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Chapter 6:

Tradition in Motion: The Moro-Moro in New Performance Spaces

In previous chapters we discussed some salient features of traditional moro-

moro performances: The utility and pleasurability of their repetitiveness; the

devotional motivation and the suitability of lengthy dancing as an offering to a patron

saint; the complex interaction and integration of component parts such as dialogue,

movement, and music—all held together by the diktador. We highlighted the

improvisational quality of performances, characterized by deviations from the script

and flexibility with the ordering and length of scenes as the diktador "plays it by ear".

We saw how the text and the symmetrical unfolding of events in Christian and Moro

kingdoms follow a choreographic logic, while the dialogue and dance can be said to

follow a distributive logic. These are all features of Moro-Moro suited to the context

of the village fiesta.

What would happen to the form and content of the moro-moro if it is extracted

from its fiesta context and reformatted for new audiences? As the scholar Resil

Mojares asked in his keynote speech delivered at the International Komedya

Conference in 2008, “What changes will occur in the nature and function of the form

as we infuse into it new content, styles, technologies, or take it out of the communities

that created it into new performance spaces and before new audiences?”

In this chapter we discuss the transformations and processes involved in the

recontextualization of the moro-moro from the village setting into new performance

spaces. We identify some significant departures from the meaning and practice of the

moro-moro in the traditional context of a village fiesta. Transporting the moro-moro

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to new performances spaces, as we shall see, requires that its content and form be

suitably updated to cater to the needs and tastes of new audiences.

The Popularization of the Komedya of San Dionisio

In the 1960's and 1970's, a new breed of Moro-Moro enthusiasts emerged in

San Dionisio. This group was composed of educated professionals who wanted to

modernize their Komedya and gain for it a certain degree of respectability. The Moro-

Moro was viewed as "low-brow" or bakya, closely associated with the tastes of

provincial folk. San Dionisio's educated elite and civic-minded local leaders

addressed the situation by embarking on two sorts of projects: one was to safeguard

the folk Moro-Moro's survival in its village context, to make sure that traditional

artistic skills are not lost; the other was to stage the Moro-Moro's comeback, to

popularize it, reclaim its lost viability, and re-introduce modernized versions of it to a

wider audience beyond the village. While there was an appreciation of its time-

honored conventions, there was also an impulse to "improve" it, to rid it of its

perceived shortcomings.

Illustration 19. Dongalo Elementary School's Prinsipe Rodante. 2008

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Proponents for change in San Dionisio devised a workable two-pronged

strategy. For the fiesta performances, they respected tradition and kept intact as much

of the conventions as possible. For performances outside the village, including those

staged outside the context of the panata, they experimented with innovations more

freely. The result was the elevation of San Dionisio's status to that of the pre-eminent

“Komedya village” in the country. It became a place where authentic Moro-Moro

could still be enjoyed in its original context, while also being a place where more

innovative plays were generated. The prominence thus enjoyed by San Dionisio until

today is the result of nearly five decades of conscious efforts to revitalize and

popularize their Komedya.

It was the San Dionisio Varsitarians, a socio-civic organization in San

Dionisio, that initiated the project of producing a new, "improved" and "modern”

Moro-Moro in 1962. Former barrio captain Dr. Angel Mendoza then headed the

organization. He persuaded his good friend, Atty. Max Allanigue, a writer of The

Philippine Herald, to write a script. Allanigue was familiar with the komedya, for he

had watched it a lot, but this was his first time to write a script. He started reading up

on old scripts and painstakingly composed verses for his play, even counting the

syllables on his fingers to keep the meter intact. After one month, he completed

Prinsipe Rodante. Allanigue introduced a few innovations. To suit the ecumenical

spirit of the times, the conventional theme of Christian superiority over Muslims was

re-worked into a theme of brotherhood. The role of villain was assigned to a Christian

prince who usurped power (a radical shift from the standard practice of assigning the

role of villain to a Moro character).

We must be mindful of the fact that although this was an initiative from within

San Dionisio, the modernization of the komedya came from the educated and

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professional members of the community—people who loved the komedya for sure but

were not necessarily steeped in tradition, in the way some of the elders were.

Allanigue was a neophyte at komedya script building.

Dr. Angel Mendoza, who initiated this project, brought his daughter Felicidad

on board to direct the play. A dentist by profession, Dr. Felicidad Mendoza was a

theater enthusiast and a drama coach at St. Paul College in Parañaque, an exclusive

Catholic school in the area. She attempted to bring the Komedya to the modern age by

changing the mode of delivery of dialogue. The performance was significantly

shorter, had less repetition, and made use of a more modern mode of delivery: no

more of the stilted, nasal, monotone fit for an outdoor stage; in its place was a

declamation style closer to natural speech and more suited to an indoor stage with

microphones. In her published "memoirs of a comedia enthusiast", Mendoza relates

how the landmark Rodante had "grace in diction and easy comprehensibility. It is

metrical without being stilted, easy to grasp without being cheap, delivered with

sensitivity to poetic content and falls under the naturalistic stance".1

Reaction to the modernized moro-moro was mixed. There were those who

found the "improved" moro-moro a refreshing change from the repetitive and tedious

performances of old. But for many of the village elders, the play did not pass for a

"real" moro-moro. Even if the play "Prinsipe Rodante" was a success in many

respects, the performances in San Dionisio's succeeding fiestas still continued to be

presented as conventionally as before.

Mendoza persisted in her efforts to popularize the moro-moro, and her

modernized versions of the play found warm reception outside the village. Through

her drama club called Kudyapi, she embarked upon spreading modernized Moro-

1 Mendoza., p. 195

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Moro to different schools and staging performances at the most important theater

venues of the period. It was one of the projects she was involved in that drew the ire

of Muslim Senator Mamintal Tamano, who headed the Commission on National

Integration. One of Mendoza's plays was to be staged as part of the Bureau of Travel

and Tourism's celebrations, and, as previously mentioned in Chapter 1, Tamano found

the choice of a moro-moro performance inappropriate because of the genre's

traditional denigration of Muslims. In addition to its offensiveness to Muslims,

criticisms were also mounted against the “fantastic” moro-moro's alleged lack of

relevance to the needs of contemporary society. Its "antiquated" staging techniques

also came into question.2

Dr. Mendoza, then deeply involved in popularizing the moro-moro, was well

aware of these criticisms, which she endeavored to address. In 1970, she wrote a new

Moro-Moro play to be presented at the World Theater Festival sponsored by the

Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA). In writing the new play entitled

"Prinsesa Perlita", Mendoza introduced a few "remedies": The plot was re-channeled

from the usual Moro-Christian conflict towards a Filipino nationalism. In the entire

script not even once were the words “Moro” or “Muslim” mentioned. The playing

time was shortened, made equal to a modern three-act play. The delivery of dialogue

was changed from the stilted, monotonous sing-song rhythm in a high pitched voice

designed for an outdoor performance, to a more "natural" declamatory tone in a

modulated voice suitable for a modern indoor theater with microphones. The setting

of the play was localized—no longer some far away European medieval kingdoms,

but a fictitious island in Southeast Asia. The costumes were likewise redesigned to

2 See the commentary mentioned previously on page 11 of Chapter 1.

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impart a Southeast Asian—mainly Malay—flavor instead of the usual European and

Middle Eastern styles.

Mendoza claims that the play she wrote is still rightfully a moro-moro. In the

published production notes of the play, she mentions that "in this improved version,

the salient features have remained virtually unchanged. It has to be that way;

otherwise we cannot rightfully claim that our version is a comedia". Mendoza made

sure that traditional gestures and choreography were still performed and that standard

elements like divine intervention of the Blessed Virgin Mary, supernatural adversaries

and magical weapons all made an appearance. Furthermore, careful attention was paid

to producing spectacular stage effects. According to Tiongson, however, the old

timers in the village had a hard time accepting Mendoza’s new moro-moro that no

longer featured the European personages, the fight scenes, and the marches.3

Even outsiders who were not from San Dionisio found issue with Mendoza's

Perlita. The literary critic Bienvenido Lumbera, for instance, had this to say:

Transported to the bourgeois setting of the Cultural Center stage, Prinsesa Perlita was not content to be the folk drama that it was: it aspired to become grandiose bourgeois theater. It discarded its traditional style and affected the bogus sophistication of a spectacular costume drama. The result was dreary -- Prinsesa Perlita was no longer recognizeable as a comedia and it was not even satisfying as a bourgeois spectacular. The stately entrances and exits had been reduced to a minimum and the effectiveness of what remained was blunted by the employment of taped musical accompaniment rather than a real live band. In the interest of realistic pacing the dance-like battle scenes were shortened, thus blurring the element of ritual on which the aesthetics of the comedia rests.4

In many ways, Mendoza’s moro-moro version did not look or feel like the

surviving performances in the barrios. She was, however, making an effort to revive

the experience of watching a true spectacle, like the commercial moro-moro she saw

as a child, performed by a professional traveling troupe in the cinema house her father

3 Nicanor Tiongson. Ang Kasaysayan ng Komedya sa Parañaque (1850-1976). p. 22 4 Bienvenido Lumbera. 1997. Revaluation 1997: Essays on Philippine Literature, Cinema and Popular Culture. Manila: University of Santo Tomas Publishing House. p.177.

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owned in the pre-war years. Unlike the simpler folk moro-moro that survived in the

villages, the commercial moro-moro she saw in her youth always incorporated the

newest and latest trends in fashion, music, stage effects and mechanized props. This

kind of spectacular moro-moro had died, and Mendoza's version was indeed, in its

own peculiar fashion, a revival of a lost art.

