reflecting on my positionality, I ask:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>To what extent does self-exoticization of identity in teaching and performing Indigenous performance forms instigate outside one\u2019s original homeland?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How do Eurocentric processes of performance-making operate within and among the Othered communities in diasporic spaces?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What are the limits of decoloniality in Western performance sites?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>While we can offer various answers to these questions, I engage in self-reflexivity, storytelling, and weave them with social and political underpinnings to help students become alert in decoding different forms of power embedded in social, political, and ecological issues. I use these strategies as interventions to acknowledge my anxiety about misappropriation and to examine self-exoticization as a reminder of colonial realities present both in and within Canada and the Philippines. Teaching non-Western performance forms in North America is challenging, but one must be ambitious in integrating non-Western epistemologies into the course syllabus. Here, teaching non-Western performance forms in the West can help dismantle epistemic violence.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"533\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2025\/12\/image1.jpg?resize=400%2C533&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-766\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2025\/12\/image1.jpg?w=400&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2025\/12\/image1.jpg?resize=225%2C300&amp;ssl=1 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Acting Theory and Practice students, Paul John Basilio Yamul and Madden Delaat perform their piece informed by <em>Igal\/Pangalay. <\/em>Photo: Courtesy of the author<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>I arrived in Canada in 2013 as a graduate student in theatre directing. Before coming to Canada, I had already gained years of experience in theatre directing in the Philippines, mainly through theatrical performances produced within a university setting. Working with students from various parts of the country, I developed a performance practice heavily influenced by the aesthetics of different Philippine regions. Leveraging the richness of Philippine performance forms, I created a directing process that incorporates cultural elements into many of my projects. I brought this practice to Canada without hesitation. My goal was to build a strong aesthetic in my directing approach while learning Western directing conventions. In my thesis production of the contemporary Greek play <em>The Bacchae 2.1 <\/em>by Charles Mee<em>,<\/em> I incorporated <em>Igal\/Pangalay<\/em> as a choreographic element. This act marked my <em>pagbabalik sa kultura <\/em>(returning to the Philippines\u2019 performance culture) as a graduate student \u2013 a debt of gratitude to my culture. I integrated <em>Igal\/Pangalay<\/em> into Western dramaturgy, blending Western theatre forms and Philippine dance to explore intercultural theatre in this project.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During this period, I learned about the history of colonialism in Canada, particularly the severing of Indigenous lands and the residential schools. Coming from the Philippines, I was unfamiliar with the history and struggles of the First Nations People in Canada in attaining their self-determination. I was even surprised to learn that Indigenous communities exist in Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When I began my graduate studies at the University of British Columbia (UBC), I joined the UBC Philippine Studies Series, a group of Filipino graduate students and scholars from various academic disciplines. One of the most compelling interactions I experienced was about settler colonialism and Filipino migration. With this group, I had the preveldge of meeting 1<sup>st<\/sup> and 2<sup>nd<\/sup> generations of Filipino scholars who are deeply engaged in raising questions around Filipino migration and its implication to the continuing processes of colonialism. The series of events organized by the members of this group inspired me to explore building a critical practice of theatre directing and teaching theatre.