Spirituality in Indigenous Arts

American Pilipino choreographer Alleluia Panis offers a slide-lecture on

Indigenous aesthetics and form in American Pilipino Dance. Based on her

interactions with tribal cultures of the Southern Philippines since 1989,

Panis will share her participation in the vital use of music, dance and

visual arts for rituals of healing and trance dancing. What happens when

21st century culture collides with ancient ones? How do artists of

indigenous cultures honor these ancestral traditions in their own work.

Panis is co-founder and Executive/Artistic Director of Kulintang Arts. She

is in the forefront of the creation of contemporary American dance informed

by issues and concerns of American Pilipinos, as well as the dance forms of

traditional and tribal communities of the Philippines. She has performed

with Asian American Arts Ensemble of New York, the San Francisco Ethnic

Dance Festival, the Philippine Dance Company of New York, San Francisco

Opera Ballet, Klarna Pinska Dancers and Ed Mock's West Coast Dancers. A

recipient of CAC Choreographer Fellowship Award, her work "Cleanse by

Smoke" was nominated for a 1997 Isadora award for best choreography. Her

choreographic works have been performed at major national and international

festivals and venues including Europe, Canada, Singapore and Philippines.