In the 1970's, the cultural scene in the Philippines was enjoying what has been

commonly described as a "golden age of the arts" because of the attention it enjoyed

from then-First Lady Imelda Marcos, whose patronage and love for the arts was

translated into mammoth cultural projects and abundant sources of funding. The

Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), then a world-class complex with an

impressive state-of-the-art theater stage, became a hub of artistic activity. In 1971,

two types of modernized moro-moro were staged at the CCP. One was Mendoza's

Prinsesa Perlita, which was staged at the CCP's Main Theater. The other was an old

moro-moro play entitled Principe Baldovino, which was contemporized by theater

stalwart (and National Artist for Literature and Theater) Rolando Tinio and staged as

the inaugural performance for the CCP's newly constructed Little Theater.

Tinio's objective was to dig into what he called "the repertory of the past".

Theater historian Doreen Fernandez describes this period in contemporary theater as

being characterized by a "turning back to vernacular theater" in a bid to "rediscover

tradition that had been truncated by education in English". Tinio was reviving old

sarswelas and moro-moro plays, researching scripts from the 19th to early 20th

centuries. His 1971 Prinsipe Baldovino production was taken from an extant moro-

moro script from the province of Palawan. A few years later, Tinio tapped into

another moro-moro script, entitled "Orosman at Zafira", written by the great Tagalog

poet Francisco Balagtas. In staging it, he incorporated a few conventional marches

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and music borrowed from traditional Moro-Moro performances.5 Tinio's productions

represent a different kind of Moro-Moro "revival"—a contemporary treatment of old

scripts centered on capturing the essence of a play as can be gleaned from the

performance text.

Rolando Tinio was a stranger to the moro-moro performances enjoyed in the

village setting, his only experience with that theater being limited to watching the two

recent "modernized" versions of the moro-moro that were directed by Mendoza. In an

interview, Tinio explains:

My experience in the production of the Moro-Moro is vague. I saw "Prinsipe Rodante" and "Prinsesa Perlita" but that is just about all I have seen. The proper attitude is to examine the traditional conventions that can be retained, to do so in spirit, and then give it modern externals which is what, I hope, I did with "Prinsipe Baldovino". I gave it Shakespearean externals, which is what is done to Shakespeare in England. They take the essence, they respect the very psychology, the heart, the soul of the play and whatever conventions there are, are retained. The same should be done with the Moro-Moro…I am completely against the writing of new Moro-Moro. Anymore than an English writer of the present period writes Shakespeare. No one does that. But you can modernize the externals, give modern pacing, give it juxtapositions that are modern which is what the English do to Shakespeare. They do not do Shakespeeare as it was done in the 16th century, although they have all the necessary information. That is sheer antiquarianism.6

In his review of Tinio's "Prinsipe Baldovino", Alejandro Roces, writing for the

Manila Times, commented that the play was not an "authentic moro-moro" even as he

acknowledged that it captured the flavor of the traditional moro-moro, which

entertained "with its opulent costumes and imaginative sets". Roces, who was quite

familiar with traditional moro-moro performances, lamented the loss of a number of

its conventions in the Baldovino production, observing how

The sword fights, very essential characteristic of the Moro-Moro, have been replaced by "choreography" and so the "arnis" movements.. and the "curacha" steps that are delightfully expressive of the Moro-Moro, have been replaced by simplified if more integrated patterns. The characteristic

5 Fernandez., p. 117 6 Mendoza., p. 95

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personal flourish each character executes upon entrance has also been removed…7

We can see that Roces' appraisal of Tinio's play is based on the latter’s choreographic

treatment of the text; he attacks the "lack of authenticity" because the familiar moves

were nowhere to be found. It was not Tinio's intention, however, to reproduce the

moro-moro in the way of the folk. Tinio was a Western-trained literary critic and

university professor, whose masterful handling of performance texts from the past

resulted in intelligent and cogent plays for the present. Tinio's revivals of old texts

seemed to offer an alternative to, if not an antidote for, the kind of treatment they

were getting from village performers, for he was critical of the paralyzed state of

theater in the barrios, of what he called its "antiquarianism". We must therefore

distinguish between plays that make use of komedya literary material, and those that

simply attempt to popularize the moro-moro. Tinio and Mendoza represent two

separate (and very contradictory) projects. Not all attempts to stage a komedya are

aimed at popularizing the moro-moro. As initially pointed out in Chapter 2, there are

nuances between the two terms: while all moro-moro are komedya, not all komedya

are moro-moro. Let me explain further below.

The EDSA Revolution of 1986 and the ouster of the Marcos dictatorship

through “People Power” ushered in a new era for the arts. The new leadership at the

Cultural Center of the Philippines sought to steer the Center away from an elitist path.

Nicanor Tiongson became the CCP’s Artistic Director from 1986 to 1994, and within

that period a carefully planned effort to revitalize the Moro-Moro was undertaken.

San Dionisio Parañaque's local actors, both the young and the old, were invited to

participate in a series of workshops on play writing and production. The CCP's

objectives were: to write new plays using aesthetics that conform with the

7 Alfredo Roces, quoted in Mendoza, p. 96

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community's own standards; to replace the threadbare and culturally offensive theme

of conversion of Muslims to Christianity with themes dealing with relevant issues; to

conform to a more modern approach of playwriting by producing tightly-knit plots;

and to preserve characteristic features such as its verse, choreography, and

conventional romantic, spectacular and epic elements.8

The result of the workshop was the play "Ang Bagong Prinsipe Rodante" (The

New Prinsipe Rodante), which was performed both at the CCP stage as well as at San

Dionisio village stage, in 1992. A significant feature of this CCP project was the

participation of San Dionisio's moro-moro veterans, such as Atty. Max Allanigue,

who wrote the landmark "Prinsipe Rodante" of 1962, and Hermie Hernandez, the

actor who played the lead role of Rodante. The CCP workshop offered an opportunity

for intergenerational dialogue between the old and the young, and also paved the way

for dialogue between the academic and professional theater community and

representatives of the village practitioners and audience. The new play reflected a

democratic spirit, with attention given to consultation, dialogue, and arriving at a

group consensus on what the moro-moro should become in contemporary times. The

content of the new plays produced during this period, as well as the inclusive and

consultative process by which they were written, reflect the political temper of post-

EDSA Philippines.

In another project, CCP artists collaborated with San Dionisio performers to

produce a play, not in San Dionisio but in the neighboring village of Don Galo, where

the moro-moro, once a living tradition, had been abandoned by locals in the previous

decade. In 1992, an adaptation of the Balagtas classic "Florante at Laura" was staged

by the school children of Dongalo Elementary School. CCP artists like the director-

8 in Fernandez, p. 72

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actor Jonas Sebastian wrote the stage adaptation, while ballet dancer-choreographer

Nonoy Froilan, in collaboration with San Dionisio local actor Rodante Hernandez

(son of local moro-moro legend Hermie Hernandez), created the dance sequences that

combined conventional and new choreography.

For Tiongson, productions like the new "Prinsipe Rodante" and Dongalo's

"Florante at Laura" are examples of how the moro-moro can move forward. “The key

to successful re-invention of the form,” he writes, “seems to lie in the creative collaboration

between traditional and modern artists.”

Left to themselves, each of these artists are handicapped: the traditional, by the shackles of custom and convention; and the modern, by their lack of roots in the country's tradition. Together, however, they stimulate each other's creativity and bring their best to the endeavor, giving birth to a komedya whose content and form may qualify it to become a pillar of the Filipino national theater.9

From 2006 to 2008, while gathering data for this study, I witnessed various

productions that were continuations of the popularization projects undertaken from

the 1960's to the 1990's. A group from San Dionisio created an organization in 2006

called Komedya Pilipinas Foundation (KPF) to continue Mendoza's efforts to

popularize the Moro-Moro and staged a revival of Mendoza's Prinsesa Perlita.

Another group from San Dionisio called the KSD (Komedya San Dionisio, mentioned

in the previous chapter) re-staged the landmark, “modern” moro-moro, Prinsipe

Rodante, as its offering at the Komedya Festival in the University of the Philippines

in 2008. The same play was performed by schoolchildren from the nearby Dongalo

Elementary School.

At the same festival in the UP, a new rendition of the Francisco Balagtas

classic, Orosman at Zafira was presented, under the direction of Dexter Santos. Like

the efforts of Rolando Tinio in the 1970's, Santos offered his interpretation of the

9 Tiongson., Komedya. p.39.

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classic Komedya by Balagtas without intending to popularize the moro-moro or to

conform to its folk conventions. His Orosman at Zafira was based on a classic

Komedya text, but it was not of the Moro-Moro genre. Another interesting revival

was undertaken by Jerry Respeto at the Ateneo de Manila University in 2007—the re-

staging of Rene Villanueva's Sang Daang Panaginip, which was mentioned earlier as

a modern moro-moro that satirized the Marcos family.

The abovementioned productions by Dexter Santos and Jerry Respeto can be

considered as continuations of the revival projects of previous decades. However,

they were not meant to be translations of folk performances. Hence they differ

considerably from the revivals of Rodante and Perlita, which are performances that

trace their roots to the village of San Dionisio. The latter will be the focus of the rest

of this chapter since my aim is to show how village performance conventions are

revised and re-formatted when reconstructed in new contexts, brought to new venues,

and presented to new audiences.