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"536\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2025\/12\/image2-1.jpg?resize=800%2C536&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-767\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2025\/12\/image2-1.jpg?w=800&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2025\/12\/image2-1.jpg?resize=300%2C201&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2025\/12\/image2-1.jpg?resize=768%2C515&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The author during the rehearsal of <em>The Bacchae 2.1<\/em> directing BFA Acting students at UBC. Photo courtesy of UBC at Theatre Facebook by Shan Fu. Photo: Courtesy of the author<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Before finishing my MFA, Super Typhoon Yolanda (internationally known as ST Haiyan) struck the Philippines. Yolanda was devastating, claiming more than 6,000 lives. Along with the destruction caused by ST Yolanda, a troubling conversation about climate justice was emerging. All of this made me reflect on the value of my theatre work, leading me to reflect: What is the relevance of art when colonialism and social injustices persist both back home and in Canada? I chose not to return to the Philippines after my MFA. Instead, I challenged myself to critically examine the theatre I create, beyond the desire for aesthetic creations and cultural representations. I then pursued a PhD in Applied Theatre, focusing on eco-performance. After I received my PhD candidacy, I returned to the Philippines\u2014literally, my second <em>pagbabalik <\/em>(returning)\u2014and conducted field research in my father\u2019s home province. There, I met and worked with relatives and local community members who experienced the full force of ST Yolanda\u2019s fury. A continuous self-reflexivity must come to the forefront when doing research and creating theatre in the diaspora, providing space that acknowledges the marginalization and lack of agency of oppressed communities. While I believe that Canadian theatre education should be more diverse, I also think that intercultural theatre\u2014bringing non-Western performance forms\u2014must foster social and historical critique.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Returning to my pedagogical strategy, <em>Igal\/Pangalay<\/em> are used interchangeably in the paper. My knowledge and interest in the above-mentioned traditional dance stem from my exposure to <em>Igal <\/em>dance scholar and choreographer Matthew C.M. Santamaria and <em>Pangalay <\/em>dancer and founder of AlunAlun Dance Circle Ligaya Fernando-Amilbangsa.<a name=\"back1\" href=\"#end1\"><sup>[1]<\/sup><\/a> <em>Igal\/Pangalay<\/em> is a dance form usually seen in Sulu and Tawi Tawi provinces performed by the Sama-Bajau, Jama Mapun, Yakan, and Tausug communities in Southern Philippines (TVUP 2:20; Rappler 1:35). I was first introduced to this dance form twenty years ago when Ligaya gave a workshop in Marikina, east of Metro Manila, the capital of the Philippines. I attended with much gusto and interest to expand my performance knowledge of theatre, fundamentally formed by my Western theatre education at the University of the Philippines\u2019 MA Theatre Arts program.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"533\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2025\/12\/image4.jpg?resize=400%2C533&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-768\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2025\/12\/image4.jpg?w=400&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2025\/12\/image4.jpg?resize=225%2C300&amp;ssl=1 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Ella Rae Cole and Katerina Halina Matyja are seen here performing their <em>Igal\/Pangalay.<\/em> Photo: Courtesy of the author<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Few terms ago, I invited Clarissa Mijares, a PhD candidate at Simon Fraser University and a classically trained Filipino dancer, to my class. She learned <em>Pangalay <\/em>from Ligaya as well. Clarissa led an <em>Igal\/ Pangalay<\/em> workshop through Zoom, including a one-hour lecture on the social, political, and environmental injustices faced by Indigenous communities in the Philippines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This introduces students to the social and political struggles of Indigenous communities before they even learn the dance. Through a combination of lectures and workshops that emphasize social, historical, and cultural contexts, I use a pedagogy that teaches both the performance style and the related social and political issues faced by the community. I approach this with sensitivity because I want my students to avoid feeling alienated from the social and political realities in the Philippines or viewing it as a problematic third-world country. Instead, my goal is for them to understand that performance forms are not isolated cultural artifacts, but expressions rooted in people&#8217;s lived experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Throughout this workshop, I asked my students to write simple poems and use them as texts to accompany their <em>Igal\/Pangalay<\/em> performance. The poems explored their community and their relationship with the environment. Since <em>Igal\/Pangalay<\/em> is deeply connected to the ocean, I made sure that their texts also reflect their actual ecology and imagination. Here is one example of a poem written for the class by my students for <em>Igal\/Pangalay <\/em>performance:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-white-background-color has-background has-small-font-size\">Water<br>Restless, yet