CULTURE - The Philippines - page 41

DANCE TRADITIONS
Filipino dance is as rich and varied as the islands themselves. The national folk dance is
the tinikling , which involves a boy and a girl hopping between bamboo poles, held just
above the ground and struck together in time to music or hand-clapping. Some say this
dancewasinspiredbytheflittingofbirdsbetweengrassstemsoraheronhoppingthrough
the rice paddies. A version of the tinikling is the breathtaking singkil , where two dancers
representing a Muslim princess and her lady-in-waiting weave in and out of four poles
struck together at increasing speed.
The mountain people of North Luzon are famed for vigorous hunting dances such as the
tag-gam and victory dances such as balangbang . Down south, an old favourite is the
graceful pangalay , a courtship dance from the Sulu islands in which women in flowing
robes vie for a man's affection.
TwoofthebestknownandmostsuccessfulFilipinofolk-dancetroupesaretheBayanihan
National Folk Dance Company, which first wowed the world in 1958 at the Brussels
UniversalExposition,andtheRamonObusanFolkloricGroup,foundedin1972.Bothare
resident companies of the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
THE RUINS
Mansion
Set on lovely manicured grounds surrounded by sugar plantations in Bacolod, the Ruins is
an early-20th-century mansion that provides an eerie glimpse into yesteryear. The mansion
was built in memory of the owner's Portuguese wife, but destroyed during WWII, only the
skeletal frame of this grand Italianate building remains. It also serves as a Spanish restaur-
ant.
HOFILEÑA ANCESTRAL HOME
House
One of the finest examples of Silay's ancestral homes, the stately Hofileña also boasts one
of Philippines' finest art collections. The house is owned by the charismatic and loquacious
Ramon Hofileña, a tireless preserver of Negros Occidental's cultural heritage.