Prinsipe Rodante Revisited: Versions from 1962, 1992, and 2008

As a drama coach at St. Paul College, Felicidad Mendoza was familiar with

the technical direction of modern drama, and she applied this knowledge to her

production of Rodante. At the same time, she was a very passionate researcher,

traveling all over the Philippines to watch folk moro-moro performances and

interviewing old performers in far flung areas. She was very conscious of the ways of

the folk and she tapped into both "modern" and "folk" sources of knowledge. Upon

reading the script of Prinsipe Rodante written by Atty. Allanigue, for instance, she

recognized that the ending written by the lawyer needed to be changed. The final

scene was a court trial over the evil deeds of Prince Alvaro, where the Muslim

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heroine, Princess Porciana, preaches the quality of mercy and pleads that Alvaro be

forgiven. Mendoza noticed how this scene seemed influenced by Shakespeare's Portia

(and perhaps the fact that a lawyer wrote the script may have a bearing on the choice

of a court scene as a means of resolving conflict). The barrio folk, she felt, would be

more receptive to the conventional means of resolving conflict in the moro-moro

world, that is, through miracles and divine intervention. Mendoza suggested an

alternative final scene: Princess Porciana tries to save the life of Alvaro as he is about

to be executed, and she is accidentally stabbed. As our Muslim heroine lies dead,

Alvaro becomes stricken with grief and remorse and begs the heavens for mercy. An

apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary takes place, and Porciana is miraculously

brought back to life.

Mendoza reports that the "apparition scene was so convincing that many

elders in the audience reverently made the sign of the cross, and a few were so carried

away that they shed tears and started murmuring prayers when the Blessed Virgin

was gradually seen atop the mountain".10 We see Mendoza's effective use of modern

theater technology in terms of set design and lights, to enhance a folk tradition. The

apparition scene was particularly effective because of the element of surprise. An

actress appeared high up on the stage and was slowly bathed in light, as though it was

a real apparition. This lighting technology was then something new to the villagers,

yet it was something familiar, because "miracle" scenes were common (though less

spectacularly rendered).

After the maiden performance in San Dionisio's village plaza, Mendoza

decided to take the play "on-tour" outside the village. She formed the Kudyapi theater

and Arts League, which made use of local talent from San Dionisio to train

10 Mendoza., p. 168

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"outsiders". She established a Comedia school at St. Paul College, where San

Dionisio performers taught school children how to perform conventional

choreography. Actors from television, movie, and modern theater were also tapped to

increase the “star power” of the plays. The popular movie actor Tommy Abuel was

trained in Mendoza's Comedia school in order to interpret the role of Rodante, and he

starred in the play for a successful run not only in Manila's theater venues but also in

the provinces.

Rodante is a big part of San Dionisio's history. That is why it was deemed

fitting that when the CCP embarked on a project to revitalize the komedya, the people

involved in staging Rodante in 1962 were invited to participate. A "New Prinsipe

Rodante" was created in 1992, which followed the basic contours of the 1962 version,

with just a few minor adjustments. I was able to watch videotapes of the 1992

performance, which are available for viewing at the CCP library. The play was

performed both at CCP's indoor theater, as well as at an outdoor theater in San

Dionisio. The new play still retains the typical features of the genre, while

accommodating a few new "nationalistic" insertions.

Synopsis of the New Prinsipe Rodante

The story takes place in the kingdom of Crotona where a tournament is being

held for the suitors of Princess Floresca. Aladin, a Muslim prince in disguise, wins

the tournament as well as Princess Floresca's affection. An envoy from the Sultan of

Segovia arrives, and demands from the King Orestes of Crotona that he surrender his

son Prince Alvaro, for an offense he has committed. The envoy notices and

recognizes Aladin, for he is the latter is a royal prince, son of the Sultan of Segovia,

no less.

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When Aladin's Muslim identity is discovered, Prince Alvaro demands that the

King should not allow the marriage to continue. But the King decides to honor

Aladin's victory. He sends his other son, Prince Rodante, to go with Aladin to the

Sultan of Segovia to ask that Prince Alvaro's offense be forgiven, since Floresca is

now about to be his daughter in law. Alvaro is angered by the turn of events; he

cannot accept that his sister will marry a non-believer.

While Prince Aladin and Prince Rodante are on their way to Segovia, Prince

Alvaro decides to usurp power from his father. He takes over the throne in Crotona

and imprisons his parents. In the forest, Aladin and Rodante encounter peasants who

tell them the news about Alvaro's betrayal. Aladin heads off to Segovia to gather his

troops, leaving Rodante behind in the forest. As Rodante rests in a cave, the Moro

princess, Porciana, disguised as a man, makes her appearance traveling through the

forest in search of her brother Aladin. When she and Rodante encounter each other,

they engage in a fight. In the heat of battle, Porciana's hat gets knocked off and her

cover is blown. Rodante becomes enamored with her and declares his love.

Meanwhile, Alvaro has ordered his men to capture his brother Rodante. One of the

soldiers finds Rodante in the forest, and offers him a poisoned drink. Rodante takes a

sip and weakens, and the soldiers take him back to Alvaro.

Back in Crotona, Alvaro is trying to woo the Muslim Princess Perlita, whom

he has held hostage, but she rejects him. He tries to force himself upon her, they

struggle, and he slaps her. Prince Rodante is brought in, and Alvaro orders his men to

execute his brother, but Porciana intervenes to save Rodante. The army from Segovia

led by the Sultan and Aladin arrives and fighting ensues. Peasants from the kingdom

of Crotona join forces with the Moros and together they defeat Alvaro and his men.

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So angered is King Orestes by Alvaro's betrayal that he almost kills him. But

his wife, Queen Yocasta, tries to save her son Alvaro from the wrath of her husband,

and she ends up being stabbed. Alvaro is so moved by his mother's love that he

delivers a mournful speech of remorse, asking for forgiveness for his sins, and

begging the heavens for his mother's life in exchange for his. Then, by some miracle,

the Blessed Virgin appears on the mountaintop and the stricken queen is brought back

to life.

People Power and the New Rodante

The story line of the 1992 version related above differs from the 1962 version

in a number of ways. In the old version it is the Moro Princess Porciana who is

accidentally stabbed by her father, the Sultan, when he tries to kill Prince Alvaro, our

Christian villain. In the new version, the dramatic final scene involves all Christian

characters: it is Queen Yocasta who is accidentally stabbed by King Orestes when he

tries to kill Alvaro. This kind of substitution of characters is pretty common in moro-

moro script building. Plays with the same titles would often have varying details from

village to village, but the alterations are slight enough for the basic structure to remain

the same.

Some insertions in the 1992 version are not at all common in the moro-moro.

The presence and pivotal role of peasants is one; the introduction of a "modern"

parade of soldiers is another. From the very beginning the performance opens with a

lone spotlight descending on a group of women and children dressed in tatters,

positioned on center-stage, delivering a brief woeful choral recitation about injustice.

The spotlights dim, movie-like music plays in the background, and a narration begins

from a voice over. Then soldiers enter the scene, military-like, as they do in citizen's

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army training courses in schools, using even the familiar commands: the "assigned

commandant" shouts in typical military fashion, rap sa kanan, rap! (face to the right,

face!). The soldiers are carrying their spears as if they were guns, the end of the stick

cupped in the palm of one hand, the shaft resting on one shoulder, and the spear's

edges pointing skyward. There is no music accompanying the military march. Then,

after this unusual opening scene, the conventional music from San Dionisio's fiestas

begins to play and the entrance of royalty in the traditional dignified march

commences.

The addition of peasants in the story is also unique because the moro-moro

always deals with the lives of nobility. Moreover, role played by these peasants in the

new version is pivotal. When Rodante, together with the help of the Moros, attempts

to regain control of Crotona, it is with the help of the displaced peasants that they are

able to overthrow the army defending the usurper, Prince Alvaro. This sends the

message that power lies in the people, and that if Christians and Moros unite, an

unjust leader can be overthrown. The battle for Crotona becomes the story of the

Philippines which had just overthrown the Marcos dictatorship. The Filipino reference

is likewise seen in the costumes of the peasants, who don the iconic attire of the

Katipuneros who revolted against the Spanish. It is one of these peasants dressed

Andres Bonifacio-style, that defeats Prince Alvaro in battle. This is a departure from

the standard formula where the hero of the play, a prince, usually wins the crucial

battle. The play ends with the fighters waving their fists in the air and shouting

"mabuhay ang bayan!" (long live our country!).

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Prinsipe Rodante in 2008

Let us now fast forward to 2008, some sixteen years since the CCP workshop.

For the Komedya Festival at the University of the Philippines, both San Dionisio and

Dongalo presented their own versions of Prinsipe Rodante—the former performed by

veterans and the latter by schoolchildren from Dongalo elementary

school. (See Illustrations 18 and 19)

Both groups chose to re-stage the 1962 version, and not the 1992 Prinsipe

Rodante. One reason could be because the older version is considered a true village

classic. Another reason could be that the insertions in the 1992 version of peasants,

and of soldiers marching military-style in a realistic rather than stylized fashion,

choreographically speaking did not suit the komedya design. While the genre is

malleable and can accommodate all sorts of insertions, its basic contour of two

antagonistic factions tends to be largely respected. The genre has an inexhaustible,

incorporative capacity and can absorb all sorts of new features, but insertions in the

komedya are not done in a haphazard fashion; rather, they follow a specific pattern.

The insertions must be in conformity with the choreographic logic of the moro-moro

and must be positioned in "allowable" places.