alluring<br>Swim, crashing, sink<br>The fish swim by<br>Life (qtd. in Santos and Trembay 7)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this poem, Jeremy Shaan Santos and Amelia Rose Tremblay, students of ATAP, described the dual personalities of water inhabited by marine creatures. The water, like the fish, also swims, crashing and sinking into the abyss of life. With a mime box in the middle of the performance space, Jeremy and Amelia circled the tower-like set piece, throwing their bodies into it like crashing waves. Their agile movements demonstrated <em>Igal\/Pangalay\u2019s<\/em> fluidity. Another poem, \u201cParallel Supernova\u201d by Rayne Benoit and Olivia Di Girolamo, argues that oceanic waves are reflections of planetary movement; a vast and expansive space that holds memories and acts of remembering for people close to us:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-white-background-color has-background has-small-font-size\">Waves<br>Stars<br>Without you, withour them<br>Shinning, breathing, fall<br>If I could give you the moon, I\u2019d give you the moon<br>Antonella<br>Piper (Benoit and DiGirolamo 15)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Using these poems, they dance <em>Igal\/Pangalay\u2019s<\/em> various movement vocabularies, like limbai, \u201cthe gentle swaying of the arms\u201d (qtd. Sta. Maria, TVUP, 14:33), and \u201cingsud ingsud,\u201d in which the feet are gliding (qtd. Sta. Maria, TVUP, 17:29), in hybridity with classical battetic movement, in which both students are trained.&nbsp;The interaction of the form from the Philippines, along with the performance trainings they acquired before attending the course, fosters performance hybridity.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2025\/12\/image5.jpg?resize=800%2C533&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-769\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2025\/12\/image5.jpg?w=800&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2025\/12\/image5.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2025\/12\/image5.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Olivia Di Girolamo and Rayne Benoit perform their <em>Igal\/Pangalay<\/em> poem. Photo: Courtesy of the author<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>By localizing the setting of their poems, the students strengthen their skills in cultural translation. The aim in creating original poems as texts for <em>Igal\/Pangalay<\/em> performances is to introduce students to Philippine performance forms while encouraging them to expand their acting techniques beyond Western theatre. Before these workshops, I support their understanding of intercultural theatre by reviewing three articles: Jani Lauzon\u2019s \u201cThe Search for Spiritual Transformation in Contemporary Theatre Practice,\u201d Stephen Liu\u2019s \u201cIntroduction: Understanding Asian Theatre,\u201d and Merlinda Bobis\u2019s \u201cRe-inventing the Epic: Notes on Adapting the Traditional Genre.\u201dThe theatre studio becomes a multidisciplinary space for exploration, emphasizing aesthetics and critical theory while providing students with the necessary intellectual tools to investigate Asian theatrical forms in their performance projects. In these articles, the authors discuss diverse Asian forms charged with historicity and power that influence modes of performance production, representation, and ethical dilemmas in appropriation. Self-reflexivity regarding the sociological and political contexts of this performance form is essential in creating a re-imagined world that they seek to achieve through their performance projects. At the end of the term, students submit Reflexive Essays that render their experiences of creating performances informed by Igal\/Pangalay and shaped by their theoretical orientations with regards to cultural appropriations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Igal\/Pangaly<\/em> was also included in a play called<em> Alunsina\u2019s Love<\/em>, which I directed in 2022 as part of our department\u2019s season. <em>Alunsina\u2019s Love<\/em> is a three-act play by the Philippine-based playwright Christopher Gozum, performed by our department\u2019s Honors Acting theatre students. The play is based on the Visayan creation story and explores interdisciplinary and intercultural theatre-making. The concept of intercultural performance was addressed through a performance pedagogy for actors, mainly Canadian students, that gave them the opportunity to creatively and critically engage with new dramatic material and performance forms addressing issues such as migration, gender-based power imbalances, and social injustice. Christopher strategically incorporates diasporic narratives by reimagining the deities as mortals who, figuratively, inhabit Canada in the 1970s. This period saw a significant increase in the number of Filipina garment workers in Winnipeg, which coincided with President Ferdinand Marcos Sr.\u2019s 1974 Labor Code, accelerating Filipino migration to various parts of the world, including Canada.