Philippines

This Pacific archipelago is an enchanting country but its complicated destiny has made it a coveted place because of its geographical position, its resources and the quality of the populations who live there. The Spanish conquerors left intact memories for bourgeois minorities, who learned the virtues of reserve from Catholic missionaries. The Japanese have unleashed their soldiers in this country. Then the Americans ignited dollar fever there. Through these adventures, this country resembles its own volcanoes in perpetual boiling. Economic crises leave more waste in populations than fortunes in their pockets. In short, it is not easy to be Filipino.

 

The group you will meet depends on the University of Tibanga. It is made up of teachers and students who have lost none of their love for their land, nor for the traditions that ballet wanted to keep faithfully intact like relics, because the Philippines has fourteen regions divided into seventy-two provinces. An immense mosaic of popular arts and traditions.

 

It is also one of the oldest lands in the world, having been inhabited by man since twenty-two centuries before Jesus Christ. Waves of population followed one another: Chinese, Japanese, and even Caucasian. The Spanish conquerors brought their influence there. The navigator Magellan died there. But the Spanish language and the Catholic religion had to give way to the strong return of Islam through its merchants and sailors. On a cultural level, this archipelago is spongy like the forest on its coasts and flexibly absorbs these successive changes. It is no longer enough to speak Spanish or Chinese for people to understand you. To this must be added Tagalog which is the official language and some seventy additional dialects to penetrate this complex culture.

 

The troupe is the fruit and the summary of these mixtures. She carries in her songs, her music and her dances, in the extraordinary variety of costumes, the mixed beauty of her daughters as the very illustration of this confluence. It is not uncommon for dancers to shelter behind Andalusian mantillas. Elsewhere, men dance to the tunes of jotas. But we also return to almost seamless Muslim ceremonies, or even to aboriginal tribes lost in the jungle. There is nothing shocking, quite the contrary, in these variations of style. And when the guitars lead the dance, the shock of the beating bamboo responds. The costumes are dazzling in silk and color. The men wear the white shirt enhanced with embroidery and sometimes the court clothing of Arab lords.

 

The spectacle has the beauty of a pink coral beach on the edge of the Pacific. It has been said that the Philippines is the charm of the Pacific. We are sure that you will enjoy it as a rare moment of pleasure for lovers of exoticism and beauty.