Illustration 20. San Dionisio's veteran actors perform Prinsipe Rodante, 2008. (left). Illustration 21. A student from Dongalo Elementary School performing their version of Prinsipe Rodante (right). Illustration 21. A child performer from Don Galo Elementary school. 2008. (right)

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New dances can be inserted before a tournament, for instance. In the previous

chapter, we saw how the singkil dance was inserted in the Prinsipe Reynaldo

performance. In the Rodante production of Dongalo, schoolchildren inserted a Belly

Dance number. By inserting the singkil or the Belly Dance, the producers attempt to

portray what they perceive to be an "authentic Muslim" dance. While this can be read

as a practice in exoticizing and orientalizing Muslims, from the point of view of the

producers of the play the insertion of these dances (which they are quite proud of)

make for a more "authentic" portrayal of Muslims because "actual" dances from

Muslim cultures are being used.

Other dance moves can also be inserted into the fight scenes. Felicidad

Mendoza introduced the innovation of "slow motion" fighting. While performing

conventional laban or fight choreography, actors are given free rein to improvise in

slow motion, while the music continues following the same upbeat tempo. In the

Rodante version, one of the children performed a move inspired by a popular scene in

the movie "The Matrix", where the lead actor Keanu Reeves is shown to bend

backwards in slow motion to avoid bullets. When the young actor performs this move

to dodge the thrust of his opponent's sword, the audience responds quite audibly,

recognizing the reference to the famous movie scene.

Another choreographic innovation inspired by the movies that was well

received by the audience had to do with the love scenes. When princess Floresca and

Prince Aladin see each other again after being separated, they reunite in a manner

inspired by the typical 1980's movie love scenes where the famous pop star Sharon

Cuneta runs and leaps into the arms of her leading man Gabby Concepcion, and he

twirls her in the air. In the Rodante play, the schoolgirl must have leapt with too much

energy for the young man who was supposed to lift her into the air unfortunately fell

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to the ground under her weight. This, of course, elicited laughter from the audience.

The men behind me, who were moro-moro veterans from San Dionisio, were saying

"mahina pa tuhod" (he still has weak knees). In a later scene, in typical moro-moro

fashion of symmetrical unfolding of the story, it was the turn of another pair of lovers,

Prinsipe Rodante and his Moro counterpart, Princess Porciana, to be reunited after a

long time apart. When it was their turn to perform the movie-inspired move, they did

it successfully and were rewarded by the crowd with thunderous applause. Some men

behind me were saying things like "ganyan!" (that's the way to do it!). And long after

the scene had ended, the murmurs from the audience still hadn't died down.

The repetition of the same sequence in two kingdoms is typical of the moro-

moro. This heightens the enjoyment of audiences, who anticipate and compare how

the move will be performed by the different set of actors. The movie-inspired

choreography may not be conventional moro-moro movement, but its placement in

the play and its execution as a repeated move performed in both kingdoms are in

keeping with the choreographic logic of the moro-moro design.

Both the San Dionisio and the Dongalo productions, of course, performed the

iconic San Dionisio-style pasa doble, paseo, escaramosa, kuratsa, and laban, or the

conventional choreography described in the previous chapter. Over the last four

decades, San Dionisio's performance style has enjoyed a great deal of transportability.

The long history of collaboration between San Dionisio locals and outsiders has

created a system of transferring knowledge to beginners. This is due in large part to

the popularization efforts started in the 1960's, which are carried on by San Dionisio

locals today.

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Prinsesa Perlita Revisited: From 1970 to 2006

It was after the successful staging of the "improved comedia" entitled Prinsipe

Rodante in 1962 that the Kudyapi Community Theater was formed with Mendoza as

its founding director and Hermie Hernandez its first president. Kudyapi soon received

many invitations to present Prinsipe Rodante. One such invitation was issued by the

Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA), whose Executive Director,

Cecile Guidote, had been a student of Mendoza at St. Paul College. An invitation to

perform at PETA’s World Theater Festival in 1970 is the backdrop for the

construction of Mendoza’s play, Prinsesa Perlita.

PETA is considered the most active of the "theaters of liberation" in Asia.

Guidote established it in 1967 with the aim of focusing on socially committed

national theater. In her MA Thesis entitled "Prospectus for the National Theater of the

Philippines", Guidote concisely restates PETA's aims: "the national theater of the

Philippines should embrace the capital, the cities, the towns, and barrios of the island.

It should be primarily devoted to the quest for a dramaturgy truly expressive of the

Filipino's national culture."11

When Mendoza was invited to participate in PETA's project, she was aware

that the moro-moro was meant to represent native theater. Finding none of the

existing stories suitable for the occasion, she felt the need to come up with a new

moro-moro that would better serve the nationalist project. In her search for a play to

stage, Mendoza shares in her memoirs how divine intervention played a big role.

Mendoza was having difficulty in starting to write so she went to church to

contemplate. Out in the churchyard, a little boy was peddling local romances called 11 quoted in Catherine Diamond. 'Quest for the Elusice Self: The Role of Contemporary Philippine Theatre in the Formation of Cultural Identity'. The Drama Review, Vol. 40, no.1 (Spring, 1996). p. 149.

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awit and corrido printed on cheap ricepaper booklets. Moved by the boy's efforts at

earning a decent living, Mendoza bought one booklet, letting the boy pick which story

to sell her.

Just as Mendoza was about to leave the church it began to rain, so she returned

inside and decided to read the corridor she had just bought. She was excited to see

that the boy had handed to her the work entitled Sa Dakong Silangan (In the East),

written by one of the most celebrated Tagalog poets of the early 20th century, Jose

Corazon De Jesus. Inspired by this work, Mendoza wrote Prinsesa Perlita.

With a clear story line already forming in her head, Mendoza was also

strategizing on how to make this production spectacular and magical. In her memoirs

she shares her recollections of seeing her first comedia in her youth. In the pre-war

years, her father owned a cinema house called Cine Ligaya (the word "Ligaya" was

the Tagalog equivalent of her first name Felicidad). As was customary in the

American period, cinema houses were often rented by stage performers, and it was

while playing backstage, one day, that she stumbled upon a Moro-Moro troupe that

was preparing for a performance that night. The colorful costumes, mechanical props

and other devices simply enthralled her, and when one of the performers, a clown,

saw her peeking through the curtains, he playfully blew fire at her, creating a moment

of pure magic for the little child.

Mendoza wanted to achieve a number of things with her play—to capture the

spirit of magic and wonder which the Moro-Moro of old evoked, to promote

patriotism, to participate in Mrs. Marcos's vision for using the arts in nation-building

(a point we will discuss later), and to send a message of faith without being offensive

to Muslims. To accommodate Mendoza's many aims, Perlita ended up having many

twists and turns to its plot, and it also had a multitude of spectacular effects: an

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apparition by the Virgin Mary, three dragons, fire dances (perhaps inspired by the

Moro-Moro clown who blew fire at her when she was a little girl), magic swords, and

a giant shell that housed our princess.

Synopsis of Prinsesa Perlita by Mendoza

There was once a Princess named Perlita, in the Kingdom of Silangan. One

day, while seated on the Nakar throne (a giant shell) Prince Magiting hears her voice,

and he is enamored by her beauty. His brothers Prince Bayani, and Prince Dakila

arrive moments later, and they too, see Perlita and are enthralled by her.

Perlita's lady-in-waiting calls out her name, summoning the princess to the

palace, where the king is holding a tournament for the princess's suitors. The three

men, hearing of the tournament, rush to the palace to join the contest for her hand in

marriage. King Silangan and Queen Malaya, signal the tournament to begin. One by

one, the suitors introduce themselves: Limahong from the Chinese nation; Prince

Jakiri from Japan; Prince Le Prieto from France; Generals Dapier, Cornish and Drake

from England; Raha Ali Baba from Arabia; Count Montenegro from the Black Castle;

and the Princes Dakila, Magiting, and Bayani from Silangan Kingdom.

Magiting moves forward and begins to declare his love, but he is interrupted

by Montenegro and they engage in a fight. Magiting breaks Montenegro's spear into

pieces and overpowers him, and then all the foreign suitors pounce on Magiting. But

his brothers come to his defense, and soon the tournament became a battle between

the brothers and the foreigners. The three brother successfully drive the other suitors

away. Perlita chooses among them and picks Magiting. The two other brothers

gracefully accept her decision and take their leave.

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Visitors from Spain—a Cardinal and Prince Leon—arrive in Silangan. They

bear a gift, a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and they introduced Christianity to

the King and Queen. The King accepts Christianity and orders everyone present to

receive baptism, and everyone celebrates with dancing. When the feasting ends and

the guests leave, Queen Malaya is alone with the Statue of the Virgin Mary, who

miraculously speaks to her, warning her of war, and instructing her to hide Perlita in

the Nakar shell in order to save her life.

Montenegro from the Black Kingdom, who was just defeated in the

tournament, returns to the Black Palace in anger. He wishes to exact revenge on the

Kingdom of Silangan. With the help of his father, King Itim, the two hatch a plan.

Hearing that Silangan had just been converted to Christianity they kidnap the Spanish

Cardinal. Using a powerful magic black sword, Montenegro returns to Silangan

kingdom disguised as the Spanish Cardinal, for he can change his appearance with the

sword's magic. He discovers that Perlita is hidden inside the giant Nakar shell. The

brothers Bayani, Dakila, and Magiting have all come to help defend Silangan

kingdom. Bayani guards the Nakar shell; Dakila guards the Queen as she returns to

the palace; and Magiting goes off to the mountains to recruit and train an army called

"Avanse de Gulok".