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2025\/12\/image6-1.jpeg?resize=800%2C533&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-770\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2025\/12\/image6-1.jpeg?w=800&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2025\/12\/image6-1.jpeg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2025\/12\/image6-1.jpeg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Actors of <em>Alunsina\u2019s Love <\/em>from left Woo Jun Lim, Eve Ross Moore, Liam Dutiaume, Madison Chevrefils, and Nicolas Firth. Photo: Courtesy of UW Department of Theatre and Film<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>One of the students who played the deity of the Sky, performed by Madison Chevrefils, delivered these lines:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-white-background-color has-background has-small-font-size\">In this empty darkness of the galaxy,<br>A God known as Sky, from the Madyaas mountain<br>Departs from his house of gold.<br>Accompanied by the Goddess, Wave, his beloved wife,<br>Sky begins to build the cosmos. (Gozum)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I choreographed this moment with a <em>Igal\/Pangalay<\/em> movement vocabulary while the actor chants the lines in Bayok manner. The student actors in our program are primarily trained in an action-based approach rooted in realist techniques. In this project, I allowed them to draw and explore intercultural acting approach while embodying <em>Igal\/Pangalay<\/em> as a mode of interculturalism and the praxis performance hybridity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The course, ATAP, also serves as a staging site for this praxis that opens moments of critical interculturality, enabling cultural encounters and analysis of social, political, and ecological injustices. While the focus is on developing the craft of student actors in staging this project, <em>Alunsina\u2019s Love<\/em> also investigates a disciplinary exploration of migration through the creation story of the Panay people of Western Visayas, Philippines. Considering Canada&#8217;s colonial history, one might argue that part of the modern Canadian theatrical scene grapples with issues of (mis)appropriation. The project aims to help students see a new perspective or window of criticality that encourages them to ask larger questions about intercultural theatre, intertwined with intersectional views that Kimberl\u00e9 Crenshaw has proposed:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-white-background-color has-background has-small-font-size\">We use art and other projects to show how people are experiencing intersectional harms, such as mothers of women killed by the police, or young girls expelled from school. We work directly with advocates and communities to develop ways they can better recognize these problems and intervene more effectively in advocacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We conducted the project with the support of Filipino community members in Winnipeg and scholars from the Philippines and the University of Winnipeg<a href=\"#end2\" name=\"back2\"><sup>[2]<\/sup><\/a> to encourage critical thinking among our theatre students about complex social and historical issues. Migration and mythmaking in <em>Alunsina\u2019s Love<\/em> are further deepened by the involvement of Filipinos in the project as a strategic way of exercising political agency through theatrical creation, which can help correct misappropriations of identities. It is sufficient for us to enrich our process with diasporic dreaming, where migrant perspectives contrast with colonial views of cultural and mythic borrowings. Here, I want to suggest agential empathy as a critical and ethical practice of playmaking that links contrasting lived experiences.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I return to the Philippines through various forms of embodiment to teach <em>Igal\/Pangalay<\/em> to my acting students at my performance studio. I am anxious about self-exoticization and want to confront it through self-reflexivity and critical thinking. As Edward Said says, \u201cBut our point, in my opinion, cannot be simply and obdurately to reaffirm the paramount importance of formerly suppressed or silenced forms of knowledge and leave it at that\u201d (380). I emphasize the refusal to colonize <em>Igal\/Pangalay<\/em> as an exotic form, but rather as a mode of criticality and reimagining the world. I tell my students that embodied aesthetics like <em>Igal\/Pangalay<\/em> are not just theatrical forms but analytical tools to explore different structures of power, agency, and subjectivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When teaching this dance form, I plan to start a series of lectures on the colonial history of the Philippines and the status of Indigenous communities in Mindanao and other local areas where I conduct my field research. This approach helps me place the dance within its socio-political context and address claims related to ecological factors and the political struggles of the communities practicing it. In my teaching of <em>Igal\/Pangalay, <\/em>I highlight the often-overlooked political and social issues faced by many Indigenous communities in the Philippines, where underdevelopment is widespread.