Bayanihan dancers and musicians
exude pride in Filipino traditions

Bayanihan Philippine National Dance Company, founded in 1957 by Helena Z. Benitez at Philippine Women’s University, was a worldwide pioneer in transforming indigenous dance and music into theatrical presentations brimming with originality and visual excitement. Today, the forty-five-member company of dancers and musicians, which has toured to more than fifty countries on five continents, continues to amaze.

Bayanihan was the first Filipino group to perform on Broadway and the first non-American dance company to appear at New York City’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The company, which first appeared at Penn State in 1961, returns to State College in a performance at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, November 16, in Eisenhower Auditorium.

“One reason why Bayanihan is so pleasant is that the folk traditions of the Philippines are unusually rich,” writes a critic for The New York Times. “Judging from the company’s program, there are so many different kinds of dances that no single style can wear out its welcome.”

A typical Bayanihan program includes dozens of dances divided into five sections, including works with origins in the mountain, countryside, Spanish, and Muslim traditions.  

“The dances were designed as much as choreographed, featuring constantly changing patterns and groupings, and multiple entrances and exits, especially when the movements were repetitious,” a reviewer for the Washington Post observes. “The pieces were short and fast-moving, performed with flawless deportment, and showcased costumes of embroidery, seashells, satin, straw, feathers, and frilled lace.”

The company’s name comes from the Filipino tradition of Bayanihan, which involves working together for the common good. When the Filipino government appealed for a cultural program to represent the nation at the 1958 World’s Fair in Brussels, Belgium, the fledgling company’s members pulled together to create a production that went on to be the sensation of the fair. Ed Sullivan’s American TV program, which featured highlights of the fair, broadcast Bayanihan’s success to a national audience in the United States.

A year later, Bayanihan performed at the Winter Garden Theater on Broadway to acclaim. “Bayanihan,” wrote an influential critic of the day, “is one of the newest examples of ethnic dance culture [that] has gone beyond simple preservation (important as that is) and into creative growth.”

That growth continues in the twenty-first century. “The Bayanihan Philippine National Dance Company … still provides a stimulating and remarkably varied show,” writes a critic for the Sacramento Bee. “Its production values—lighting, costumes, and choreography, particularly—are professional, and its changing aspects maintain an amazing degree of freshness.

“Undoubtedly, the work of the company’s current dance director and choreographer, Ferdinand B. Jose, and its original choreographer, Lucrecia R. Urtula, bears their respective marks. But something more fundamental may be at the heart of the variety: the number of national and even tribal influences, including a shadow that the show recognizes—400 years of Spanish rule.”

Benitez, Bayanihan’s founder, is one of the most remarkable women in the Philippines. Not only did she create a dance company that awakened pride among Filipinos in their cultural heritage, but she also has had a significant impact on her homeland as an educator and stateswoman. She served in the Philippine legislature as a senator. She was the first Filipino to chair the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women and was the first woman president of the United Nations Environment Program. She is the only person to have served on the Bayanihan Board of Trustees since the company’s inception.

Bayanihan, which in 2000 became the national dance company by an act of the Philippines Congress, last toured the United States in 2001. A European tour followed in 2004. The troupe performed at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games Cultural Olympiad.

“At middle age,” a Washington Post critic insists, “Bayanihan is looking as pretty and gracious as ever.”

Artistic Viewpoints, an informal moderated discussion featuring the Bayanihan company’s Executive Director Suzie Benitez, Artistic and Costume Director Isabel Santos, Deputy Music Director Melito Vale Cruz, and Dance Director Ferdinand Jose, is offered in Eisenhower Auditorium one hour before the performance and is free for ticket holders. Artistic Viewpoints regularly fills to capacity. Seating is available on a first-arrival basis.