Ifugao indigenous dancers participate in Taiwan Arts Festival
by Vency D. Bulayungan
Lagawe, Ifugao (7 November) -- Spreading rich Ifugao cultural practices over borders, Ifugao indigenous performers participated in the annual Asia Pacific Festivals of Traditional Arts held recently in Taiwan.
Headed by Department of Education Supervisor Jacqueline Lunag, the Ifugao group performed native dances and chanted the hudhud (Ifugao epic) before various audiences. We featured the different kinds of Ifugao dances such as the tobab (Ifugao wedding dance) and dinuy-a (another native dance)," Provincial Human Resource Officer Pedro Dulawan, who was one of the participants shared.
Now in its 8th year and in cooperation with the Taiwan National University of the Arts, this years' festival featured other Philippine indigenous music and dances such as Kalimuyan dance of Mindanao. Other performers include Manila- based Bayanihan dance troupe and a Tiboli weaver.
Headed by Professor Dr. Wu Rung-Shun, a musicologist at the Taiwan National University of the Arts, the Festivals of Traditional Arts aims to promote and preserve their traditional arts and practices through a comprehensive program of conservation with insights gained from networking with various countries and international festivals.
"Indigenous culture everywhere are being lost in the fabric of time and sociological changes," Dulawan said.
The Ifugao Hudhud chants was declared by the UNESCO as the "Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity" due to its immense literary significance. It is an epical story in Ifugao mythology consisting of more than 200 episodes and believed to have surpassed the Greek's "Iliad and the Odyssey." (PIA Ifugao) [top]