Montenegro gathers his army, and uses the Black Sword to change his

appearance to look like Prince Leon from Spain. He heads toward the Nakar shell and

manages to convince Bayani that he is Prince Leon. He claims that he met Magiting

in the mountains and was sent to the Nakar shell to guard Perlita. He tells Bayani that

he is being summoned by his brother to the mountains. As Bayani leaves, Montenegro

speaks with Perlita and she sees through his disguise. Montenegro takes Perlita in his

arms, and she starts screaming, and Bayani runs back to help her. Montenegro uses

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his enchanted Black Sword to create three dragons, which Bayani slays one by one.

Montenegro's army then attacks Bayani, but he also overcomes all of them. Bayani

instructs Perlita to escape, and as Montenegro tries to catch her he is blocked by

Bayani. In the process, Montenegro stabs Bayani.

Montenegro changes appearance again—this time disguising himself as the

Cardinal—and goes to the palace of Silangan where he attempts, in the name of the

Spanish king, to collect taxes from King Silangan and Queen Malaya, and in addition

demands Perlita's hand in marriage. He threatens to throw them in prison if they do

not comply. Dakila rushes to the defense of Silangan, fights off Montenegro and his

men, but is wounded in the fight and King Silangan helps him escape. Montenegro

then tries to kill King Silangan, but Queen Malaya begs for his life.

Perlita, meanwhile, has been traveling in disguise as a man, headed towards

the mountains in search of Magiting. On the road, she encounters Prince Agila from

America. The two engage in a fight and Perlita's disguise is blown when she loses her

wig and her feminine beauty is revealed to the prince. He discovers that she is Perlita,

the famed princess he has been looking for, and immediately tries to woo her. But

Perlita steadfastly declares that her heart already belongs to Magiting, and just as she

is saying this, Magiting arrives on the scene and the two lovers are reunited. The

wounded Dakila arrives to inform them of Montenegro's takeover of the palace of

Silangan. Prince Agila then offers his armada to help Silangan and is thanked by

Perlita.

King Silangan and Queen Malaya are in chains, and the Queen is praying to

the Virgin Mary for help. Magiting's army arrives. Perlita screams angrily at the

Cardinal for betraying them after they had been hospitable and had agreed to be

baptized, but it is soon revealed that the “Cardinal” is really Montenegro in disguise,

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and he and Magiting engage in battle. When Perlita sees Magiting weakening, she

holds up her white sword and prays to Jesus Christ to bless her sword and strengthen

it. The sword glimmers in response.

Just as Magiting is wounded by Montenegro, Dakila and Prince Agila arrive in

the latter’s armada and rush to rescue him, but Perlita tells them to hold back while

she hands Magiting her glimmering white sword, which is pitted against

Montenegro's black sword. And at last Montenegro is finally defeated and order is

restored to the kingdom.

Perlita and Philippine History

In Perlita, Mendoza translocates the moro-moro from its conventional setting

in some fictitious medieval kingdom to a kingdom somewhere in Southeast Asia. She

retains the formula of nobility as the main characters, but this time, instead of being

dressed in the finery of European royalty, the nobles are dressed in Malay attire.

Mendoza also re-positions the baptism scene, portraying it at the start of the

story rather than as a conclusion. By doing this, she is able to latch on to two

narratives of nationalism in the Philippines: one based on Christian conversion, and

the other based on Muslim resistance. No longer is the play about Christians and

Moros at war, but Moros turned Christians who are at war with foreign invaders.

We must remember that this play was written just a few years after

Commissioner Tamano complained that the moro-moro was counter to the aims of

national integration. We see in Perlita an attempt by Mendoza to promote a narrative

of Philippine history premised on blood-ties among pre-Hispanic Filipinos. It is a

creative maneuver to collapse the identities of former adversarial components into a

composite identity of the new protagonists—the Moros turned Christians. Mendoza

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also sanitizes the language of the play, making sbrure that not once would the words

"Moro" or "Muslim" be used in the script.

There are a few issues that make Perlita's notions of Philippine history

problematic. Perlita appeared while war was ongoing in Mindanao. The Jabidah

massacre of Muslim youth at the hands of the Philippine military had just recently

spurred the separatist movement into action. In Perlita we see the Moros being

incorporated into the Philippine body politic, as characters dressed in Malay-Moro

attire who all bow before the Philippine flag. We also see an appropriation of the

images of Muslim resistance as Moro history becomes continuous with, or collapses

into the history of colonial resistance of Christianized Fiipinos. Performed at a time of

war in Mindanao, Perlita becomes an extension of the Marcos government's project

of incoporating the Muslim population into the Filipino body politic.

So too is the Philippines' neocolonial relationship with the United States of

America reflected in the story. Prince Aguila, who represents the US (i.e., the

American Eagle), is depicted as separate from all other foreigners in the story, in a

pointedly benign manner. Aguila is shown as someone who initially desires to take

Perlita for himself, but upon realizing that her heart belongs to Magiting, becomes a

friend instead and comes to the aid of Silangan kingdom by sending his armada. With

his help, the forces from the Black Kingdom are defeated. This is consistent with a

view of history that portrays Americans as "liberators" and of American intervention

as an act of benevolence. This is a complete departure from the original message of

Jose Corazon de Jesus who wrote Sa Dakong Silangan in the 1920's. Despite

Mendoza’s claim of having been inspired by de Jesus's work, she seems to have

moderated the anti-American slant of the corrido by creating an analogue in Perlita of

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Emilio Aguinaldo’s return to the Philippines in 1898 with the help of Dewey’s

armada.

This was at the height of the Cold War, and US-Philippine relations,

especially in relation to defense and the Americans' operation of military bases in the

Philippines, brought a lot of criticism against the Marcoses. Mendoza's depiction of

Aguila's armada coming to the aid of Filipinos is a clear show of support for

government defense policy. Mendoza, after all, was plugged into Imelda Marcoses'

artistic circuit. In her memoirs, mention and praise of the first lady is a constant

occurrence.

A quarter of a century later, when Perlita was re-staged by the Komedya ng

Pilipinas Foundation led by a new generation of moro-moro enthusiasts from San

Dionisio, Aguila continued to be depicted as the American ally, even if the course of

the Philippine-US defense regime had been altered significantly by the expulsion of

the US bases in the early 1990's.

Komedya ng Pilipinas Foundation and Today's Perlita

The Komedya ng Pilipinas Foundation (KPF) is a non-profit, non-stock

foundation formed in June 2006 and based in San Dionisio, Parañaque. Its aims are to

bring the Komedya to the "national level", to popularize it by creating awareness

among the youth by exposing them to the medium. Dr. Eileen Guerrero, its

Chairperson, shares a vision of not only preserving the Komedya, but also staging its

renaissance. A lot of the people who are active in KPF are also active in KSD

Komedya San Dionisio.

KPF members also more open to innovations. They are able to explore options

to popularize the Komedya that would be difficult to implement in the Barangay.

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Many older residents of the barangay offer stiff resistance to attempts to modernize

the plays, and heated arguments and difficult debates are common in the community.

For KPF, updating the Komedya is seen as necessary to suit the changing tastes of

audiences. Residents of San Dionisio who are active in both the community-based

KSD and the newly formed KPF are able to straddle both words. They can perform in

a more conventional way when within the Barangay, while also exploring newer ways

of performing the Komedya when producing plays for consumption outside the

village. They use hi-tech graphics in their promotional materials, but also rely on

word of mouth to get people from the community to come to the show.

For the first production of KPF, the play chosen was no other than Felicidad

Mendoza's Prinsesa Perlita, which they re-named Perlita ng Silangan. The choice is

perhaps very appropriate for the leaders of KPF were beneficiaries of Mendoza's

efforts decades before. Rodante Hernandez, KPF's President and Artistic Director,

was in the original production of Perlita. He was then five years old and was cast as

the little Prince Sulayman. Mendoza herself was Rodante Hernandez's godmother

(ninang). Rodante's own children are part of the cast for the 2006 production of

Perlita. Some other members of the cast have been involved in Kudyapi Philippines,

the theater group that was Dr. Mendoza led. In many ways, it is not only her play, but

also her efforts to popularize tha komedya, that are being revived. Today's KPF is

following in the footsteps of Mendoza's Kudyapi Philippines.

KPF's Production of Perlita ng Silangan

Mendoza's Perlita was originally staged in historic venues for the arts, such as

the Fort Santiago's Raja Sulayman Theater, an outdoor venue amidst the ruins of an

old Spanish fort in Manila, in 1970, and in 1971 at no less than the Cultural Center of

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the Philippines in, the premier performance venue in the country. KPF's Perlita was

staged a little closer to home and at a modest venue--Olivarez College Auditorium in

a neighboring barangay in Parañaque. The performances ran for a week in October,

2006, and I was able to watch the maiden performance.

Thirty minutes before the play started, a long queue had already formed

outside the auditorium. Falling in line were people of all age groups—children, adults,

the elderly, as well as students in their school uniform. At the entrance lobby, a table

was set up where attendants were selling and collecting tickets, as well as souvenir

programs. I found interesting the distinction made between paying and non-paying

members of the audience. A sign at the entrance directed ticket holders to proceed to

the left, and another sign directed invited guests to proceed to the right. Members of

the cast and production staff had their invitees, of which I was one.

One of the actors, Mr. Nemie Pagtakhan, who was also the director of the

Prinsipe Reynaldo production at San Dionisio's most recent fiesta, invited me to

attend the performance. I brought companions with me, who were planning to buy

tickets, but when ushers saw that they were with me they very kindly let my

companions in without tickets even though they were not on the guest list. Ushers

were treating us like visitors at a fiesta, like valued guests. In fact, we were led to very

good seats, together with the rest of the non-paying invitees. Many of the people in

the orchestra center were from San Dionisio—either friends or family of the cast and

crew.

