Showcasing Filipino culture
Christabelle Intong was a princess caught in a storm.
With each twist of her white and gold fans and ring of the bells on her ankles, she made her way through the forest with her umbrella girl to find her prince.
“Dancing makes me happy,” said Christabelle, 17, a senior at North Catholic High School. “This is probably the biggest role I've had.”
Christabelle took the stage as The Princess in one of the starring roles in the Philippine-American Performing Arts of Greater Pittsburgh's eighth annual recital Sari-Sari in September at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater in Pittsburgh.
The nonprofit organization preserves and promotes Filipino culture through dance, music and other creative and performing arts. Established in 2012, its mission is to instill in its members a deeper understanding and appreciation of their cultural heritage and share it with the community.
Christabelle, who is the daughter of Edwin and Marilou of Mars, has performed with the cultural dance troupe for 12 years.
Marilou Intong, vice president of the Philippine-American Performing Arts of Greater Pittsburgh, exposed Christabelle to gymnastics, figure skating, basketball, tennis, lacrosse, cartoon drawing classes and musical theatre and let her choose her passion, she said.Dance built confidence in her daughter and the socialization developed her personality, she said.“It's been a joy to watch her,” Intong said. “This has helped to mold her into who she is now.”Christabelle is also a member of the National Speech and Debate Honors Society, Leadership Team, varsity tennis and the forensics team, plays the clarinet with the concert band, acts with the drama club, and sings with the Trojan Chorale.She has also danced with the Pittsburgh Youth Ballet, Pittsburgh CLO and JWH Center for Performing Arts.The September performance showcased traditional Filipino folk dances and paired them with modern interpretations while it kept with the movements and influences of the Spanish, Muslim and native cultures found in the Philippines.The Singkil dance takes its name from the brass bell anklets worn by the princess of the Maranao region and tells the story of a princess caught in a forest during an earthquake caused by fairies.
The fast-paced dance required Christabelle to step in and out of poles as they were clicked on the floor. The crisscrossed bamboo poles represent the shaking trees and falling rocks, which the princess manages to avoid.Dancers waving fans represent the forceful forest winds. The umbrella-bearing attendant loyally accompanies the princess throughout her ordeal until she is finally rescued by the prince. In addition to traditional dances, performers also present modern versions that incorporate ballet and hip-hop with a spin on their own costumes.Christabelle was the first dancer to be the main feature in a traditional dance and its modern version.Learning about Filipino culture as a child and teaching it to others is important because Filipinos are numerous and scattered across the state, she said.
In addition to various festivals and recitals, Christabelle performed at the Philippine Room in the University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning when it was dedicated this summer.Her favorite memory is the first time she danced on top of the poles in the Pangalay, a courtship dance that demonstrates the grace and skill of a couple balancing perilously on top of bamboos held on the shoulders of men. The long cloth symbolizes the waves as dancers simulate a ride aboard a boat called a “vinta” gliding across the seas.Christabelle plans to study pre-medicine or biology in college and join a cultural club or dance group and wants to return as a volunteer for the Pittsburgh group.
“I felt really sad,” she said about her last performance. “The minute I got in the car on the way to the show I started crying a little bit in the back.”Christabelle was born in the Philippines and came to the United States to live with her parents when she was 4. Before that time, she stayed with her grandmother in the Philippines.“When I moved here, I didn't really speak English well, so having my parents join me in the Filipino community really helped me,” she said. “Most of my friends come from that group. Learning from dancing also helped me connect to my grandma because she did dancing also with her senior citizens in the Philippines.”Her grandmother also helped people who were destitute and disabled and had a store that made ice candy for college students, Christabelle said.
“She was quite a woman,” she said. “When she died, during her wake I met all these people that she knew and that she helped.”People tend to believe the Philippines is a large beach and do not know its exact location, she said.The move was difficult at first, Christabelle said.However, as she traveled back to the Philippines and to Indonesia, London, Barcelona, Malaysia, Thailand and Norway to visit family and vacation, she was able to see other dance troupes perform and was intrigued by the stories they told“Moving away from the Philippines, I didn't know where I was coming from,” she said. “Me joining the Philippine group helped me feel closer to home.”
Filipino Americans are the second largest Asian American group in the nation and the third largest ethnic group in California, after Latinas/os and African Americans.The celebration commemorates the first recorded presence of Filipinos in the continental United States, which occurred on Oct. 18, 1587, when “Luzones Indios” came ashore from the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de Esperanza and landed at what is now Morro Bay, Calif.In 2009, the U.S. Congress recognized October as Filipino American History Month in the United States.SOURCE: Filipino American National Historical Society