&nbsp;Within the context of a liberal arts program, we analyze performance forms and explore human rights theory in my acting course. In other words, I approach the teaching of <em>Igal\/Pangalay <\/em>from a sociological and political critical perspective. For the whole term, I introduce my students to the practice of performing using <em>Igal\/Pangalay<\/em> as mode of thinking and enacting stories, performance forms which I learned from Ligaya and scholarly and artistic work of Matthew. The teaching of these forms in the academic milieu claims a formative pedagogical apparatus in teaching Southeast Asian theatre both as a theory and embodied practice of performance in Canada. Since, these performance forms are not fixed in time, they evolve and carry powerful signification of worldmaking that every student of performance willing to learn its technique deserve to receive its beauty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Endnotes<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\"><a name=\"end1\" href=\"#back1\"><sup>[1]<\/sup><\/a> Ligaya studied <em>Pangalay<\/em> in the Sulu Archipelago. She lived there for many years and gained the trust of the local community, which allowed her to deepen her knowledge of the dance. Eventually, she founded the Alun Alun Dance Company. In 2015, she was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for her research, work with the community, and dedication to studying Pangalay. One of her students was Sta Maria from the University of the Philippines Asian Center. I was exposed to&nbsp;his scholarship when I was a graduate student in the University of the Philippines Theatre and Speech Department. My experiences learning from Ligaya through a short workshop, interacting with Matthew, and attending their lectures and performances led me to research, teach, and incorporate Igal\/Pangalay into my teaching and directing in Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\"><a name=\"end2\" href=\"#back2\"><sup>[2]<\/sup><\/a> Among those who visited the rehearsals are Dr. Carlos P. Tatel Jr. of University of the Philippines Department of Anthropology, Dr. Jenny Heijun Willis of University of Winnipeg&#8217;s English Department, Darlyne Bautista, PhD Candidate, University of Toronto, Perla Jabate, who is the President of Heritage Council of Manitoba and the first set of Filipina women who arrived in Winnipeg as textile sewers, and the well-known tatoo artist, Mayo Landicho.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Bibliography<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"hangingIndent\">Benoit, Rayne, and Olivia DiGirolamo. \u201cParallel Supernova.\u201d <em>ATAP Production Book<\/em>, compiled by Lauren Pickering, unpublished production book, 2025, p. 14.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"hangingIndent\">Crenshaw, Kimberl\u00e9. \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.columbia.edu\/news\/archive\/kimberle-crenshaw-intersectionality-more-two-decades-later\">Kimberl\u00e9 Crenshaw on Intersectionality, More than Two Decades Later<\/a>.\u201d <em>Columbia Law School<\/em>, 8 June 2017. Accessed 1 July 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"hangingIndent\">De Leon, Adrian. \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/positionspolitics.org\/indigeneity-diaspora-and-the-violent-business-of-atavism\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"positionspolitics.org\/indigeneity-diaspora-and-the-violent-business-of-atavism\/\">Indigeneity, Diaspora, and the Violent Business of Atavism<\/a>.\u201d <em>Positions Politics: Episteme<\/em>, no. 8, May 2022. Accessed 1 July 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"hangingIndent\">Docot, D., M. Farrales, and D. Gupa<strong>.<\/strong> \u201cDiasporic Tensions: Tuning into Each Other\u2019s Stories of Home.\u201d <em>Unpublished manuscript<\/em>, under review by ALON, 2025<em>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"hangingIndent\">\u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=K7ssSIfI4IA\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"www.youtube.com\/watch?v=K7ssSIfI4IA\">Exploring the Maritime Culture of the Sama-Bajau in the Igal Dance<\/a>.\u201d <em>YouTube<\/em>, uploaded by TVUPph, n.d..<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"hangingIndent\">Garcia, Luis. \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncca.gov.ph\/marikina-culture\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"www.ncca.gov.ph\/marikina-culture\">Marikina\u2019s Cultural Landscape<\/a>.