The priority seating for non-paying guests shows how KPF's main concern is

not profit. At the very front, three chairs are reserved for the Komedya VIP's from

San Dionisio (See Illustration 20). Seated in the middle is the Komedya ng San

Dionisio (KSD) chairman Hermie Hernandez. His son, named Rodante Hernandez, is

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acting tonight as King Silangan. Seated next to him is Jimmy Nery, the President of

KSD. Giving these barangay leaders priority seating at the very front is a way of

showing respect. By giving them importance, the newly formed KPF is sending a

message that it is not in competition with, or meant to replace, the existing leadership

structure in the Barangay.

The auditorium at Olivarez College is an air-conditioned multipurpose hall. In

the middle is a basketball court on which stacking chairs were neatly arranged in rows

facing the stage. This is where invited guests sat. Surrounding the court were

bleachers with ample seating for the paying patrons. The stage was elevated some

four feet from the ground. Quite noticeable was the absence of the conventional set

design of a Christian kingdom to the left and a Moro kingdom to the right, with a

balcony in the middle as typically seen in San Dionisio.

Positioned downstage right was a giant clamshell that opened and closed at

intervals, big enough for the lead actress to hide in. Downstage left was a platform

that concealed three dragons that would spring out towards the latter half of the play.

Upstage center, a sturdy net composed of thick cords, which looked like they were

made from abaca or nylon, hung knotted together from the theater rafters, swooping

Illustration 22 Leaders of KSD are guests of honor seated at the very front.

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down onto the set for a dramatic final fighting scene. Dancers held the bottom of the

net, which they pulled slightly forward so that it was held taut. Actors then climbed

up the net and executed swordfights while at the same time maneuvering their way

through the ropes. Higher and higher they went up the net, with upbeat music and

fancy lights complementing the acrobatics, making the scene even more spectacular.

At one point actors rolled down the net, which was held at an incline so that they

could safely "fake" their fall without hurting themselves.

Other spectacular highlights included a dance number featuring fire dancers,

and another number had them marching on stilt-like platforms, elevated some three

feet from the stage floor. Another number featured a patriotic song with dancers

flapping long swags of red white and blue fabric, which they formed into a huge

Philippine flag that filled up the entire stage. These spectacular numbers were all well

applauded, with the patriotic song, in particular, receiving a standing ovation, perhaps

because of the presence of prominent actors dressed as national heroes of the

Philippines.

However, it wasn't only the spectacular scenes that garnered generous

applause; even the simple entrance of actors, or their conventional march across the

stage, elicited an enthusiastic response. This was because San Dionisio's traditional

music and entrance-and-exit choreography were used for these scenes. The townsfolk

of San Dionisio in the audience, recognizing the familiar music and moves, applauded

their barrio mates on stage, as well as the professional actors, the "outsiders", who

were giving their local choreography a try.

The KPF appears to have one foot firmly rooted in the village, with the other

foot in Metro Manila's entertainment industry. For the Perlita production, a popular

television, movie, and theater personality, Soxie Topacio, was invited to direct the

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play. Included in the cast were other showbiz names like Wowie de Guzman, once a

pop teen idol, Alan Paule, an award-winning and critically acclaimed actor, Kimberly

Diaz, Marcus Madrigal, and Alma Concepcion. Another segment of the cast was

composed of theater actors who had been performing with established theater

companies in Metro Manila, such as Gantimpala Theater Foundation, Repertory

Philippines, and the Cultural Center of the Philippines' resident companies. Dancers

from the Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group also participated. A good number of those

involved in Perlita were also involved in GTF's Florante. In addition to these

professional theater actors and dancers, were the local actors from San Dionisio.

A noteworthy cameo role was played by the theater veteran and respected

movie actor Tommy Abuel, who was invited to appear briefly as the national hero

Jose Rizal for the patriotic song number inserted into the story. Abuel had played the

role of Prinsipe Rodante in the late 1960's, and was likewise in the 1970 production of

Prinsesa Perlita. While his cameo appearance dressed as Rizal does not make sense in

the story, the significance of his appearance was not lost on the crowd. The song

number was emotional; the entire cast appeared on stage; and the pantheon of national

heroes was represented on stage as actors donned costumes with clear references to

specific historical figures.

Illustration 23. Tommy Abuel dressed as Jose Rizal (left) Illustration 24. Prince Bayani is resurrected as "Andres Bonifacio" (right)

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Prinsipe Bayani, who was earlier shown to have been stabbed, was resurrected

in the song as the Katipunan supremo, Andres Bonifacio. He wore the iconic white

shirt and red pants, and held his clenched fist in the air to give the song an emphatic

finish. Next to him stood other actors dressed as Lapu-lapu, the hero who defeated

Magellan, and of course, as Jose Rizal, who took center stage in the person of

Tommy Abuel, the guest of honor. As the song unfolded, a huge Philippine flag was

unfurled on stage and the song received a standing ovation from the audience.

From the productions of Prinsipe Rodante and Prinsesa Perlita, we can arrive

at a few generalizations about the Komedya in San Dionisio's transformation from a

folk panata performance to a popular theater form. We can see that at the core is a

basic repertoire of choreographic sequences consisting of the stylized entrance and

exits, and the various sequences related to battle, the paseo, eskaramosa, giri and

laban. At fiesta time, these are performed many times over but for an external

audience they are repeated just a few times. Additional dance moves may be

incorporated, especially during the performance of "slow motion" fighting. This

creates space for contemporizing the komedya through the addition of movements

borrowed from television and film. These incorporations keep the moro-moro

anchored in the present and serve as a means for the actors to connect with the

contemporary audience.

In terms of changing the content and theme of the plays, two strategies are

used: inversion and insertion. In Rodante, the role of villain was inverted, with the

Christian prince now being made into the main antagonist. In Perlita, the antagonisms

are re-formatted from Christian-Moro to Foreign-local, with the Spanish being

assigned to the villain's side. The moro-moro 's basic structure of opposition between

antagonistic factions need not necessarily be along Christian-Moro lines. The

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categorical instability of the identities of the opposing groups allows producers to

freely re-assign new heroes and villains to suit the nationalistic aims of their plays.

Another strategy for infusing nationalistic content into the moro-moro is

through insertions. The patriotic song number’s insertion into the play Perlita, is one

fine example. The moro-moro has a marked malleability as a genre, allowing the

introduction of many insertions while still being able to retain its basic structure.

San Dionisio's performance style had become transportable and could be

taught to schoolchildren and non-Komedya performers. This can be attributed to a

number of factors. Memorization, for one, has resulted in the separation between

dance and movement. This makes learning the dance more accessible. In chapter two

we showed the complex and intricate interaction between dance and dialogue, which

hinges on dictation. In places where this is practiced, exporting the performance style

is far more difficult than in San Dionisio, where the separation between dance and

movement has simplified both the dance and the movement.

With more than four decades of experience in teaching others to perform their

moro-moro, the practitioners of San Dionisio have cultivated a system of transferring

knowledge. They teach their dance steps in the ways that arnis drills and folk dance

steps are taught in school. At the Komedya conference, I attended the dance workshop

that taught the conventional steps and sequences from San Dionisio. The trainers have

fully systematized the teaching process, and it seemed to me to be very organized and

easy to follow. The production of Prinsipe Rodante by Don Galo Elementary School

is proof of the transportability of San Dionisio's conventions. The young children who

acted in the play, and who had just recently learned San Dionisio's komedya style,

were assisting at the workshop and even demonstrating the steps to the participants.

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Since the steps themselves are not too difficult and are accessible even to

outsiders, San Dionisio's strategy for making its panata performances more special

than others is by keeping them running long. Through the repetitions, more stamina

and endurance are required of the performers. A longer play means more lines are

memorized, making the performance special enough as an offering to the patron

saints. There is also an emphasis in San Dionisio of paying attention to costumes,

special effects, lighting, props, and set design. There are more costume changes at

fiesta time, making the performances even more spectacular. It seems that San

Dionisio has found a formula for sustaining its tradition and popularizing their

Komedya in contemporary times.

Thus far we have been focusing on the performances of San Dionisio. In the

section that follows, we take a brief look at another village moro-moro that has gained

prominence for itself in a manner much different from San Dioisio, thus offering

interesting points of comparison between the two.

New Performance Spaces for the Comedia de Baler

The Comedia de Baler is well known for its demanding dancing style, made

more exciting by the use of weapons with sharp blades. What distinguishes their

dancing from those of other moro-moro troupes is the exertion of substantial force in

the swings and blows of their swords, spears, and daggers. It is common knowledge in

Baler that the actors and actresses actually get wounded during performances. In fact,

at their performance for the Komedya Fiesta 2008 held at the University of the

Philippines grounds, two nurses were stationed off-stage and were put to good use

when three actors sustained minor injuries.12

12 See Sir Anril Tiatco. 'Postscript to University of the Philippines Komedya Fiesta 2008: Prelude to a Discourse on National Theatre' in Asian Theater Journal, vol. 26, no. 2 (Fall 2009). p. 287.

