All dance is political – but at certain moments in history, some dance makes a particularly trenchant political point.
Ensambles Ballet Folklórico de San Francisco at the 38th Annual San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival (Photo: Mark Muntean)
This past summer, the Filipino people installed as their new President an iron-fisted, trash-talking lout whose professed sympathy with oppressed tribal minorities is as strong as his disdain for human rights.
Meanwhile, at the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, the Parangal dance troupe offered a ritual dance drama from the long-disenfranchised tribes of the Cordillera mountains. Ballet to the People previewed the highly charged performance of these loin-clothed warriors for KQED Arts, then reviewed the first two weekends of the riotous festival in the Huffington Post.
Parangal Dance Company in dress rehearsal for the 2016 San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival ( Photo: Arnel De Leon )