\u201d <em>Philippine Heritage Online<\/em>, National Commission for Culture and the Arts, 15 May 2022. Accessed 1 July 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"hangingIndent\">Gozum, Christopher. <em>Alunsina\u2019s Love<\/em>. Department of Theatre and Film, Faculty of Arts, University of Winnipeg, 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"hangingIndent\">Lauzon, Jani. \u201cThe Search for Spiritual Transformation in Contemporary Theatre Practice.\u201d <em>Performing Indigeneity<\/em>, edited by Yvette Nolan and Ric Knowles, vol. 6 of <em>New Essays on Canadian Theatre<\/em>, Playwrights Canada Press, Toronto, 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"hangingIndent\">Liu, Stephen. \u201cIntroduction: Understanding Asian Theatre.\u201d <em>Routledge Handbook of Asian Theatre<\/em>, edited by Stephen Liu, Routledge, 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"hangingIndent\">\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xVoft77sKkw\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xVoft77sKkw\">Ligaya Fernando-Amilbangsa: Keeping Culture Alive through Dance<\/a>.\u201d <em>YouTube<\/em>, uploaded by Rappler, n.d..<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"hangingIndent\">Said, Edward W. \u201cThe Politics of Knowledge.\u201d <em>Reflections on Exile and Other Essays<\/em>, Harvard UP, 2000, p. 308.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"hangingIndent\">Santamaria, Matthew C. M. \u201cThree Categories of Intangible Cultural Heritage and Three Degrees of Importance: The Case of the Sama-Bajau Igal Dance Tradition of Tawi-Tawi Province, Philippines.\u201d <em>Proceedings of the 5th International Music &amp; Performing Arts Conference: Heritage and Modernity in the Performing Arts<\/em>, edited by Hafzan Zannie Hamza, Flory Ann Mansor Gingging, Lena Farida Hussain Chin, Patricia Ann Hardwick, Muchammad Bayu Tejo Sampurno, and Christine Augustine, Cetakan Pertama\/First Printing, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"hangingIndent\">Santos, Jeremy, and Amalia Tremblay. \u201cWaves\u201d ATAP Production Book, compiled by Lauren Pickering, unpublished production book, 2025, p. 7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"hangingIndent\">VINTA. \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/vintagallery.com\/blogs\/news\/voices-from-the-field-appropriate-or-appropriation-event recap?srsltid=AfmBOopD0bvp_fWGC_GqpdDHYKbiGP4sJbP5z3gCvIWoY0-ZmWbK7M1w\">Voices from the Field: Appropriate or Appropriation? \u2013 Event Recap<\/a>\u201d. <em>Vinta Gallery,<\/em> 29 Oct.&nbsp; 2020<strong>. <\/strong>Accessed 1 July 2025.<a name=\"end\">&nbsp;<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-thumbnail alignnone\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2025\/12\/Dennis_Gupa.jpeg?resize=150%2C150&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-775\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2025\/12\/Dennis_Gupa.jpeg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2025\/12\/Dennis_Gupa.jpeg?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2025\/12\/Dennis_Gupa.jpeg?w=400&amp;ssl=1 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a name=\"end\" href=\"#back\">*<\/a><strong>Dennis Gupa<\/strong> is a theatre director, applied theatre practitioner, and performance researcher specializing in Asian Theatre, Southeast Asian Canadian Theatre, and diasporic performance in Canada. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Theatre and Film at the University of Winnipeg. His research on Canadian intercultural theatre explores how diasporic communities\u2019 creative practices contribute to intersectional and decolonial approaches to world-making. His interdisciplinary creative research builds on a theoretical inquiry on climate justice and practical mobilization of re-futuring climate crises by looking at ethics, politics, and aesthetics of transnational diasporic performance making. His research has been published in <em>Alon: Journal for Filipinx American and Diasporic Studies, Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Theatre and Performance, Voice and Speech Review, Frontiers in Marine Science, GPS: Global Performance Studies International,<\/em> among many other journals<em>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">Copyright <strong>\u00a9<\/strong> 2025 Dennis Gupa<br><em>Critical Stages\/Sc\u00e8nes critiques<\/em>,&nbsp;#32, December 2025<br>e-ISSN: 2409-7411<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/88x31.png?w=800&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Creative Commons Attribution International License\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">This work is licensed under the<br>Creative Commons Attribution International License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":770,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-reflections"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2025\/12\/image6-1.jpeg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=764"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":821,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764\/revisions\/821"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}