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So exciting are the performances of the Comedia de Baler that the small

troupe of performers from the small village of Buhangin are constantly invited to

appear at touristic and cultural events to represent the town of Baler, and the province

of Aurora.13 The Comedia performance has become an emblem of Baler, and the

locals proudly consider their Comedia uniquely their own. The actors and actresses

from the village of Buhangin are used to conforming to various time constraints and

performance spaces. During fiesta time in Buhangin, held in October each year, they

can perform for an entire week. They can trim this down to a two-hour play, like the

one they showed at the Komedya Fiesta at the University of the Philippines, or as

short as a twenty-minute skit, and in some cases, just one dance number.14

For the Department of Tourism's "Island Paradise Adventure Race" in 2005

for example, a Comedia performance was held on the beach, on a makeshift elevated

stage, in open air. On August 27, 2006, a Cultural Night was organized for the fiesta

of Baler. The event was held at the garden outside the Musuem of Baler. Dignitaries

and guests sat on plastic chairs, but the rest of the crowd stood or sat on the ground.

The Comedia made an appearance, again in its abbreviated version for it had to share

the stage with many other dance numbers and skits. This format, of a medley of

performances, has become the standard fare at fiestas. In October 2006, a festival

entitled "Best of Central Luzon" was held at the Shomeart (SM) Mall in Marilao,

Bulacan Province.

In these abbreviated performances where time is of the essence, the story has

taken a back seat to the dancing and has been reduced to a narration that effectively

introduces and strings together the different dance sequences. 13 Baler is the provincial capital of the province of Aurora, a long and narrow coastal province sandwiched between a mountain range to the west, and the Pacific Ocean to the east. It is next door to Nueva Ecija province, lying some 230 kilometers northeast of Manila accessible by an eleven hour bus-ride via a steep mountain pass. In February each year, celebrations are held for Aurora Day, which commemorates the founding of the province. 14 I witnessed this during the celebration of Aurora Day in Baler on Feb. 19 2006 when the program of events was jam-packed with performances from various schools

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Comedia de Baler Dance Demonstrations Illustration 25

Top: Comedia on the beach. May 7-8, 2005. Staged for the Dept. of Tourism's

Island Paradise Adventure Race.

Right: Cultural Night. Aug. 27, 2006. For the Baler Town Fiesta.

Below: "The Best of Central Luzon"

Festival, Oct. 2, 2006. Performed inside ShoeMart Mall, Bulacan Province.

Photo credits: Joseph Gonzales

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In some ways, the "theater of war" that is the moro-moro, is here returned to

being a "war dance", which is, at least etymologically, its original meaning. In the

previous chapter we talked about the "choreographic logic" of the moro-moro plot

and how scenes are arranged to best showcase dance and movement. The shifting to

narration of the story by Comedia de Baler emphasizes this point even further.

Despite the popularity of the war dancing of the Comedia de Baler, and the

practicality of devoting scarce performance time to the exciting fight scenes, the loss

of the spoken components is nevertheless lamented by the locals of Baler, who are

familiar with the traditional modes of delivery of dance and dialogue. Joseph

Gonzales, a proud local of Baler, has been blogging about the cultural events in his

hometown and has religiously taken photographs and uploaded them regularly. In one

blog entry he writes: "a live band accompanies the komedyantes. It's quite

disappointing that this fare is now reduced to just a dancing demo without dialogues. I

miss komedya speak". This elicited a response from one of his readers who left a

message in his site stating:15

Sayang naman walang dialogue. Paano maiintindihan ng husto ang flow ng istorya. (It's a pity there's no dialogue, how can the flow of the story be understood well?).

Another forum participant shared this experience:

Napanood ko yang komedya sa tabing dagat nuung sabado, akaw ay kahit na walang dialogue nakakagilawgaw pag nagtatagaan sila. Para bagang may matatag-is. Mas maganda sana nga kung may dialogue. (I watched the komedya on the beach last Saturday, akaw even without dialogue it was exciting when they were fighting. It was as though someone would be hit. Though it would have been better with dialogue).

15 See the website and blog of Joseph Gonzales http://www.batangbaler.com the ensuing forum discussion were posted from May 8 to 9, 2005.

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Fortunately, in 2008, on the occasion of the Komedya Festival organized by

the University of the Philippines, the Comedia de Baler was invited to stage a play. A

new play entitled Sakim Na Pag-ibig (Selfish Love) was written for the occasion. A

well known politician, Senator Edgardo Angara, who was a former president of the

University of the Philippines and a native of Baler, functioned as hermano or sponsor

and he donated funds for the new costumes, transport, and other expenses of the

group. A brief presentation of less than three hours was performed in the open air on

campus grounds, this time with dialogue and with the use of lapel microphones. There

was a concealed prompter—a departure from the usual practice of having an audible

and visible diktador. Nonetheless, the use of dictation gave the delivery of dialogue a

peculiar cadence characteristic of traditional village performances. Related to the use

of dictation is the kinesthetic manifestation of listening—the actors being suspended

in listening poses, registering nonchalant blank looks on their faces. The audience that

gathered at the UP campus grounds found the distinct acting style, the melodious

punto or the accented Tagalog used in Baler, and of course the breathtaking dancing,

all very exciting. There were audible and timely responses from the crowd: teasing

uuuuyyys, during the courtship scenes, called palahardinan (garden scenes), and

exclamations of surprise and gasps during the rousing fighting scenes.

The Comedia de Baler troupe follows a dual approach in their performances.

They retain conventional modes of composition, delivery and consumption when

staging a play as a panata in the context of an intimate village fiesta in Buhangin.

Performing for an audience of "insiders" they are able to sustain some degree of

autonomy in upholding their own aesthetic sensibilities. They are able to give full

reign to the impulse to produce lengthy and repetitious performances that last for a

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week. When invited to perform outside the village, however, such as at touristic

events in Baler and elsewhere, they are flexible in their performances for "outsiders".

It seems to me, at least as far as I can gather from conversations with the

actors, that a lengthier and more repetitious performance is considered more desirable

by the performers from Baler. At the Komedya Fiesta in UP, I had the good fortune of

sitting at the table of the actors from Baler at the reception dinner held after their

performance. I congratulated the actors for their very successful presentation, and one

of them told me "punta ka sa fiesta namin, yun ang mas maganda" (come to our

fiesta, that is the better one). He also meant to say, although didn’t, that the better one

also took far longer to perform.

Despite the fact that the exhibition performances of the Comedia de Baler are

much shorter than the performances during village fiestas, the abbreviated exhibitions

are able to provide an arguably faithful sample of an authentic Comedia de Baler

viewing experience. This is due to the fact that in whatever performance space the

Comedia de Baler is found, it is always performed by the same few people from

Buhangin, who wear the same set of costumes. And even if they have a new set of

costumes made, they will look the same as the old set in terms of design. They

perform the same dance moves to the same music. The increased exposure and

frequency of the Comedia demonstrations do not necessarily mean that the tradition is

alive and well.

There are only a handful of residents from the village of Buhangin who can

perform this style of moro-moro and it is difficult to teach. Some locals of Baler fear

that their Comedia, despite its being very visible today, is bound for extinction.16

There is only one maestro-playwright-director by the name of Isabelita Tangson-

16 Personal communication with Joseph Gonzales, April 14, 2007. These sentiments are also reflected in the comments left by those who participate in the forum in his batangbaler.com website

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Mejia who still knows how to write, direct, and stage the plays in the traditional

manner. Perhaps it is also because the same maestro-playwright-director writes all

the abbreviated versions of the play, that they are able to retain the symmetrical

unfolding, the stock imagery and stock situations, and the choreographic logic

characteristic of the traditional moro-moro, and this gives the performances of Baler a

higher degree of authenticity not enjoyed by other "modernized" moro-moro plays. In

San Dionisio, some villagers comment that the newer moro-moro plays being

produced today are "no longer komedya" but are simply just "a play" like any other

play, one that can be performed by just anybody17. No one will say this of the

performance of Baler. I overheard Hermie Hernandez, the patriarch of the Komedya

of San Dionisio, make this comment when he watched the Comedia de Baler

performance: "kahit ako bayaran di ako magpe-perform na may tunay na itak" (even

if you pay me I would not perform with a real blade).18 No matter how celebrated the

superior dancing and fighting skills of Baler's performers may be, the issue of

transmission of knowledge seems to be something that still needs to be addressed if

the Comedia de Baler is to continue to excite audiences with their breathtaking

performances for generations to come.

GTF's Florante at Laura

In July 2006 one of the country's more established theater companies decided

to open its 29th Season with Francisco Balagtas's masterpiece, Florante at Laura.

Gantimpala Theater Foundation (GTF) has been producing this Filipino classic each

year for the consumption of thousands of high school students who study Balagtas'

19th century text in their classrooms. The 2006 production, however, was different 17 Personal communication with Nemie Pagtakhan. San Dionisio, Parañaque, July 19, 2006.. 18 While watching the performance Sakim na Pag-ibig performed by the Comedia de Baler at the Komedya Fiesta 2008, UP Campus grounds, February 29, 2008.

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from all the previous years' because, for the first time, GTF attempted to present the

play in Moro-Moro fashion. As Tony Espejo, the Artistic Director of GTF, explained:

This Florante at Laura production uses the Filipino theater form of the komedya, with its stylized entrances, marches, batalla and pingkian and the conflict and triumphs that befall the warring kingdoms of Christians and Moors. We firmly believe that it should be staged as such for it was the prevailing theater form during Balagtas' time.19

Gantimpala Theater Foundation (GTF) started out in 1977 at the Cultural

Center of the Philippines (CCP), where it was originally called Bulwagang

Gantimpala. It emerged under the leadership of then CCP President, Lucresia

Kasilag, and Gantimpala's founding President and Artistitc Director, Tony Espejo.

