(no subject)
When I started writing my thesis, I wanted to defend Ballet as an artform that has transcended nationality and has been embraced by Filipinos. People always see Ballet as a foreign art form, but I never did, I guess because I grew up dancing to Filipino-themed ballets and quests to discover the incorporation of our Philippine indigenous forms into the dance. Ballet is my background, my foundation, and from there we can take off and do all sorts of wonderful things. That's what I always thought ballet was and why I never considered the art form to be foreign.
Since Ramon Obusan was inducted into the National Artist hall of fame, I've been listening to my brother and father debate about who's up next. Definitely not a ballet dancer, they said. Immediately, I'm thinking, but why not? Of course, a criterion in the nomination of someone for National Artist, is he or she must promote Nationalism and the definition of being Filipino must be seen in their art. Well, I don't know the exact criteria, but you get what I mean, right? I'm thinking of the early ballet dancers and eep, these guys aren't going to cut it at all. A lot of them started because they wanted social graces, the others started because they were gay.
But then, I'm thinking, surely the choreographers like Daddy and Tony Fabs and Denisa and Tito G and Alice Reyes and Agnes Locsin would be eligible for National Artist someday. Their choreographies definitely depict our strong Filipino culture, promote Nationalism, and are quite brilliant actually. Or would some of them be disqualified because the line between transformation and bastardization is too thin to walk on?
Fernando Poe Jr was also awarded National Artist this year. It was very controversial, because of the recent political fiasco, which continued well after his passing, but a lot of people understood why he deserved it. Which gets me to thinking, if a film actor can be National Artist because he is a symbolic icon, does that mean that musicians and dancers can be eligible too? Or is FPJ exceptional because the masses know who he is and were inspired by the everyday-Joe characters he used to represent, which is what made people think he was a shoo-in for the presidency? Or am I just picking on FPJ because I know a dancer will never make it to National Artist, unless he has branched into choreography, research and whatever else revolves around Dance. I'm just finding it ironic that the main artist in that category will never be considered for National Artist. Poor marginalized art form!
I've been wondering how to tie this all up and make a substantial conclusion, etc, but I have work to do and I realized, hey, this is a blog entry, it doesn't need to be substantially concluded (read: big cop-out right there!). Happy Independence Day, my fellow Filipinos!
Since Ramon Obusan was inducted into the National Artist hall of fame, I've been listening to my brother and father debate about who's up next. Definitely not a ballet dancer, they said. Immediately, I'm thinking, but why not? Of course, a criterion in the nomination of someone for National Artist, is he or she must promote Nationalism and the definition of being Filipino must be seen in their art. Well, I don't know the exact criteria, but you get what I mean, right? I'm thinking of the early ballet dancers and eep, these guys aren't going to cut it at all. A lot of them started because they wanted social graces, the others started because they were gay.
But then, I'm thinking, surely the choreographers like Daddy and Tony Fabs and Denisa and Tito G and Alice Reyes and Agnes Locsin would be eligible for National Artist someday. Their choreographies definitely depict our strong Filipino culture, promote Nationalism, and are quite brilliant actually. Or would some of them be disqualified because the line between transformation and bastardization is too thin to walk on?
Fernando Poe Jr was also awarded National Artist this year. It was very controversial, because of the recent political fiasco, which continued well after his passing, but a lot of people understood why he deserved it. Which gets me to thinking, if a film actor can be National Artist because he is a symbolic icon, does that mean that musicians and dancers can be eligible too? Or is FPJ exceptional because the masses know who he is and were inspired by the everyday-Joe characters he used to represent, which is what made people think he was a shoo-in for the presidency? Or am I just picking on FPJ because I know a dancer will never make it to National Artist, unless he has branched into choreography, research and whatever else revolves around Dance. I'm just finding it ironic that the main artist in that category will never be considered for National Artist. Poor marginalized art form!
I've been wondering how to tie this all up and make a substantial conclusion, etc, but I have work to do and I realized, hey, this is a blog entry, it doesn't need to be substantially concluded (read: big cop-out right there!). Happy Independence Day, my fellow Filipinos!