The company endeavored to develop Philippine dramaturgy by grooming both

performing artists and technical staff through their in-house training workshops and

year-round productions. It was fully subsidized only in the first ten years of its

existence, when the Marcos government was in power and Mrs. Marcos was a

patroness of the arts and generous benefactor of artistic groups based in the CCP.

With the ouster of the Marcoses and the consequent drying up of funds for CCP

groups, GTF had to shift to a strategy of securing a solid financial footing by

producing "curriculum-based" plays, which allowed them to tap into a "built-in"

student market. GTF is now a self-sustaining and independent theater company with

an all-year round production season and regular summer workshops to train new

talent.

With a reputation tainted by the company's association with the Marcos

administration, the GTF has since distanced itself from the elitist and exclusivist

image attached to CCP artistic groups. It moved out of the CCP and transferred to a

more accessible home. It is now the resident company of the Luneta Park where its

plays and other special cultural events are shown to the public for free every week in 19 Taken from the "Curtains Up" Section of The Daily Tribune. July 25, 2006.

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a program called "Concert at the Park", produced by the National Parks Development

Authority, which aims to bring the arts closer to the masses. GTF has outreach

programs that provide free plays both in Manila and the provinces. It has also

embraced a patriotic thrust in its choice of plays, which in the words of Artistic

Director Espejo, is GTF's "modest way of preserving our unique cultural heritage".20

GTF's bread-and-butter performances are the ones staged for high school

students. Their tickets are modestly priced and they often perform to a fully packed

house. I was able to watch the August 12th performance at SM Mall. One of the

cinemas in the mall had been converted into a theater. A table was set up and manned

by GTF staff. Long queues formed outside the theater before the performance, as the

students, organized into groups, went in to occupy their designated seats. The house

was packed with students from different schools, who were required to attend the

performance. Teachers were on hand to supervise them. They sat at the end of the

rows, to make sure the students did not sneak out to gallivant. In fact, the security

guards at the theater were instructed not to allow students to leave the area, and they

were stationed along velvet ropes that blocked the entry/exit points to the cinema.

On the inside cover of the souvenir program are instructions on "Theater

Etiquette" addressed to students who can be uncontrollably noisy at performances.

Another page gives a brief overview of the komedya, describing the delivery of its

dialogue, the choreography, blocking, characterization, marches, and battle scenes.

What it does not mention is the festive context, and relaxed atmosphere in which it is

traditionally performed. Surely, GTF would not want students to know that village

moro-moro are often accompanied by food, a great deal of chatting, and a lot of

standing up, and moving around. This is counter to the guidelines emphasized in bold

20 Taken from the "Message from the Artistic Director" published in the souvenir program of the play Florante at Laura, Gantimpala Theater Foundation 29th Theater Season 2006-2007.

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letters in the etiquette page, namely: to "keep ideas, comments, and excitement to

yourself", or "remember that the theater is a special place where eating is not

allowed"—though in reality the cinema venue where the play was being held allowed

standard movie-house food like popcorn and soft drinks and the like to be consumed

inside by moviegoers.

Conventional moro-moro performances have informal seating arrangements

for spectators. The cinema house, in contrast, had fixed and inflexible seating, with

clearly delineated individual spaces, designed with modern habits of autonomous

consumption of art in mind. The stage also bore little resemblance to Moro-Moro set

design. Conventionally, a moro-moro a stage is divided into Christian and Moro sides

and has minimal changes of backdrop or scenery. GTF's Florante stage had risers, or

ascending platforms, prominently positioned in the middle of the stage. These

platforms alternatingly turned into a forest, a castle, or an academy. It did not seem as

though there was an effort to recreate the physical set-up of a komedya performance,

be it for the set design or the audience seating.

Despite the formality of the set-up, there was, in the demeanor of the

audience, a relaxed informality reminiscent of a community-based moro-moro

audience. The students were indeed noisy (a fact that GTF is very much aware of).

Sitting in their midst, I couldn't help but notice that it was the kind of noise that comes

about because of the presence of two factors that I also observe in the village context:

group intimacy and familiarity with the play. Students who go to school together form

a community. Just because they are in a theater, seated in the dark, does not mean

they start being strangers to one another. They start making comments about how cute

the lead actor Wowie de Guzman is, or shriek in delight at a kissing scene saying

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things like "Oh my God tinuloy nila!" (Oh My God, they actually kissed!), which is

something I also heard mumbled in San Dionisio, also in response to a kissing scene.

Another important factor that contributes to their excitement and, by

extension, their noise is their familiarity with the play because they get to read the text

in class and even memorize some of the verses. One famous scene in Florante is a

"rape" scene, where the villain Alfonso, is about to dishonor the leading lady Laura

when a Moro comes to her rescue. Right before that scene, a student behind me began

to say "Ayan na, ayan na" (here it comes, here it comes). The excitement was

palpable, the shrieking during the scene loud, and the students recovered afterwards

through excited murmuring. The students seemed engaged with the play not because

they were awaiting unexpected twists, but precisely the opposite: they knew

beforehand what was going to happen and they anticipated its portrayal. Familiarity

with the verses also seemed to increase their enjoyment of the play because when

actors on stage recited some of the more famous verses from Florante, many students

audibly recited right along.

The anticipation of the familiar is also one of the features of consumption of

village moro-moro. From the Arakyo and San Dionisio, the repeated stories generate

excitement. In both contexts, the audience is composed of an intimate community: in

the village setting, it is a community of neighbors, and in the case of GTF, it is a

community of classmates. Intimacy and familiarity, features present in the audience of

community-based theater, are factors that shape the native habits of consumption of

the arts. It is a markedly communal form of consumption, which may sometimes lead

to an audience becoming noisy as they consult with one another, give feedback, shriek

and squeal as the situation demands. While espousing patriotic aims, GTF privileges

modern (western) habits of consuming art and urban sensibilities. By unhinging the

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komedya from its context and "educating" students on "proper" theater etiquette, they

are attempting to shape a modern theater constituency. If the conduct of students is

any indication, it seems that native habits of consumption are proving to be quite

resilient—either that, or a room-full of teenagers is simply bound to be noisy.

GTF's presentation of Florante at Laura in 2006 capitalizes on the works of

two contemporary National Artists. As Espejo points out:

We bring to fore two great men of Philippine arts and culture as the famous Filipino love story now uses the literary version of National Artist Virgilio S. Almario, and we incorporate the movements of the komedya from San Dionisio, Paranaque, Nabuan, Isabela and Batanes as researched and documented by our newly proclaimed National Artist for Dance, Ramon Obusan.21

Dancers from Ramon Obusan's Folkloric Group (ROFG) worked with the

Florante cast to teach them the choreography for entrances, exits, and battle scenes.

The ROFG is one of the resident folk dance companies of the CCP. Ramon Obusan,

its founder, took pride in having done extensive research on local dances over the last

half century. He carefully learned, recorded, and taught obscure dances as closely as

possible to their original versions. For the Florante production, however, Obusan's

research was used to create hybrid dances instead of reproducing original

choreography. Dance steps from three different village performances were strung

together to form choreographic sequences. The conventional music for the dances

were also recorded to accompany the movements, but the editing of the music was not

quite seamless, and it highlighted the transition from the choreography of one village

to another in a rather choppy fashion. Perhaps, if the locals from San Dionisio,

Isabela, and Batanes had a chance to see the performance, they would not have

recognized the Florante as anything like their moro-moro at all, for only a few dance

steps and bits of music would have been familiar.

21 The Daily Tribune. "Curtains Up" Section. July 25, 2006.

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In GTF's Florante we see the attempt of a professional dance company,

ROFG, in collaboration with a professional theater company, GTF, to produce a

komedya by inserting various choreographic sequences—entrance and exit marches,

and battle scenes—researched by ROFG from different village performances. The

insertion of dances into a play is a common practice, as we have previously shown.

Performers from Parañaque have incorporated a singkil dance, fire dance, dance on

stilts, and even belly dancing in some of their performances. The moro-moro has an

capacity to incorporate that is nearly inexhaustible. The problem with GTF's Florante,

however, is that the incorporation of dances made for a rather disjointed and

fragmented insertion of choreographic sequences. Some central features of the moro-

moro are missing, most obviously the symmetrical unfolding of events between two

antagonistic kingdoms. This is in some ways due to the fact that Florante is written as

an awit, not as a moro-moro, and the composition of its characters and the plot of the

story do not follow the genre's choreographic logic. Florante was also not episodic,

which is a necessary feature for the harmonious execution of entrance and exit

choreography that begin and conclude episodes. As a result, the insertion of moro-

moro choreography felt somewhat contrived.

This does not mean, however, that any attempt to recontextualize the moro-

moro in new performance spaces and for new audiences are pre-ordained to become

necessarily contrived, or "less authentic". The other performances discussed earlier in

this chapter, such as the performances from San Dionisio, Dongalo, and Baler, were

able to translate the conventions and the flavor of the moro-moro into new formats

and were effective in introducing their village tradition to new audiences. The key to

the preservation of the moro-moro's spirit seems to be in the upholding of its

choreographic logic—that is, in designing a story in a way that suits and showcases

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the dancing, in writing scenarios that lend themselves well to the performance of the

signature movements. Even with the writing of new content in Perlita, and the

substitution of villains and heroes in Rodante, or the abbreviation of performances

and creation of new formats in Baler, the underlying logic remains constant: dance,

and especially the war dance remains central, and the need to perform choreographic

sequences remains the organizing principle of the plot and theme.